Thursday, December 21, 2017

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Magic for Nothing (inCryptid) by Seanan McGuire




Magic for Nothing is Seanan McGuire's sixth inCryptid novel, but the first in a new arc following the last of the Price kids, Antimony Price.  It's also the first novel in the series following a major change in the status quo, and as such it's not quite as beginner friendly as the start of the last new arc (Book 3, Half-Off Ragnarok).  You COULD start the series here - I think it would work, as again, this is the start of a new arc and McGuire does a decent job at the beginning of each book recapping what you need to know to start here.  But I wouldn't advise it, as the conflicts in the book work better if you have some background coming into this story.*

*You probably should read all of Verity's Books, which are Books 1, 2, and 5 (Discount Armageddon, Midnight Blue-Light Special, and Chaos Choreography) before this book, with the Alex Price books (Half-Off Ragnarok and Pocket Apocalypse) being optional.  But as I like the Alex Price books, you might as well read them.

 But here's the thing:  This is easily my favorite book in the series, and Antimony is easily my favorite character in the Novels (I think Francis Brown from the short stories is my favorite inCryptid character still, but Antimony comes close).  Whereas Verity and Alex, the protagonists of the prior five novels, are clearly adults with adult concerns, Antimony is more of a Young Adult heroine (even though at 22 I guess she's old for traditional YA) - she's still looking for what to do with her life and has never taken or even attempted to take steps toward traditional adulthood (such as finding a job or moving out of her parent's place).  Naturally her trying to find herself is a major part of this book, and it works tremendously well.

Warning: Spoilers for Chaos Choreography's ending are below - there's no way to avoid them here:



---------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------------------------
Five Generations ago, the Healy family were part of the Covenant of St. George, an organization dedicated to the extermination of Cryptids - animals and sentient beings who can't be explained by science - think Gorgons, Dragons, Basilisks, Talking Mice, Sentient Snakes/Spiders/Apes, etc etc etc.  But then Alexander and Enid Healy decided that these beings had a right to exist and left the Covenant behind to become Cryptozoologists who protected the Cryptids of North America.  Two generations later, Covenant Agent Thomas Price left the Covenant and married the latest Healy, Alice Healy, and joined their family in trying to protect the Cryptids.  The Covenant did not take kindly to this and attempted to slaughter the family, only giving up when they were tricked into believing the family had been destroyed.  For two generations since then, the Healy-Price family has continued to help the Cryptids of North America, all the while still staying under the radar to not alert the Covenant of their continued existence.

And then one of the latest members of the family, Verity Price,  got caught on live television killing a ginormous Snake God alongside a Shark-man and a Chupacabra.  And then to compound this she responded to the blowing of her cover by challenging the Covenant directly. 

Yeah, the Price Family's anonymity is well and truly blown.

Enter Antimony Price.  The youngest Price girl, Antimony has always felt as an outcast in the family.  While she cares about Cryptids as much as her siblings, Antimony has never found her niche like they have (Verity deals with Urban Cryptids, Alex with Reptiles and and Amphibians).  Hell, she's always felt like her family has given her siblings just plain freedom to live their lives that she has never had.  Add in the fact that she doesn't look like anyone else in the family and has secretly began manifesting the magical ability to conjure fire, well Antimony isn't a very happy person.  And because she doesn't look like a Healy, Antimony is given a mission by her family: to infiltrate the Covenant of St. George to find out what they are planning.

Antimony will have to convince enemies who want to kill her and everything she stands for that she is on their side, without blowing her cover.  But when those same enemies send her undercover to infiltrate a carnival where cryptids have seemingly killed human beings, can she manage to keep her story straight between the many layers of lies?  And even if she can, can she manage to keep her ideals when the enemy Covenant suddenly becomes less an abstract concept but more a group of human beings she knows and can almost understand?
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For Five books, what the inCryptid series has told us about Antimony Price is basically that she's crazy and homicidal - both Verity and Alex recount how Antimony loved to dig pit traps everywhere when they were playing growing up and how she filled those traps with very deadly spikes, and how extremely aggressive she is.  But this book shows how skewed Verity and Alex's perspectives are - Antimony is in fact a very three dimensional character, more conflicted by her circumstances than anything.  I was expecting a more nerd-culture referencing version of Verity when I picked up this book, but Antimony is more jaded than sarcastic and while she's still quick witted, she's as much unsure of herself as her sister is headstrong.  In short, I love Antimony Price, as she's a marvelous character.  And she has the best romance plot of any of her siblings in the series so far.

The minor characters are also excellent.  The Carnival members, particularly Sam Spencer and his grandmother Emery are excellent additions to the cast, yet another set of examples of humans and cryptids have lived together secretly in an environment. Sam is particularly great, and I hope we see him in the future.  And since Antimony only carries one mouse with her on her mission, which she names Mindy, even the Aeslin mice get a little more personality than usual, and they have it in spades.  We also learn more about the Covenant agents, making them more believable characters and putting a face on our series' antagonists really makes them more intimidating.

The plot is more aligned with the series' long-term arc than any book since the 2nd book in the series, and it surprises on multiple occasions.  The ending is incredibly bittersweet and a major cliffhanger, but it works pretty damn well.

In short, this book contains the fast paced and fun tones of an inCryptid book with some of the series' best characters and an excellent plot that surprises and yet comes together into a cohesive hole with a satisfying ending and a hell of a cliffhanger.  Yeah I can't wait for the sequel in March

 
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