If you like really long books…
Middlegame took a few chapters for me to get into. I listened to the audio-book and Amber Benson went a little over the top a few times for me. She tried a little too hard to give the bad guys really bad voices and she laid the Boston accent of one of the heroes on a little thick. Still, she did a pretty good job and I really enjoyed this fantasy book set in the real -such as it is- world.
We start off with an Alchemist creating some kind of super golem to do her bidding once she’s dead. Turns out all fantasy books are the truth and human history is just a cover story to keep the magical world under the control of a few old men. The man we see being created in the beginning is the bad guy and he is totally and thoroughly bad. I mean, he’s the killer in the opening scene of Colombo bad. I’m really surprised by this kind of character. I mean, even the Smoking Man turned out to be just a frustrated writer. Having a couple of characters who are pure and unadulterated evil is kind of refreshing. And there are two real bad guys here. They are pure evil.
Middlegame’s heroes are a bit more complex.
Our heroes are a couple of kids who are also sort of golems. They are made and they are the embodiment of Math and Reading. Or something like that. Numbers and Words. It’s all a bit confusing. There is a lot of stuff here that is confusing. This is not an easy read. There is a whole universe of backstory to stuff in here and sometimes the 528 page-17 and half hour long-book doesn’t seem to have enough room to tell it all. It’s a fairy tale on steroids, all the usual tropes stuffed in wherever they will fit.
The tale is a long and sad one, as the Mouse said to Alice. It takes place over thirty years, or an infinity of time, depending on how you look at it. There’s a lot of magic. A lot time looping. A lot of side journeys into chess and abandon places and the burdens of being all powerful. There’s also a lot of quotes form a lot of books. Over The Woodward Wall, another of the author’s books, has a ongoing role.
I like big books and I cannot lie
I liked Middlegame. It was a long book, and it left plenty of room for future stories in the same universe. Thankfully, it didn’t end on a cliffhanger. The end was good. But, yeah, 17 and half hours. Damn.
I’m often late to books, I used to find the new books as soon as they hit the library shelf, but I don’t go to the library anymore. So I have to wait until they stumble across my path and I pick them. There’s already a sequel out. Another doorstop at 496 pages. I may wait a bit before I get started on that one. I’m still pondering the amazing world of Middlegame.
