Magic & Mayhem Sampler (2019)

Magic & Mayhem Sampler: Rule-breaking new fantasy from Tor and Tor.com Publishing, Seanan McGuire, Cate Glass, et al. (2019)

I've downloaded free books from Tor.com before and enjoyed them to varying degrees. (Not everything is for everybody.) I did learn a lesson a few years ago when I was reading the first story in a "Best of" whichever year it was. I was getting to the end of a novelette and it didn't seem to be winding down. That's because it was a novel excerpt, which was stated upfront in plain text and I had missed it. I skipped later excerpts because I was enjoying this and didn't want to stop reading the anthology while I hunted down a copy of the book. (At this point, I don't even remember what book it was.)

I went into this knowing beforehand that there were six novel excerpts. I read two of these before moving back to other books. They were different, to say the least, the first more than the second.

Middlegame, by Seanan McGuire

Middlegame was unusual in that it had two prologues before the main story got started, and I wondered if they shouldn't've been left out of the excerpt just for clarity. It starts with "FAILURE", five minutes too late, thirty seconds from the end of the world. There are two characters, Roger and Dodger, and Dodger is injured and bleeding out. Roger can't go on alone -- and this seems to be literal. It's the end.

This is followed by a children's tale (in different type) about two children who lived on the same block but never knew each other, as they went to different schools, and such. The excerpt is from "Over the Woodward Wall" by A. Deborah Baker. Then there's a passage from an address on the Doctrine of Ethos from Asphodel D. Baker to the American Alchemical Congress in 1901. One can assume that they are the same person, even though it is revealed later in the text that not everyone knows this.

The story jumps from 1886 to 1986 pretty quickly, as Baker creates a human being, James Reed, who must kill her to carry on her work. He in turn brings life to the Doctrine. Literally. Creating a boy formed from guiding principles of the universe made flesh. And the experiment was a failure. This leads to the conclusion that the Doctrine must be two individuals, a boy and a girl. Three sets of siblings are produced over three years, and he splits the six up to grow apart (as in the children's tale), to see which pair is the actual Doctrine.

Interesting ideas, but it lost me a few times. If I run into someone else who's read this and liked it, I might seek it out so I'll have someone to talk to about it.

An Illusion of Thieves, by Cate Glass

Not your typical fantasy setting -- it's more Italian-based than medieval England or France. Except that it's Year 987 of the New Millennium: Spring Quarter, in the lands of the Costa Drago, with independencies rules by wealth and arms. Alessandro (Sandro) di Gallanos is a Mayor, but also, il Padrone, the Master, the Shadow Lord.

The viewpoint of the story is il Padrome's concubine Cataline, who was bought from a house of ill repute, which bought her from her mother for a few pieces of silver, back when she was just Romy, the oldest sibling, living in the slums. Romy is cursed with magic, which is bad. Only one of her siblings, Neri, is cursed likewise. Should anyone find out about it, it would mean death.

Romy finds out that Neri stole some gems. The father is accused (because he was the only one to know of them), but Neri took them through magic. The father confesses, to save his son -- and indeed the entire family -- because if the sniff for magic, Neri will be killed. But the father is sentenced to lose his hand and then be exiled. The family may starve after that.

It turns out that Neri had been a bit of a rabble rouser and Sandro had had him watched. He throws "Catalina" out of his home and orders her to be her brother's keeper, lest they both suffer a horrible fate.

I don't know where this one is going, but I might look for a copy of it.

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Update: Since I originally posted this a month or so ago, I've seen Middlegame promoted a couple of times as something new and different, and an example of interesting word-building. Maybe. I'm still not sure that I'm going back to it. Also, both of those mentions came in my email, which is influenced by the fact that I subscribe to Tor.com's mailing list.

The Battle of Dorking (Chesney) DID NOT READ

The Battle of Dorking, George Tomkyns Chesney (1871)

I don't remember where this recommendation came from, and someone I must've thought that it was one of those History channel books.

This was a disorganized, rambling mess that couldn't hold my interest for 4 pages. It was only 40-page chapter without visible breaks, and I quit somewhere in the middle of a six-page paragraph. (Not kidding.)

Now that I'm aware that this was written in 1871, maybe I'll give it another chance, but I'll likely skip ahead 20 pages or so to get to whatever action there is.

Unicorn Precinct (DeCandido)

Unicorn Precinct , Keith R.A. DeCandido (2004)

Okay, so Unicorn Precinct is where the rich live, and it's usually a cushy assignment, so rookies on the Guard get sent there. Dragon Precinct is where the middle class dwell, and includes the area where Gan Brightblade's murder took place. Goblin Precinct is the slums, mostly the poor live there, and with smaller homes, some of the denizens there are nonhuman (dwarves and gnomes). Mermaid Precinct is the dock area. And in the Castle itself, where the detectives work, is Gryphon Precinct.

While there isn't a map, there is a description of the neighborhoods and street boundaries. Most of the streets have been mentioned at some point, so it's safe to assume that they're "major".

