Very Short Book Reviews: The Magical Girl Gang and Other Joys

When We Were Magic, by Sarah Gailey (Simon and Schuster)

They’re classic girl buddies, pinky-sworn to support one another. One is the nurturer, another the innovator, yet another the nature lover. One (the narrator) has a secret crush on another girl. But they’re also magic, each with her own gift, and all determined to keep what they can do secret. So when Alexis, in order to make her secret crush jealous, allows herself to be seduced by the high school golden boy on prom night, her dishonesty with herself ignites her magic with disastrous – and lethal -- results. What to do with the body? Call her friends, of course! An ill-conceived plan to chop up his body and get rid of the separate pieces leads to ever more dire complications. Only by unveiling secrets and working together can Team Magic put the world right again.

Wonderful authorial voice, a freshly imagined system of magic, awesome girl friendships, and plot twists galore create a fast and absorbing reading experience.

Jack, by Connie Willis (Subterranean)

I think of this novella, set in London during the World War II blitz, as a companion piece to Connie Willis’s duology, Blackout and All Clear, and her “Fire Watch.” Whereas the two novels were time-travel science fiction, Jack falls into fantasy. Or rather, topples headlong into a seemingly ordinary world replete with Victorian gothic references. A few are obvious, like the character Renfrew, others more subtle. One of the joys of an ereader is the ability to look up names and references <g> When you think about it, it stands to reason that a chaotic, violent time like the London blitz might attract predators, now freer to hunt than in more sedate times – but to what end? To feed on death and pain, or to in small way atone for the evil they’ve done?

As usual, Willis is in fine style, weaving in hints through everyday happenings, in this case, an air raid rescue team spotting fires, digging out survivors, and so forth.

This novella was first published in 1991. I’m glad to see it and others, new and old, find audiences. Not so long ago, it was very difficult to sell a novella, but changing markets and technologies have reintroduced readers to the gifts of this length.

Stormsong, by C. L. Polk (Tor.com)

I loved C. L. Polk’s Witchmark, to which this is a direct sequel, and I heartily advise readers to read that book first. In this world, both politics and the magic upon which the society depends are in an unprecedented and precarious imbalance. At the end of the first book, a series of shattering events have left the realm of Aeland in an even more desperate situation. The supernatural dangerous-elf-like Amaranthines are basically investigating their crimes to decide whether to exterminate them, and the weather workers are in disarray just as the equivalent of the storm of the century bears down on them. This time, the viewpoint character is Dame Grace Hensley, the privileged, magically gifted sister of Miles, our hero from Witchmark. She has much to atone for in her role in enslaving her brother’s will in order to steal his magic, but she’s had her eyes opened to the brutality of her own society. Which, when you come to think about it, is as interesting a place to begin a story as any. Grace’s awakening is not complete, of course. As an unreliable narrator, she still has blind spots aplenty. She has yet to discern the depth of her aristocratic privilege or the lengths to which her enemies will go to keep their grip on power. There’s a sweet lesbian love story, intricate political scheming, and genuine character growth.

Sequels are always tough, especially when the first volume is as good as Witchmark. Stormsong, while standing on its own less well, deepens the story. The shift in POV from what was previously essentially an adversary – and who now has a great deal to atone for – gives depth not only to the principal characters but to the world itself.

Creeping Jenny (A Nyquist Mystery), by Jeff Noon (Angry Robot)

I was introduced to the work of Jeff Noon through his previous “Nyquist Mystery,” Man of Shadows, which takes place in Dayzone, a city under perpetual illumination. It goes without saying that without an imposed circadian rhythm and with the ability to sleep and wake on an individual schedule, the culture and psychology warp in bizarre and unexpected ways. I found the effect within the novel downright hallucinatory.

Creeping Jenny is no less weird, although it’s set in a small English village. John Nyquist has received a set of photographs, including one of his father, believed to be deceased. The story begins with his arrival in the village of Hoxley, in search of the truth – could his father be still alive, after all these years? Although the village is superficially quaint and quiet, it is no less weird than the city of Dayzone. For 300 days a year, the saint of that day rules over Hoxley, and a stranger set of saints I could not imagine. One day everyone stays indoors until dusk, another day everyone wears a mask and insists they are Edward or Alice, and on yet another, nothing ever gets completed – sentences, work, trying to get from one place to another. One villager names trees (and people), hanging tags on them, and gives Nyquist a mysterious name, Written in Blood. Two apparent suicides send Nyquist on the hunt for an explanation – were they in truth murders?

Noon has an almost supernatural ability to start off with an apparently mundane, real life situation and warp it in such unexpected directions that by the time you realize you are not in Kansas anymore, you’re not even on the same planet.

Shorefall, by Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey)

This sequel to Foundryside is just as engrossing and dramatic. I loved the “industrial magic” of this world, as well as its central characters: scrappy Sancia with her ability to “speak” to scrived objects (enchanted by written spells); Gregor who hides both from his wealthy ruling family and his tormented past; Berenice with her extraordinary talents as a scriver and her love for Sancia; Orso who left a successful professional career working for a ruling family to help create a “people’s foundry;” and new ones as well. The very first scrivers, called hierophants, were able to remake time and space, and reality itself, and the original and most formidable of those, Crasedes Magnus, is bent on returning and re-making the world. His cause: bringing an end humankind’s propensity for turning every invention into a weapon by obliterating free will.

When is the price of peace too much? Can people ever learn to channel creativity and innovation into beneficial uses, or are they doomed always to turn to war and oppression? How do you counter an adversary capable of making you want to believe him?