{"id":4737,"date":"2014-07-27T17:21:42","date_gmt":"2014-07-27T21:21:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=4737"},"modified":"2021-09-22T18:58:12","modified_gmt":"2021-09-22T22:58:12","slug":"magic-city-recent-spells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4737","title":{"rendered":"Magic City: Recent Spells"},"content":{"rendered":"

Magic City: Recent Spells<\/a><\/em> (2014) Paula Guran<\/p>\n

\"Magic-City-Recent-Spells\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Table of Contents<\/em>
\n\u201cStreet Wizard\u201d by Simon R. Green<\/a>
\n\u201cParanormal Romance\u201d by Christopher Barzak
\n\u201cGrand Central Park\u201d by Delia Sherman<\/a>
\n\u201cSpellcaster 2.0\u201d by Jonathan Maberry
\n<\/a>\u201cWallamelon\u201d by Nisi Shawl
\n\u201c-30-\u201d by Caitl\u00edn R. Kiernan
\n\u201cSeeing Eye\u201d by Patricia Briggs<\/a>
\n\u201cStone Man\u201d by Nancy Kress<\/a>
\n\u201cIn the Stacks\u201d by Scott Lynch<\/a>
\n\u201cA Voice Like a Hole\u201d by Catherynne M. Valente<\/a>
\n\u201cThe Arcane Art of Misdirection\u201d by Carrie Vaughn<\/a>
\n\u201cThief of Precious Things\u201d by A.C. Wise
\n\u201cThe Land of Heart\u2019s Desire\u201d by Holly Black<\/a>
\n\u201cSnake Charmer\u201d by Amanda Downum
\n\u201cThe Slaughtered Lamb\u201d by Elizabeth Bear<\/a>
\n\u201cThe Woman Who Walked with Dogs\u201d by Mary Rosenblum
\n\u201cWords\u201d by Angela Slatter
\n\u201cDog Boys\u201d by Charles de Lint<\/a>
\n\u201cAlchemy\u201d by Lucy Sussex
\n\u201cCurses\u201d by Jim Butcher<\/a>
\n\u201cDe la Tierra\u201d by Emma Bull<\/a>
\n\u201cStray Magic\u201d by Diana Peterfreund
\n\u201cKabu Kabu\u201d by Nnedi Okorafor
\n\u201cPearlywhite\u201d by Mark Laidlaw & John Shirley<\/p>\n

\u201cStreet Wizard\u201d by Simon R. Green<\/a> I’ve read this story before, but enjoyed it just as much the second time around. The narrator is a street wizard, and walks us through a single night on the streets, walking his beat.<\/p>\n

(L)ike everyone else she\u2019s got something to complain about; apparently she\u2019s not happy that people have stopped flushing baby alligators down their toilets. She misses them.
\n\u201cCompany?\u201d I ask.
\n\u201cCrunchy,\u201d she says.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are lots of other lovely little bits (especially the demon who guards the Chinese Christian Church).<\/p>\n

\u201cParanormal Romance\u201d by Christopher Barzak is the story of a witch of makes love spells, but whose magic doesn’t work for her. So her mother sets her up on a blind date. <\/p>\n

When Myspace and Facebook came around, and her mother began commenting on photos Sheila had posted from some of her date nights with statements like, \u201cHe\u2019s a hottie!\u201d and \u201cNow that\u2019s a keeper!\u201d Sheila had had to block her mother.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I really liked this story.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrand Central Park\u201d by Delia Sherman<\/a> starts like this:<\/p>\n

When I was little, I used to wonder why the sidewalk trees had iron fences around them. Even a city kid could see they were pretty weedy looking trees. I wondered what they\u2019d done to be caged up like that, and whether it might be dangerous to get too close to them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With a start like that, how can you resist?<\/p>\n

\u201cSpellcaster 2.0\u201d by Jonathan Maberry<\/a> is another re-read, and I think I enjoyed it just as much the second time around as I did the first. What happens if you input every known magical spell into a computer database?<\/p>\n

