Wednesday, April 1, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Creatures of Charm and Hunger by Molly Tanzer


Full Disclosure:  This novella was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on April 21, 2020 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

Creatures of Charm and Hunger is the third and apparently final book in Molly Tanzer's "The Diabolist's Library" fantasy series, after Creatures of Will and Temper (reviewed here) and Creatures of Want and Ruin (reviewed here).  Each of the first two books in the series has been a novel taking place in a different historical period - book 1 took place in Victorian London; book 2 took place in prohibition-era Long Island - with the fantasy twist being the characters discovering that strange phenomena were occurring around them due to characters summoning and channeling demons.  In this universe, demons can be channeled for either good or evil purposes, and since both prior novels were stand-alone, a good part of each was dedicated to the characters discovering that fact and figuring out what to do with it.  In the end, I found both novels fascinating at the least, often taking directions I wouldn't have expected, and dealing with some modern day issues in the process.  So I was really curious to see where the third novel in the series would take things.

And Creatures of Charm and Hunger takes things in very different directions, even as it moves up its historical setting to that of World War 2 - an era in which fiction about the occult and the summoning of demons is hardly uncommon.  It dives straight into its diabolist setting from the start, with the protagonists learning how to use demon-channeling abilities from the start in pursuit of their own objectives, and never has the series been so directly colored by the supernatural.  The book still focuses on real world issues as well, of race and discrimination, of the costs of desire, of the value and cost of sacrifice, but its more supernatural nature makes it stand out from its predecessors in ways that I'm....still unsure work.  Regardless, the result is a far less tight plot, with more willingness to leave things unresolved, but one that certainly captivates the mind for its duration.

I should note that again, this book is entirely stand alone and no knowledge of the prior two books is needed to read it - the first book's plot gets a quick reference at one point, but otherwise there are no references that I even spotted to the prior novels.


--------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------------------------------
In the closing days of World War 2, it appears the Nazi terror will soon be over.  But French Diabolist Edith Blackwood - and her demon Mercurialis - knows that the worst is not yet over, with a pair of Nazi Diabolists doing horrific experiments in search of a deadly new war weapon.  But before her and her allies can act to try and stop them, she has some personal business to attend to: going to England to surprise her sister Nancy's two apprentices - her niece Jane Blackwood and Nancy's ward, Jewish exile Miriam Cantor - as they take the test for fitness for becoming full time Diabolists.

Before Edith leaves back to France, she leaves Jane and Miriam with two pieces of secret information: for Jane, Edith tells Jane of Jane's secret father, the enforcer for the Society that governs Diabolists.  For Miriam, Edith tells Miriam that Miriam's parents, diabolists left behind in Germany, have been suspected of being traitors collaborating with the Nazis.

What Edith doesn't realize is that these secrets will inflame the passions of both Miriam and Jane to the point of dangerous desperation.  To prove her parents aren't traitors, Miriam will research and perform a dangerous diabolical technique that tears her soul away from her body, at potentially fatal cost.  And for Jane, the test and her father's profession will drive her to prove her worth as a Diabolist more than ever before, driving her to dangerous methods that threaten not just her, but everyone she knows......
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Creatures of Charm and Hunger is.....interesting, in how it divvies up the story.  There are three characters who get point of view chapters: Jane, Miriam and Edith.  Yet Edith is a distant third in importance, with her chapters telling the story of one mission of her revolutionary diabolists into Nazi-controlled Europe, and really just serve to cement the setting in our minds.  It works really well, with Edith's one chapter focusing on the mission itself being really well done, but it's a clear side part of this plot, and she disappears from the narrative thereafter.  This book is centrally about Miriam and Jane and their stories, with the story bouncing between their perspectives for the most part.

