Bingo 24: Swap Free Space for Diaspora
Free Space invoked because I don’t have anything specific in mind for the Diaspora square and time is not on my side.
I picked up The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry for the title. No other reason. Turns out this is actually book 2 in a series, but that doesn’t actually matter, as this story is pretty stand alone as far as I could tell. A lot is classic fantasy and romance tropes getting mixed up. Sometimes there’s a little cozy, but this is overall definitely not that. Cozy does not have violent murders, drug epidemic, dealers, addicts, curses, and more. Cozy does have ragtag group of magic users gathered for a mission (protect rich girl on her way to her wedding; obviously does not go as planned), down on her luck but still plucky street-smart heroine, much better off love interest, smart college girls alongside street educated girls, old lady who may or may not be a real threat, reanimated skeleton mouse which may or may not actually be important (think Death of Rats without the sense of humor), one mission leading into another, a few twists and turns, some tragedy, but eventually main threats vanquished (at a cost) at least for now [?]. In a twisted way, this is a sort of grown-up magical girls story, since most everyone who matters is female, and likewise, has some kind of magical ability. And it’s not all happy cuteseyness although there are moments.
Dell as a main character is both predictable but somehow still interesting. She’s got some fire magic, not much formal education, she’s behind on her rent, her addict mom keeps getting in trouble, and now she’s on a quest that turns out to be very different than what she hoped for. Will she get her payday? Will Winn, that cute ogre girl actually be a real romantic option, and not just a possible meal-ticket? Will Absentia (university girl) and Dell manage to not kill each other out of annoyance before they finish their mutually necessary quest requiring them to work together? Are they maybe actually friends? Have we seen any of the above before? Probably.
Am I going to look up book 1? Probably not. At least not immediately. This is a decent stand alone adventure, but for now, I’m not really caring about the prequel as much.