Bad Magic
There's an epic origin story behind Stephan Zielinski's Bad Magic (alluded to here), but it's not really mine to tell. It does end happily at least: the book is now in print, and I picked up a copy very shortly after it came out, and interrupted The System of the World to read it. How could I not bump it to the head of the queue when it boasts a tagline like:
There are some things people weren't meant to know. Some people know those things anyway. Sucks to be them.
This is the story of a very dark world not unlike our own, in which vast, cosmic, evil forces have the upper hand, only most people have no idea. Only a very small number of people can open their third eye, and see the magic going on around them, and they mostly don't last very long. Particularly in San Diego.
The book follows a San Francisco-based cell of the dwindling resistance to the dark forces known as the Incumbents, through a series of very odd adventures battling evil. Magic in this book is a kitchen-sink sort of thing, with elemental magic, totemist shamans, alchemists, and synesthetic mages coexisting uneasily.
The setting sounds pretty dark, but the whole thing is written with a bizarre humor, as in this exchange that Nathan is sure to love:
"Okay. So we're dealing with people who accelerate personal and social decay."
"Boy, that narrows it down," mutters Arbeiter.
"The obvious place to look is a center of personal and social decay."
"What, Los Angeles?" queries Rider.
Whitlomb snaps his fingers. "No! Of course, why didn't I think of it before? Stanford!"
There are a number of quirky things about the writing that may not be to all tastes-- the entire thing is written in present tense, for example, and there are a couple of odd narrative intrusions. There's also a very strange (but funny) academic appendix about zombies, which doesn't connect all that directly to the main story. The whole thing has some ragged first-novel edges, but it's certainly a fresh and distinctive voice.
Really, this is one of those books that just isn't quite like anything else. If you think you might like weird urban fantasy with a dark edge but a lot of humor, I highly recommend this book. If that doesn't sound quite like your thing, well, I'm probably not doing it justice, so check it out anyway.
Posted at 6:09 PM | link |