Magic, Supernaturalism, and Religion, by Kurt Seligmann. Pantheon Books, 1948

This book is not a how-to, DIY tome; it is a history of its subjects, told in a neutral, dispassionate vein. It starts with Mesopotamia, goes through Persia, the Hebrews, Egypt, Greece, Gnosticism, the Roman Empire, the shifts to Europe and the magical arts that survived during Christian times. The author takes neither a “magic was bad and misguided” nor a “Christianity was a bully that took over and destroyed magic” that is today’s take on the subjects; he stays totally neutral. Yes, he does talk about the witch trials and the trials of alchemists, but it’s told in a ‘just the facts, ma’am” tone. I found it pretty interesting, although quite dry. When you don’t take sides there isn’t any passion in writing, I guess. The illustrations were fascinating; pen and ink drawings of magical principles and things like palmistry charts fill the book.

 

 

Paladin’s Grace, by T. Kingfisher. Argyll Productions, 2021

Severed heads – found minus bodies- are what’s on Paladin Stephen’s mind when he is accosted on the street by a fugitive woman, who demands they pretend to be having sex against the wall to throw off her pursuers. As he walks her home, he discovers she’s a perfumer, living in a poor part of town. She’s got secrets; she was sold as a child and then again as an adult, and she’s been criticized and gas-lit into having a horrible image of herself. Stephen is the follower of a berserker god, one who died unexpectedly, leaving his followers with no steering. They did what berserkers do when upset; they went berserk. In the end, only a handful were left. They now help the Rat god, a sect with healers and lawyers. Now they live with constant guilt, and horrible self images. In other words, Stephen and Grace are perfect for each other, if only they could believe that someone could love a person as lowly as themselves.

Meanwhile, there is a visiting potentate, a couple of assassination attempts, more severed heads, thieves, and a lot more, all set in a world of several churches with real live gods, talking quadrupeds (there is one on the police force), magic that works, and a lot more.

I found this world very appealing. It’s well built (it’s the setting for several other novels by the author), and I liked most of the characters. It’s basically a rom/com set in pre-industrial times. I loved Stephen and Grace, even though their lack of ability to just bloody talk to each other made me crazy at times. It’s also a mystery- well, two different mysteries, actually. I really enjoyed the story and the characters, although the ending has a bit of a deus ex machina feeling to part of it. I fully intend to read everything else set in this world!

Lies Sleeping, by Ben Aaronovitch. Daw Books, 2018

This is the conclusion of the Faceless Man (ver. 2.0) arc that has carried through all the previous Rivers of London books and graphic novels. Narrator Peter Grant has had a lot of adventures through the series, but this arc has always hung over him. Finally it comes to a close.



This installment uses pretty much the entire cast of characters that have been introduced through the years, both police and river gods. The Faceless Man has pulled together his own army, too, in a very different way than the good guys have. The good and bad guys clash a number of times through the book before the final battle, and the energy stays high most of the time. Of course, all these people and events and of course the great descriptions of places and history gets confusing, at least for me, and I found myself looking back at pages before – and wishing I had the entire series to check things in. But I loved the book. Peter Grant is one of the world’s great characters; the attention to details that Aaronovitch gives him is wonderful, and his dry humor is great. And I have loved seeing him mature through the books; in his abilities, his character, and in his relationship with Beverly. The author has started a different series set in the same universe, and I do hope this doesn’t mean the last of Peter Grant and co.! There are still things that have not been tidied up, even some things just started in this book. Five stars!

The October Man, by Ben Aaronovitch. Subterranean Press, 2019

I’ve been waiting impatiently for the next episode in the “Rivers of London” series, so I was delighted to spot this on the library’s ‘new books’ rack. Then I discovered that even though it’s considered part of that series, it’s not set in London and the characters are all new.



When a dead body is found enveloped with fungus, specifically the one that causes the ‘noble rot’ on wine grapes, Tobias Winter is called in. He’s the agent from the German version of the Folly. He’s assigned Vanessa Sommer as a regular police partner for the case. Soon more bodies turn up, and the signs point to a secret hundreds of years old, and involves a river goddess who has reincarnated, ghosts, magic, and a vineyard.



