{"id":2275,"date":"2020-06-12T19:28:31","date_gmt":"2020-06-12T23:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/?p=2275"},"modified":"2024-01-21T01:30:35","modified_gmt":"2024-01-21T06:30:35","slug":"waggoner-c-m-unnatural-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/2020\/06\/waggoner-c-m-unnatural-magic\/","title":{"rendered":"Waggoner, C. M.: Unnatural Magic<\/cite>"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

I’m logging C. M. Waggoner’s Unnatural Magic<\/em><\/strong> for two reasons:<\/p>\n

First, it’s absolutely charming;<\/p>\n

Second, everything you need to know is in Becca’s blog post<\/a>, so I don’t really have to write anything myself!<\/p>\n

Unnatural Magic<\/i> is composed of two extremely different storylines that only intersect about 80% of the way through the book. […] This half the plotline has very much a Regencyish fantasy-of-manners vibe, along the lines of Stevermer’s College of Magics<\/i>, and is fun in much the same way. […]<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in the other half of the plotline, Tsira, a gruff half-troll with a chip on her soldier, rescues Jeckran, a depressed, queer, overeducated soldier in distress, and carries him back to her cave to convalesce. […] She’s the muscle … and the brains … and the boss …. and he’s got good looks and a fancy accent, which occasionally also come in useful!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Well, except that it’s more queer than the impression I got from Becca’s post; troll gender is self-declared, and same-sex relationships are unexceptional at least a couple of the societies.)<\/p>\n

If you like the idea of those characters and their interactions, don’t mind weird pacing, and find the rather 90s’ vibe [*] of the whole thing (as accurately identified in comments) a plus, or at least not a negative, metaphorically run to your nearest book vendor. Bonus: as I write this, it’s only $3 in ebook. I have already preordered Waggoner’s next book, which is set in the same world and due out in January.<\/p>\n

[*] There’s a particularly thing that feels highly<\/em> 90s fantasy, especially in the way it happens ninety percent of the way in, is shown from the viewpoint of a third party, and then hardly comes up at all after!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m logging C. M. Waggoner’s Unnatural Magic for two reasons: First, it’s absolutely charming; Second, everything you need to know is in Becca’s blog post, so I don’t really have to write anything myself! Unnatural Magic is composed of two extremely different storylines that only intersect about 80% of the way through the book. […] … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Waggoner, C. M.: Unnatural Magic<\/cite>“<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,15],"tags":[459],"class_list":["post-2275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-sf-and-fantasy","tag-waggoner-c-m"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2275"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2415,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2275\/revisions\/2415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}