\u201cWallamelon\u201d by Nisi Shawl was a sad story, of growing up and magic and friendship lost.<\/p>\n

Sundays they went to the Detroit Institute of Arts. Not to church. \u201cGod aint in there. Only reason to go to church is so people don\u2019t talk bad about you,\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201c-30-\u201d by Caitl\u00edn R. Kiernan surprised me, as much of what she writes is horror. This is horror, but of a rather different type, about one way to get past writer’s block.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing Eye\u201d by Patricia Briggs<\/a> is another story I’d read before, and actually recently re-read, because it stuck in my mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cStone Man\u201d by Nancy Kress<\/a> is about an undiscovered magician, and the problems that come with his newly discovered skills. It’s also a sad tale about kids who are abandoned and unloved, for any of many reasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Stacks\u201d by Scott Lynch<\/a> is a tale about magical libraries and librarians. <\/p>\n

Inappropriate Levity Bronzeclaw, \u201cLev\u201d to everyone at the university. Lev\u2019s people, dour and dutiful, gave their adolescents names based on perceived character flaws, so the wayward youths would supposedly dwell upon their correction until granted more honorable adult names.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Delightful! (OOK!)<\/p>\n

\u201cA Voice Like a Hole\u201d by Catherynne M. Valente<\/a> was another story about lost and abandoned children. I found it very sad.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Arcane Art of Misdirection\u201d by Carrie Vaughn<\/a> was set in her existing world, with a character who has made brief appearances in Kitty’s world, but requires no knowledge of that world or the characters therein. (You’re quite into the story before you realize you’ve met one of the characters in the Kitty books, so you lose nothing if you haven’t them.)<\/p>\n

\u201cThief of Precious Things\u201d by A.C. Wise was an odd tale, about a fox girl, stealing for? getting revenge upon? the crow men.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Land of Heart\u2019s Desire\u201d by Holly Black<\/a> is a story of humans and faerie living together, perhaps uneasily. I felt like I was missing something in this story.<\/p>\n

\u201cSnake Charmer\u201d by Amanda Downum is the story of the death of a dragon. Of revenge for the death of a loved one. In this story I also felt like I was missing something–not a big something, but something.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Slaughtered Lamb\u201d by Elizabeth Bear<\/a> was a fun story, of a queen trying to make it in a magical world.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Woman Who Walked with Dogs\u201d by Mary Rosenblum wasn’t technically a depressing story, but it still made me depressed–a girl whose mother is working working working to try and give her child a better life, and doing everything she can to keep her from trouble. I did, however, love the idea of what happens in houses at night being very different from what you see during the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWords\u201d by Angela Slatter was an amusing and fun story, about which I can’t really tell you anything without giving everything away.<\/p>\n

\u201cDog Boys\u201d by Charles de Lint<\/a> was one I quite liked, but then I love Charles de Lint’s stories. A boy is trying to survive in a new school, in a new town. Depsite trying to keep his head down and himself out of trouble, he gets involved, and steps into trouble far worse than he could have guessed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlchemy\u201d by Lucy Sussex was a lovely and sad story, about alchemy and change.<\/p>\n

\u201cCurses\u201d by Jim Butcher<\/a> is a story I’d read before, and reminded me why I used to love his stories so much. Harry Dresden is called upon to do something about the curse on the Chicago Cubs. It’s a fun story.<\/p>\n

\u201cDe la Tierra\u201d by Emma Bull<\/a> is an odd story, about a magical assassin. Except he’s not an assassin by his own choice. <\/p>\n

I quite liked it.<\/p>\n

\u201cStray Magic\u201d by Diana Peterfreund is another story I’d read before. The main characters are a girl who volunteers in a no-kill shelter and an abandoned dog. <\/p>\n

