A review by carolynf
The Edge of Reason by Melinda M. Snodgrass

4.0

If you are a religious conservative, you will hate this book. I am a Progressive Christian and I loved it, and immediately requested the sequel from inter-library loan. The world in this book is the battlefield of a war between the forces of religion/magic and science/reason. Yes, that's right - the witches and the priests are ON THE SAME SIDE. The why of this is nuts and a bit of a spoiler so I won't go into it here, but it is definitely a novel concept. The protagonist is Richard, who is in his late 20s, gorgeous, bisexual, and a cop. Bisexual cop is definitely something that I have not run across before in the fantasy genre, and it is a welcome change. He is unwillingly drafted into this war on the side of science/reason, even though he is pretty religious himself and has to unlearn a lot of that. One of his allies is Cross, who the book cover describes as a homeless Jesus, but that is really not the case at all. Cross is a supernatural being who is a compilation of various ideas of Jesus, Allah, and Jehovah created by a variety of different religious sects. But he is not The Jesus. Glad I could clear that up for you. There is also Rhiana, who is a university student in her early 20s majoring in Physics who has magical powers. So even though the war is against religion and magic, there are some religious people and magic users on the side of science/reason. My point is that these characters are not stereotypes. They are all complex with interesting backstories and compelling motivations.