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A review by liszante
A Key, an Egg, an Unfortunate Remark by Harry Connolly
2.0
I really wanted to like this book. The idea is fantastic. Pacifist urban fantasy featuring a female protagonist over 60. Yes and please. The execution, though, is greatly lacking.
I enjoy books about which others complain not much happens. In fact, it was while reading the reviews on one of those books (as I often do after reading a book) that I found a rec for this book. This is no such book. A lot happens and events constantly propel the characters from point to point. So, I am disappointed by the rec. That said, I also greatly enjoy books with a plot focus. So, the organization of the book--whether around characters or plot--is not the issue.
My problem is two-fold. First, this book features a clumsy, coincidental plot. Second, the book fails to live up to its promise of pacifist urban fantasy. And I suspect that the latter is the culprit for the former. The overall effect is that the author had an excellent idea, but then had no clue how to actually pull it off.
Marley, our over 60 protagonist, is a former teen hero-type who has hung up her stakes and bullets. She has a great fortune, gained via inheritance, and a reputation. She has made Seattle a peaceful place, but she does so with the benefit of inherited wealth and a lifetime of being someone to fear. The book really only touches on the benefits of her wealth once that I noticed. Her past is presented as something she regrets and has grown past, but is never really explored beyond that.
Her active pacifism (as opposed to the structural pacifism she creates through her wealth and reputation) relies on magic and coincidence (which is another form of her magic, but I'm separating them). Her magic involves making people more inclined to help her, fooling them with what is basically psychic paper, and creating copies of herself, whether her entire body or just her voice. Her pacifism is never really challenged. She isn't really in danger; it was just a copy. No one is able to oppose her face on. She magically intuits their name and then lightly compels them into doing what she wants. Now, I love a charismatic protagonist who can talk people around (check out Lindsay Buroker's books if you've not), but that isn't what she does here. People just magically fall into line.
Except once. There is one scene in which Marley does not use her magic that way. She tries to talk someone around and fails (because, honestly, she isn't that good at it) and so threatens to use her wealth, connections, and magic to utterly destroy someone. And, this someone isn't even one of the antagonists in the book. The problem is that this scene and then, in contrast, the rest of the book, suggest that pacifism isn't actually possible, unless you have the privileges and benefits that Marley does. When Marley meets some young vampire hunters, she chastises them for killing people (read: vampires and those who help them), but does not offer a viable alternative for what they could have done given their situation. Marley has set something up in Seattle, but how does that help someone in Memphis?
The coincidence is her doing whatever she feels like she ought to do no matter how unrelated it might seem--such as messing up someone else's drawing (this happens in the first set piece of the book). Later this bit of coincidence just happens to work out. This kind of coincidence/etc is fun in Dirk Gently, but annoying here. It carries the plot from moment to moment and even, at one rather memorable point, relies entirely on cliche. This level of coincidence allows her avoid difficult situations, save for when it is time for a show-down to happen plot-wise, in which case it pulls her into the moment so that the action can happen. Then, in the couple cases where we could have really seen her pacifism tested, she is either saved by her nephew or by something bigger going wrong. (Or she uses her copy magic).
Marley is also saved by her knowledge of the supernatural. The scenes using that knowledge were the most fun to read. The book worked best when it relied on its character being proactive and interesting, rather than just getting everything handed to her or effortlessly (and costlessly) avoiding trouble.
It is easy to a pacifist when you're the one holding all the cards and situations via coincidence bend around you. In fact, other than a hurt arm and the ending, Marley's actions only hurt other people. Maybe that's worse and we do see her self-doubt (a necessary component of her magic though), though such self-doubts are quickly waved off by her nephew.
If I read a book described as pacifist urban fantasy that has this level of action in it, I want to see the protagonist actually being pacifist. I want to see them resisting temptation (not just getting disappointed at others for not sharing their beliefs), discussing their beliefs (rather than just ignoring questions as Marley mostly does, though I think she touches on it once), or being put into situations where fighting and weapons seem the best and easiest way out (Marley's magic/coincidence/etc made it so that no scene ever felt actually dangerous).
For example, at one point Marley says that someone will have to go. This being will not go. We never see how she handles it. I realize that would be a detour for the plot, but it could have been worked in and it would have been a great way to see her pacifism in action. How do you make someone leave who cannot be reasoned or even just talked with?
In another book I read recently (and I am going to mangle this title, I'm sure), A Long Journey to an Angry Planet, the ship's captain is a pacifist. After his ship is attacked, some of his crew wish to arm the ship, but he insists on just improving their shields. This is a decision he has to affirm multiple times. And his pacifism costs--he gets hurt physically and his ship has to make a detour to resupply. He also thinks about how it is a choice not to arm himself or retaliate and how easy it would be to do otherwise.
Any moral choice we make costs. Some, such as being defensive or having a zero-sum attitude, have more immediate benefits than costs. Others, such as being kind, patient, and open to others, easily garner ridicule and pain. These have benefits over time as they improve relationships and often lead to people liking themselves a great deal more, but they aren't easy. Anytime we choose against fear, against meanness, against cynicism, we look foolish to a lot of people. We lose out in the short run. We may not get rewarded in any noticeable way in the long run.
Being a pacifist is not easy. It looks foolish and weak. It runs counter to how much of the world works.
Marley is not a pacifist. She is a regretful old woman with enough reputation, wealth, connections, knowledge, magic, and manufactured luck that she never has to put herself in the situations she faced in her youth. And she chastises others for not having the privilege and perspective that she has.