\u201cKabu Kabu\u201d by Nnedi Okorafor is the story of a taxi ride to O’Hare airport. I’ve read stories by Nnedi Okorafor and now I’m wondering why I haven’t read more.<\/p>\n

\u201cPearlywhite\u201d by Mark Laidlaw & John Shirley is another story about street children. It’s dark, but didn’t feel as depressing as some of the other stories about unloved and abandoned children.<\/p>\n

All in all this is a marvelous collection, that I highly recommend.
\nRating: 8.5\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Published by Prime Books <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Magic City: Recent Spells (2014) Paula Guran Table of Contents \u201cStreet Wizard\u201d by Simon R. Green \u201cParanormal Romance\u201d by Christopher Barzak \u201cGrand Central Park\u201d by Delia Sherman \u201cSpellcaster 2.0\u201d by Jonathan Maberry \u201cWallamelon\u201d by Nisi Shawl \u201c-30-\u201d by Caitl\u00edn R. Kiernan \u201cSeeing Eye\u201d by Patricia Briggs \u201cStone Man\u201d by Nancy Kress \u201cIn the Stacks\u201d by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[191,18,30,2,8,291,43,16,34],"tags":[83,71,320,250,246,300,78,217],"class_list":["post-4737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-5-10","category-anthology","category-british","category-fantasy","category-mystery","category-paper","category-private-eye","category-supernatural","category-urban-fantasy","tag-carrie-vaughn","tag-charles-de-lint","tag-elizabeth-bear","tag-emma-bull","tag-jim-butcher","tag-scott-lynch","tag-simon-r-green","tag-witches"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-1ep","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2627,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2627","url_meta":{"origin":4737,"position":0},"title":"The Best Paranormal Crime Stories Ever Told","author":"Michelle","date":"November 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The Best Paranormal Crime Stories Ever Told (2010) edited by Martin H. Greenberg and John Helfers I wouldn't say the best necessarily, but it's not a bad selection of stories. And the fact that I got to read it for free probably helped. \"Appetite for Murder\" is Simon R. Green\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Best-Paranormal-Crime-Stories.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":592,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/592","url_meta":{"origin":4737,"position":1},"title":"The Man with the Golden Torc","author":"Michelle","date":"June 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The Man with the Golden Torc (2007) Simon R. Green Eddie Drood is a field agent for a family that knows more secrets than anyone else, and has magical and mechanical powers that would make mages and mad scientists drool in envy. Unfortunately for Eddie (known on the streets as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Man with the Golden Torc","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/06\/man_golden_torc.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":162,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/162","url_meta":{"origin":4737,"position":2},"title":"Something from the Nightside","author":"Michelle","date":"December 5, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Something from the Nightside (2003) Simon R. Green After The Great Book of Amber, I decided that the requirement for my next book to read, was going to be small and slight. As a 203 page paperback, this fit the bill perfectly. Something from the Nightside is fantasy written as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/12\/Something-from-the-Nightside.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":220,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/220","url_meta":{"origin":4737,"position":3},"title":"Swords of Haven","author":"Michelle","date":"April 6, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Swords of Haven (1999) Simon R. Green Omnibus edition of: Hawk & Fisher, Winner Takes All, The God Killer Swords of Haven, the omnibus edition containing the three Hawk and Fisher books, Hawk & Fisher, Winner Takes All, The God Killer, is a very odd book. The stories are set\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/04\/Swords-of-Haven.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":560,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/560","url_meta":{"origin":4737,"position":4},"title":"Agents of Light and Darkness","author":"Michelle","date":"April 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Agents of Light and Darkness (2003) Simon R Green Just reread Agents of Light and Darkness. Just as good as I remembered.","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":563,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/563","url_meta":{"origin":4737,"position":5},"title":"Paths Not Taken","author":"Michelle","date":"May 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Paths Not Taken (2005) Simon R. Green This is the one that ends badly. Off to read Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth.","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4737\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}