Runo Knows...The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump
Haven't hit on any Harry Turtledove lately, have I? Have I? I DON'T KNOW! LET ME CHECK...
Nope. He had the one story in Armageddon and I lumped all of his Timeline-191 stories (from How Few Remain through the three Great War books through the three American Empire books through the three currently released Settling Accounts books) into one entry. So here's a new one.
This is a fairly standard "magic replaces technology" with the addition of some puns. Inspector Dave Fisher of the EPA (Environmental Perfection Agency) gets a call early one morning from his boss' boss in D.St.C. It seems that the Devonshire Toxic Spell Dump (since anything good from magic comes with a cost) is leaking.
As he investigates he gets wrapped in conspiracies that include Native American spirits gone into hiding, babies born without a soul, vengeful Aztec gods, djinnetic engineering, arson, murder, kidnapping, and protests by angry succubi. As he realizes the sheer weight of his investigation - a possible Third Sorcerous War may erupt, and the megasalamanders that can slag entire cities would be the least of their worries - he still has to deal with his fiancee, the bureaucracy of the Confederacy, and his weekly staff meeting.
It's an entertaining book, humorous in parts, with just enough horror to keep it from being a complete parody. Of course, it has a lot of the standard cliches for alternative histories, especially in the "what would life be like if there wasn't magic and technology worked" kind of realm, but honestly, that's to be expected in the genre. There's also a lot of random exposition - describing, for instance, what happened in the Second Sorcerous War, how toxic spell dumping and spell production works in general - and rants about things that I get the impression Turtledove himself doesn't care for (such as TV). (Not that I can say that definitively, but I just get the impression, especially since he's never been shy to share some of his beliefs in other books.)
(Not that there's anything wrong with that!)
(Though I think Michael A. Stackpole did it with a nice flair in one of the "Dark Conspiracy" novels.)
It's a good summertime book. It's not dense, it's a fairly easy read, though keeping track of all the random "changes" in society and technomagic can flummox you on a first read (this is about my 17th read of it, I think) but it's colorful and fun.
Nope. He had the one story in Armageddon and I lumped all of his Timeline-191 stories (from How Few Remain through the three Great War books through the three American Empire books through the three currently released Settling Accounts books) into one entry. So here's a new one.
This is a fairly standard "magic replaces technology" with the addition of some puns. Inspector Dave Fisher of the EPA (Environmental Perfection Agency) gets a call early one morning from his boss' boss in D.St.C. It seems that the Devonshire Toxic Spell Dump (since anything good from magic comes with a cost) is leaking.
As he investigates he gets wrapped in conspiracies that include Native American spirits gone into hiding, babies born without a soul, vengeful Aztec gods, djinnetic engineering, arson, murder, kidnapping, and protests by angry succubi. As he realizes the sheer weight of his investigation - a possible Third Sorcerous War may erupt, and the megasalamanders that can slag entire cities would be the least of their worries - he still has to deal with his fiancee, the bureaucracy of the Confederacy, and his weekly staff meeting.
It's an entertaining book, humorous in parts, with just enough horror to keep it from being a complete parody. Of course, it has a lot of the standard cliches for alternative histories, especially in the "what would life be like if there wasn't magic and technology worked" kind of realm, but honestly, that's to be expected in the genre. There's also a lot of random exposition - describing, for instance, what happened in the Second Sorcerous War, how toxic spell dumping and spell production works in general - and rants about things that I get the impression Turtledove himself doesn't care for (such as TV). (Not that I can say that definitively, but I just get the impression, especially since he's never been shy to share some of his beliefs in other books.)
(Not that there's anything wrong with that!)
(Though I think Michael A. Stackpole did it with a nice flair in one of the "Dark Conspiracy" novels.)
It's a good summertime book. It's not dense, it's a fairly easy read, though keeping track of all the random "changes" in society and technomagic can flummox you on a first read (this is about my 17th read of it, I think) but it's colorful and fun.