Monday, August 10, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Midnight Bargain by CL Polk


Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on October 13, 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.
The Midnight Bargain is the latest novel from C.L. Polk, author of the Kingston Cycle of books which began with Witchmark a few years ago.  Those novels were queer romantic fantasies, with strong queer romance secondary plots to go along with solid fantasy main plots dealing with issues of oppression, privilege, and more.  By contrast, The Midnight Bargain is a fantasy romance* set in a regency-esque world (except magic is a very real part of this world), and as such, the romantic elements are the main attraction.

*I define Romantic SF/F is SF/F with romance as an important part of the plot, but not the main focus of the plot.  SF/F Romances may have other subplots besides the romance, but the romance is the central point of the work, to the point where the story can end satisfactorily with the other plots hanging as long as the romance plot IS resolved or furthered.  

 And I enjoyed The Midnight Bargain a good bit.  The story reminded me quite a bit of Stephanie Burgis' "The Harwood Spellbook" (which I also really enjoyed) in that it features a world in which women are essentially forced to choose between love/marriage and magic, with the implication for ladies of status that they must choose marriage in the end.  But the story takes things in different directions than Burgis' series, as it features two women desperate to become masters at magic despite two very different opinions about the idea of love and romance, as well as a male love interest who tries to be understanding but is hindered at such by his upbringing.  It takes some surprising turns through it all, and perhaps ties things up a bit too neatly, but I enjoyed this novel quite a bit and would recommend.



----------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------------------------
Beatrice Clayborn dreams of being a full fledged Magus - a mage who has summoned and communed with a Greater Spirit.  But while women becoming sorceresses in their widowhood is an acceptable part of society and young women dabbling with magic before marriage is something tolerated, the same is not true of a married woman anywhere around the world.  In fact, upon marriage, women are given marital collars which cut off their magic - as a still powered sorceress giving birth results in children damaged by the spirits, causing havoc before they are killed.  There is nothing Beatrice fears more than being collared, and yet her family is in severe debt and is relying upon her to marry into wealth to save them all.

Beatrice has an alternate plan to marriage - if she can become a full fledged Magus and summon a greater spirit, she can use its magic to help her family prosper, and her traditional stubborn father will be forced to acknowledge her as a full partner in his business - and will let her live the life she wants.  But when she finds a grimoire that contains part of the spell she needs, it is taken away from her by a pair of wealthy noble siblings: Ianthe Lavan and his sister Ysbeta.  And all seems lost....until she encounters Ianthe once more at the start of the courting season and a spirit of fortune forces her to kiss him.

Soon Beatrice begins to spend more time with the Lavan siblings, and begins to find even more difficult questions for her future: for in Ysbeta, Beatrice has found a kindred spirit, a young sorceress desperate only to learn magic and to never marry.  And in Ianthe, she has found the one man not offput by her true intelligent self and who she might truly desire....even if to have him would result in her magical dreams being forfeit......
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The Midnight Bargain features a regency setting which will be somewhat familiar to most readers:  it's a mainly patriarchal setting, although some women do stand out and there are some differences in different cultures as to the extent, where magic as a full time profession is limited to men, and admittance into the Chapterhouse is barred for women, as thus are the major secrets of magic.  The setting provides for some logical reasons why such a restriction did come about - the inability of a sorceress to have a successful child is real - but like in the real world, such a truth is seized upon to ensure that women have to make all the sacrifices to enter into a relationship, whereas men might not.  And most of men and women in this setting, at least seem to accept that this is the way it must be and will accept no change, with women of decent stock (ladies) presenting themselves as part of the Ingenue for a marriage proposal and expected to live out happy lives in marriage as such.

This acceptance is not something for either our main character, Beatrice, or a major secondary character, in Ysbeta.  Beatrice is a woman of conflicting wants: she desperately wants to help her family, and she would love to find a man and a happy relationship - if such a thing was possible given how much her knowledge of world affairs and magic is considered unladylike behavior - but her primary wish is to become a full fledged magus, with the magic in her never taken from her veins.  As such, the Lavan siblings throw those contrasting wishes into full relief.   Ianthe for example quickly proves himself to be the type of man she never thought could exist: loving her curiosity, intellect, and magical desires and wanting Beatrice to be happy, to say nothing of being very wealthy and thus someone who could save her family from debt.  And she finds him more than attractive, so if there's anyone she would desire to marry, it would have to be him.  But to marry would require her to give up her magic and.....

Then there's Ysbeta, who throws this all out the window, and is the real difference from the typical regency-esque romance novel.  Ysbeta shares Beatrice's love of magic and desire to truly explore its potential - in fact she even has dreams that go beyond Beatrice's of what good she could do with magic she could learn from all around the world.  But Ysbeta has no interest in romance or marriage or anyone else at all in that way (the book never comes around and says it, but I read her as being asexual & aromantic).  And so while Beatrice's issues are that she does desire Ianthe and would want him but to have him would cost her her other dreams, for Ysbeta it's even MORE stark: to marry wouldn't just cost her her desires, but it would do so for a purpose that would only ever make her unhappy, no matter how nice or goodnatured the partner is.  It makes her the most sympathetic figure in the entire novel, and god did I feel for her.

And so we have a plot where Beatrice has to try and negotiate her own desires, while also feeling desperate to help Ysbeta find someway out of her predicament if at all possible.  We have classical regency villains - a father who doesn't recognize his daughter's worth, a nosy younger sister who feels her own dreams are resting upon her sister's success, a potential mother in law determined to keep her away, a suitor with ulterior motives and a willingness to take drastic actions....but honestly, the biggest villain in it all is the status quo's unwillingness to bend, and this book's best moments are where Beatrice tries desperately to show that to Ianthe, who may very well be as sympathetic as possible, but just can't see that anything can be changed and has to be forced to possibly consider how it can.  And this works really well and effectively and makes this novel very enjoyable.  It has some issues: the ending features a rush of people coming to decisions that counteract everything we know of them from the rest of the book, which seems almost too tidy really.  But it's still a very enjoyable and satisfying fantasy romance, and I would definitely recommend it.
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