This is a short book- a novella, really- so a lot happens in a short time. Vanessa (and the readers) are brought up to speed on the magical situation during drives from place to place and a dinner scene. Tobias has a different voice from Peter’s; he’s much more serious and doesn’t have the wit when describing things that Peter does. It took me a while to warm up to him. Vanessa has promise; she catches on to things very quickly. While I really hope to see more of Peter Grant and Nightingale, I look forward to seeing more of Winter and Sommer (really?!?!), too. Four stars; good magic and murder plot but too rushed.

Lipstick Voodoo, by Kristi Charish. Vintage Canada, 2018

Kincaid Strange can’t get a break. She’s a necromancer who raises the dead for a living. Like people who shoot the messenger, clients aren’t always pleased with what their dearly departed have to say when she raises them, and they take that out of Kincaid. So how to pay the rent is just her first worry… her roommate, Nathan Cade, has his own problems. He’s a ghost, but now he’s stuck in a zombie body that is rapidly breaking down. Kincaid has no idea how to help him. She’s being stalked by Gideon, the powerful ghost magician who kind of owns her after a mishap. Then there is her ex, Aaron, the Seattle cop who is on the supernatural beat. He’s come to her with the problem of a supernatural serial killer, one who is freezing their victims solid. Seattle PD has washed its hands of the supernatural bureau, so there is zero money in it for Kincaid and she finds herself in the freelancer’s usual position of ‘doing it for the exposure’.

I liked Kincaid, although with the constant action she really didn’t have much time to show many moods other than ‘exhausted’. I kind of liked Nate, but he’s immature (although trying) and the stalking of his ex meant he lost a lot of points with me. The ex-boyfriend/PD guy had no personality. Gideon has possibilities. I’ll be keeping an eye out for this new urban fantasy series. This is the second book in the series; I’ve not read the first one. Four stars.

The Sorceress and the Postgraduate, by Clive Heritage-Tilley. Matador, 2018

In 2017, a postgrad student at Oxford steals (“borrows”) an exhibit titled “Witch in a bottle” and opens the bottle. To his amazement, a full sized young woman appears. She speaks perfectly good modern English, and says she is a sorceress, bottled up in prison by her sister witches so that she might escape execution in 1497 Nuremberg. The mistress of Albrecht Durer, she was supposed to be released soon after the bottle was smuggled out of the prison. Things didn’t work out right, though, and she spent 600 years in suspended animation in the bottle.

As Constance- the sorceress- learns more about current times, they go in search of other magical items, which leads to another “borrowing”, that of the Alfred Jewel. From there we have Alice-in-Wonderland shrinking, magical fish, giant talking birds, and giant spiders. It’s a wild ride.

While the Witch in the bottle and the Alfred Jewel are both very real, the story is really only on the marginal edges of “historical fiction”. It’s fantasy, pure and simple. While it was a rather amusing read – and a very fast one- it’s not the best I’ve ever read. Constance adapts to the 21^st century way to fast to be believable (she also gets over her 15^th century lover promptly). She, and the other historical characters, all speak modern English. The story doesn’t really have a plot; it’s more of a series of adventures that aren’t really guided by anything but their curiosity – which is a splendid reason to do things in real life but it doesn’t make for a good story. And I really disliked the main male character. It reads like a first novel (and may very well be); the author has some good ideas so I hope he gets better. Three stars. 

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Neither of these things influenced my review.

Foxglove Summer, by Ben Aaronovitch. Daw Books, 2014

This is the fifth book in the Rivers of London series starring Peter Grant, London police constable and wizard in training. This time, he’s sent to the countryside to see if a case has any magical component to it. Two young girls have vanished, and the local PD hasn’t turned anything up yet. At first it doesn’t seem like there is any magic involved, but as Peter investigates he turns up things that the local PD have missed, and he starts getting suspicious. Soon he discovers that there is a lot about the magical world that his mentor has not told him about, including invisible carnivorous unicorns. He gets the girls back, but that’s far from the end of the story.

Peter grows a lot in this story. He takes charge of the investigation, something he’s not done in London. He mixes technology with magic. He uses magic on the fly. And he hasn’t lost his deadpan delivery of snark.

I love this series; the author has given our hero a wonderful voice with a great way of describing things that make me giggle a lot. Taking him out of London was refreshing, as was his relationship with Beverly Brook. Even though the larger story arc that’s been building over the first four books is not advanced, I didn’t miss it at all. Long may this series live! Five stars out of five. 

the above is an affiliate link. If you click through and buy something- anything- from Amazon, they will give me a few cents. 

This in no way influenced my review.