This is a fun enough book to read, but I do not rec it.
I enjoy books about which others complain not much happens. In fact, it was while reading the reviews on one of those books (as I often do after reading a book) that I found a rec for this book. This is no such book. A lot happens and events constantly propel the characters from point to point. So, I am disappointed by the rec. That said, I also greatly enjoy books with a plot focus. So, the organization of the book--whether around characters or plot--is not the issue.
My problem is two-fold. First, this book features a clumsy, coincidental plot. Second, the book fails to live up to its promise of pacifist urban fantasy. And I suspect that the latter is the culprit for the former. The overall effect is that the author had an excellent idea, but then had no clue how to actually pull it off.
Marley, our over 60 protagonist, is a former teen hero-type who has hung up her stakes and bullets. She has a great fortune, gained via inheritance, and a reputation. She has made Seattle a peaceful place, but she does so with the benefit of inherited wealth and a lifetime of being someone to fear. The book really only touches on the benefits of her wealth once that I noticed. Her past is presented as something she regrets and has grown past, but is never really explored beyond that.
Her active pacifism (as opposed to the structural pacifism she creates through her wealth and reputation) relies on magic and coincidence (which is another form of her magic, but I'm separating them). Her magic involves making people more inclined to help her, fooling them with what is basically psychic paper, and creating copies of herself, whether her entire body or just her voice. Her pacifism is never really challenged. She isn't really in danger; it was just a copy. No one is able to oppose her face on. She magically intuits their name and then lightly compels them into doing what she wants. Now, I love a charismatic protagonist who can talk people around (check out Lindsay Buroker's books if you've not), but that isn't what she does here. People just magically fall into line.
Except once. There is one scene in which Marley does not use her magic that way. She tries to talk someone around and fails (because, honestly, she isn't that good at it) and so threatens to use her wealth, connections, and magic to utterly destroy someone. And, this someone isn't even one of the antagonists in the book. The problem is that this scene and then, in contrast, the rest of the book, suggest that pacifism isn't actually possible, unless you have the privileges and benefits that Marley does. When Marley meets some young vampire hunters, she chastises them for killing people (read: vampires and those who help them), but does not offer a viable alternative for what they could have done given their situation. Marley has set something up in Seattle, but how does that help someone in Memphis?
The coincidence is her doing whatever she feels like she ought to do no matter how unrelated it might seem--such as messing up someone else's drawing (this happens in the first set piece of the book). Later this bit of coincidence just happens to work out. This kind of coincidence/etc is fun in Dirk Gently, but annoying here. It carries the plot from moment to moment and even, at one rather memorable point, relies entirely on cliche. This level of coincidence allows her avoid difficult situations, save for when it is time for a show-down to happen plot-wise, in which case it pulls her into the moment so that the action can happen. Then, in the couple cases where we could have really seen her pacifism tested, she is either saved by her nephew or by something bigger going wrong. (Or she uses her copy magic).
Marley is also saved by her knowledge of the supernatural. The scenes using that knowledge were the most fun to read. The book worked best when it relied on its character being proactive and interesting, rather than just getting everything handed to her or effortlessly (and costlessly) avoiding trouble.
It is easy to a pacifist when you're the one holding all the cards and situations via coincidence bend around you. In fact, other than a hurt arm and the ending, Marley's actions only hurt other people. Maybe that's worse and we do see her self-doubt (a necessary component of her magic though), though such self-doubts are quickly waved off by her nephew.
If I read a book described as pacifist urban fantasy that has this level of action in it, I want to see the protagonist actually being pacifist. I want to see them resisting temptation (not just getting disappointed at others for not sharing their beliefs), discussing their beliefs (rather than just ignoring questions as Marley mostly does, though I think she touches on it once), or being put into situations where fighting and weapons seem the best and easiest way out (Marley's magic/coincidence/etc made it so that no scene ever felt actually dangerous).
For example, at one point Marley says that someone will have to go. This being will not go. We never see how she handles it. I realize that would be a detour for the plot, but it could have been worked in and it would have been a great way to see her pacifism in action. How do you make someone leave who cannot be reasoned or even just talked with?
In another book I read recently (and I am going to mangle this title, I'm sure), A Long Journey to an Angry Planet, the ship's captain is a pacifist. After his ship is attacked, some of his crew wish to arm the ship, but he insists on just improving their shields. This is a decision he has to affirm multiple times. And his pacifism costs--he gets hurt physically and his ship has to make a detour to resupply. He also thinks about how it is a choice not to arm himself or retaliate and how easy it would be to do otherwise.
Any moral choice we make costs. Some, such as being defensive or having a zero-sum attitude, have more immediate benefits than costs. Others, such as being kind, patient, and open to others, easily garner ridicule and pain. These have benefits over time as they improve relationships and often lead to people liking themselves a great deal more, but they aren't easy. Anytime we choose against fear, against meanness, against cynicism, we look foolish to a lot of people. We lose out in the short run. We may not get rewarded in any noticeable way in the long run.
Being a pacifist is not easy. It looks foolish and weak. It runs counter to how much of the world works.
Marley is not a pacifist. She is a regretful old woman with enough reputation, wealth, connections, knowledge, magic, and manufactured luck that she never has to put herself in the situations she faced in her youth. And she chastises others for not having the privilege and perspective that she has.
This is a fun enough book to read, but I do not rec it.