For Miriam, this goes in a manner that isn't, well, predictable, but at least fits a formula you might expect.  A book smart theorist kind of Diabolist, Miriam has always felt guilty about leaving her parents in the crosshairs of Nazi Germany, and Edith's revelation makes her desperate to do anything she can to prove they aren't traitors to the cause.*  Her storyline features the closest thing to romance as well as the most direct form of racism/discrimination, as others in the town refuse to look at her as a normal person simply because she's Jewish - even though her mother was not Jewish (and Judaism treats Jewishness as coming from the maternal line).  All of this drives her further into her research, which takes a dive into methods that would at best be deeply disapproved of by her mentor, and at worst be directly outlawed for the costs it puts on her....to say nothing of the ethical costs of what she's doing.  It's really easy to like and root for and be pained for Miriam, and well, for readers of the prior two books, it's not hard to dread what is going to happen to her in the end from her efforts.

*Reminder that while it seems improbable to us for Jews to be seen as allying with Nazis, the Nazi massacring of Jews wasn't quite as well known at the time of the war.*

Jane is.....different.  Her concerns aren't driven by worldly matters - Jane has no reason to be concerned of the events of World War 2 when they are so far away and they seem about to be over.  They're not driven by romance either - Jane isn't attracted to anyone in that way.  What does drive her is the idea of finally getting out in the world as a Diabolist, away from an overbearing mother who doesn't seem to support her and does support Miriam instead, and proving her worth to everyone who doubts her.  When Jane's test secretly goes wrong and Jane finds out her long lost and long wondered about father is the very person who would punish her for a failed test, Jane's drive to prove herself is fueled only more.

But Jane's desire to prove herself is channeled into a strange form: seeking to do something that no one has ever done before in diabolic study, she wants to basically be a witch and to fly around on a broom.  No one has ever managed to do so, only creating short term levitation tricks, as opposed to actual flight, so Jane makes it her obsession.  Compared to everything else that goes on, it seems utterly frivolous, and yet Jane cannot leave it alone, even as achieving it requires Jane to go through more and more dangerous Demonic Summoning rituals, which endanger everyone.  It makes it hard to know what to feel about Jane, who is doing all of this - and proving the validity of her failed test in the mean time - while such serious stuff is going on with others around her: she's not exactly a tragic figure in it all, but what is she?  And as the book comes to its conclusion, and Jane and Miriam's plots intersect, she still can't let go of this obsession, leading to the book's strange conclusion.

Without spoiling, let's just say that conclusion is interesting and I'm not really sure what to think about it.  It leaves a lot of strands of plot open - both in the world war 2 diabolical matters and in Jane and Miriam's* paths forward.  It's an utter mess left for the imagination to solve, and it left me confused as to what to feel.  It's certainly an interesting exploration of it all, and far from predictable, but huh.  I can't even say if it's good or bad, even if the ride was certainly interesting to get there.

*Spoilers for the very ending in ROT13: Va gur raq, Zvevnz'f obql qvrf jvgu ure zvaq pbzovavat jvgu Anapl'f (nf Anapl'f bja zvaq jnf nobhg gb or gnxra bire ol n qrzba gunaxf gb Wnar) gb sbez n arj orvat Pbearyvn, jvgu Rqvgu qvfpbirevat guvf nf Cngevpr, gur Fbpvrgl'f Rinyhngbe (rasbepre) vf va gur fnzr ubhfr.  Jvyy Pbearyvn or nyybjrq gb fheivir naq fgvyy cenpgvpr nf n Qvnobyvfg?  Jub vf fur rknpgyl?  Naq Zrnajuvyr, Wnar whfg syrq vg nyy ba ure oebbz jvgu ure gjb qvnobyvp snzvyvnef - fbeg bs - naq jvyy pregnvayl or xvyyrq vs fur'f sbhaq.  Yvxr jung'f tbvat gb unccra sebz urer?  Jr'yy arire xabj.

In short, if you liked Tanzer's earlier novels in this series, you'll probably enjoy this one, even if it takes things in very different directions.  If you haven't read those prior novels, you may find this one interesting, even if the ending is kind of a weird mess.  It's certainly far from boring.
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