Gentle reader, I have done it: I have read all the Ben Wolf books I already own before I go to Davenport, Iowa, for the cybersecurity convention where he has had a booth for the last couple of years (2024 and 2025). I have previously read:
The above books except for Unlucky are parts of series; this book, apparently, is a one-off as well.
In it, the remnants of humanity huddle together on Antarctica after a war between humans and the Magic Born, another race discovered in Antarctica that used magic. The rich people live in Cypress, which is earth-like; outcasts and lower classes live in The Thaw or The Slab, which are on the outskirts of civilization and are not heated as well. Mankind still has access to magic, and some people can use it a little bit. A Peacekeeper, one of the military law enforcement in the area, is from a good family framed for wrongdoing, and he barely escapes to the thaw alive–but a triple amputee. Another is an amnesiac young woman, perhaps an escapee from a science facility, who can process magic and transfer it to others. A third is the CEO of a medical company whose products will be eclipsed by a competitor who promises magic-based cures. The final one is a loner from outside of civilization who has especial impervious armor and is older than he should be. They band together to go to the lake under Antarctica to use a device the CEO and genius scientist says will end magic once and for all. But that’s not her plan at all.
I think this book is the best of the Ben Wolf books I’ve read, and I think the others helped to leaven the dough. It has an interesting premise, some good world building, and some characterization that differentiates the characters and gives them some depth–but this could be improved a bit with a little more interiority and less bickering (sometimes they go on with their tropes a couple of beats too long or too often). Wolf has his normal things (asking “Crystal?” for a response, not often given, of “Clear.” and “What the frost?”). Although it’s not self-consciously video-game-esque like Rickshaw Riot, I cannot help but think that the writing is still video-game-informed, as though the source material comes from video games and movies rather than other novels as fodder. But that’s my thesis that I’ve banged on while reading Wolf’s books and can retcon into my understanding of a lot of other self-published science fiction.
At any rate, as I mentioned, this is the last of the Wolf books I’ve already boughten, so that means I only have a history of the Quad Cities are and a book about growing up on a farm in Iowa to read before I’m caught up on at least the local interest and local author books, but a collection of Kipling verse and a Hemingway book short of having read all of the books I’ve bought in Davenport–although, to be honest, Kipling and Hemingway sound like some fun (re-)reads, so perhaps I’ll get to them before October.
But! I have learned from my beautiful wife that our trip to Davenport might not be a set thing for this October. She’s got a lot of other speaking engagements coming up, and there’s always a slight chance that we’ll have, you know, jobs come the autumn. But time will tell, and I will keep you posted, especially if I do buy books up there this October. But if I don’t, well, all might be forgotten.
At any rate, not bad. Almost rises to, say, Alan Dean Foster.