The main case, for Torin and Danthres, is the murder of the daughter of a nobleman as she is preparing for her wedding.

Dru and Hawk have the least to do in this story, and they are somewhat stymied by the negative reaction to the guard members in Mermaid Precinct to the investigation into corruption by Iaian and Grovis. Grovis is committed to rooting out law breakers. This becomes problematic when it reaches closer to home -- his home. Grovis's cousin, Cam Grovis was the betrothed of the dead girl, and he isn't telling everything he knows.

Iaian has his own secrets, too, and that's not sitting well with Avilar Grovis (who now has a first name).

I kind of guessed the who early on, but not the why and the how (or even the "what"), so it was still good reading.

The bonus story, which was nearly a third of the book, was the first case of Torin and Danthes, and how he came onto the force and they became partners. Some other familiar faces were around then as well, only ten years younger.

Fun book. I'll likely read something different before moving onto

Goblin Precinct

.

Spirit Seeker: The Kassandra Leyden Adventures (Young)

Spirit Seeker: The Kassandra Leyden Adventures, by Jeff Young (2016)

Maybe had I read a cover blurb, I might've known in advance that this was an alternate history and not some post-apocalyptic future where society is rebuilding. This impression came from the mix of technology, plus references to New Britain and Londinium. after reading the last entries in the book, I saw that this was actually an America that was founded after the Plague was followed by a worse Black Death, causing survivors to flee across the ocean. (Actually, at the very beginning there is a short blurb about the plague that arrived during the reign of Edward the third of his name -- but it didn't occur to me that that was referring to the actual King Edward III of England, who obviously preceded Edward VIII of the 20th century.)

What I thought was going to be a novel was actually a series of short stories, not tied together other than by the lead character, although the last one calls back the first one.

Kassandra Leyden's was a well-known adventurer, and her father was a spiritualist. She has a bit of both of these, but definitely the ability to communicate with the dead. (They can't talk, per se, but she can read their lips.) Her first adventure involves her mentor Levhoi and following her mother's spirit to a crypt where she makes a shocking discovery (I'll leave out spoilers for people who stumble upon my page.) This is followed by a story where she apprentices to Madam Foss, a medium, where she learns to hone her skills. In the very next story, "Fox Chase", Leyden is already a medium in her own right.

The following story, "Drinking Down Death", was the story that I thought the book was about, because of a blurb on the internet. Mediums are disappearing and Leyden investigates. She encounters Constable Cobham Peckwith, and they solve the other-worldly goings-on and uncover a nefarious plot. Peckwith shows up again in the following story, which takes place, in part, on dirigibles, and the story after that, where the spirits actually affect the real world.

The final story has Leyden back on her own, but her mother Anastasia is whispering in her ear and guiding her along the way.

Overall, an enjoyable collection of stories, including the brief history. Should more adventures be published, I'll likely pick those up as well.

I've read some of Jeff Young's work before. He's had stories published in other anthologies by the same publisher (eSpec Books). The is the first solo book of Young's that I've read. (And I think it may be the only one, at the time of writing.)

Breakfast on Mars (Stern & Wolfe, ed)

Breakfast on Mars And 37 Other Delectable Essays, Edited by Rebecca Stern & Brad Wolfe (2013)

The cover states "Essays like you've never seen before -- Funny! Smart! Inspiring! And Best of All written by YOUR Favorite Authors"

The last part is overblown in that not only are they not my favorite authors, I don't think I've ever heard of any of them, let alone read any. That said, soe of them were funny and smart. Inspiring? Maybe about my writing, but not about the subject matter.

I picked up this book in a box at a school I was working at in the fall. The idea of the collection is that students tend to be bored with essay writing, and there isn't a lot of inspiring essays out there that are relatable for students. So this book is intended for teachers to use with students, so that the students will respond. Each essay, whether personal, persuasive, or information, is based on a response to a different writing prompt. And each should be fun to read.

Some of them were fun. Some were just odd, but that was okay. But a few seemed like standard essays, and a couple seemed like they'd been written before they even saw the prompt.

The overall affect was like catching up on an eclectic bunch of TED Talk podcasts, with topics all over the place. I enjoy some of those, while I listen to others on double speed, or skip through them entirely.

And while the personal stories were interesting, the introduction promised breakfast on Mars, showering with spiders, and humans needing tales. That's what I wanted to read. "It's on Like Donkey Kong" was a nice bonus. (That phrase is so well-established in my circles that we can parody it into something else). Likewise the comparison of Princess Leia and Queen Amidala. So of the other entries, I've already forgotten, even when I like back at the table of contents page.

I did like reading the prompt at the top of each essay, and I toyed with repeating them either here or on my (private) writing blog, but do I really want to type up 39 prompts? One-handed, while holding the book open with the other? Probably not.

For anyone who stumbled upon my personal reading blog, if this sounds interesting, check it out.