Tag Archives: seanan mcguire

Bee’s Knee’s Fantasies: Wolf Worm and Butterfly Effects

17 Mar

Wolf Worm
by T. Kingfisher
Wolf Worm is the latest by T. Kingfisher. Sonia Wilson grew up assisting her botanist father with his research and as a talented illustrator, enjoyed creating beautiful art out of what many people would simply consider weeds. But after her father’s death she struggles to find work as a scientific illustrator until she is hired to paint a collection of parasitic insects for a reclusive entomologist. The strange happenings in the nearby woods filled with odd wildlife and rumors of “blood thieves” has her both fearful and curious.

This is an entrancing dark historic fantasy/gothic horror story that gave me the creeps in the best possible way. As someone who grew up with a biology teacher for a father who enjoyed photographing our backyard bugs, I appreciated the detailed way that Kingfisher handled the topic. Even predisposed to finding insects intriguing, Kingfisher’s description’s still were at times horrifying and I can only imagine how much dread they would inspire in entomophobics. The 1899 time period felt well researched including social issues of the time. Kingfisher’s experience as an artist, herself, brings Sonia’s passion to life. She masterfully builds dread and includes several unexpected twists. If you enjoy this story, also check out her excellent spin on Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, What Moves the Dead, and its sequel, What Feasts at Night.

Butterfly Effects
by Seanan McGuire
Butterfly Effects is the latest in Seanan McGuire’s InCryptid series, which follows several generations of the Price family (both biological and found) on their adventures. Sarah Zellaby is one of the more unusual members of the family who was adopted as a young child. Sarah isn’t human, she is a Johrlac, a species that look like pale humans with dark hair, but are actually evolved from a species of psychic wasps on a world in another dimension. By those who are aware of them, her species is typically feared and reviled on earth for their powers and tendency to cause chaos. Despite all of her best efforts at being a good person, she has been kidnapped and brought to the Johrlac home world for crimes she did not even know existed.

McGuire gives enough of the backstory at the start so that you do not need to read the other books in the series to understand this one; this books follows events most closely with the stories in Imaginary Numbers and Calculated Risk which also focused on Sarah. Butterfly Effects is told from both Sarah’s perspective and that of one of her adopted cousins. Sarah is an interesting and complex character and I think readers who are neurodiverse will especially feel a kinship with her. The Johrlac world is vividly described from its giant bugs and beautiful flowers to its unique buildings; this story will appeal to Science Fiction as well as the series’s usual Fantasy fans.

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Information and Digital Services Manager

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Fantastic New Fantasies: A Harvest of Hearts and Installment Immortality

5 Mar

A Harvest of Hearts
by Andrea Eames
Out now is the newly published novel, A Harvest of Hearts by Andrea Eames. Foss is the butcher’s daughter. In her mind she is oversized and unattractive. Nothing compared to the beautiful sorceresses from the city whose infrequent visits fill the town with envy, lust, and fear. The sorceresses are said to gain power by stealing bits of people’s hearts. When one day a male sorcerer turns up, Foss believes he has stolen part of her heart. In trying to get it back she journey’s far away to an moody black castle made of magic where a talking cat and the sorcerer who fills her dreams live. In order to restore her heart she takes up working there as a housekeeper and must unravel the mystery of the magic makers, who she learns are as much victims as the people’s whose hearts they steal. This story very much had the feel of a modern take on a classic fairy tale. It had the magic of the stories I read as a child, but Foss is able to save herself and her love. I also liked the closeness between her and her father since so often is classic stories the fathers become distant when the mother of the heroine has passed away.

Installment Immortality
by Seanan McGuire
I am a long time fan of McGuire’s InCryptid series that follows an extended family of conservationist who focus on animals of myth and legends, which in the universe of this Urban Fantasy, are real. In general I would recommend like with most series reading the books in order, but I feel that Installment Immortality which will be available starting next Tuesday, would make a decent jumping in point even if you aren’t familiar with the previous books. Perhaps it is the move to a new publisher or it might just be the nature of this story but there is quite of bit of recaping of past events as well as moving the larger story forward. This like the previous novel focuses on one of the more interesting adopted or found family members of the clan, Mary, who is a ghost and has acted as a baby sitter since early in the family’s history. This gives her a unique perspective which is both motherly towards even the more senior members of the clan and yet still retaining some snark as a perennial teen. Also most of the novels in the series have love stories attached, but Mary’s ghostly nature leaves her seeming both asexual and aromantic; she feels love towards her friends and family in a caregiving way, but seems uninterested in having a romantic relationship, at least not with anyone she has encountered so far in her many years of unlife. I can see this be appealing for those who are looking for a story where a character can have a life filled with significant close bonds without having “one true love” as so many stories do. Also it allows McGuire to focus more on the variety of ghosts including the white ladies, faceless ghosts from Japan, and many others as well as some new InCryptids such as Hockomock Swamp Beasties and Clurichaun. Complimentary to this tale of the adopted mom of the clan is an included novella of another very pregnant family member in a spin on the blob horror story.

If you enjoy speculative fiction consider joining our Hoboken Public Library Science Fiction and Fantasy Discussion Group!

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Information and Digital Services Manager

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