Rogue Community College

Rogue Community College (2024) David R. Slayton (Liberty House #1)

Isaac Frost was raised by The Undertaker and the other boys the assassin has been training, but he has never been sent out to kill. Until now.

Isaac had to find the school’s heart, its beating, living heart. He didn’t really understand it, but magic was like that, and it was always tied to life. The job, in theory, was simple: find the heart, destroy it, and get out before the Guardians caught him.

Except that to find the heart, he has to become part of the school, a student, a classmate, maybe even a friend.

To learn about the worlds he has only briefly visited.

“Since we’re reviewing the basics, what is the most important consideration in planar travel?”

“Resonance,” Daffodil said.

“Exactly, and what does that mean?”

“We’re not supposed to eat the food,” Isaac said.

“Yes, Frost, but do you understand why?”

“Not at all.”

And perhaps to learn the world is different from what The Old Man had taught them.

“You’re not going to make me?” Lin had told him to come here. She hadn’t sounded like he had a choice.

“Of course not. Therapy only works if you engage with the process. If I force a reunion, I could traumatize you. We’re here for the opposite of that.”

There is a fair amount of darkness in this story, as we learn Isaac’s past and the pasts of his classmates, but there is levity hidden here and there.

“Now, can anyone tell me what occurred in the Christmas War of 1984?”

“Is that the one where people were beating each other up over dolls?”

“Not exactly, though you have the correct time period.”

I like David Slayton’s stories and writing, and that they are queer without having to be romances or boinking books.

Characters: Isaac Frost, Vran, Hex, Ford, Shy, Jack, Daffodil, Doctor Cavanaugh, Professor Lin, Shepherd, Argent, Silver, Bella, The Undertaker, Kenji, Samuel

Cover design by Sarah Riedlinger

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing

Rating: 8.5/10

• Browse the archives:
  
• Uncommonly Tidy Poltergeists » »
• « « The Monster of Lightower Library