skygiants | (no subject)

C.M. Waggoner's Unnatural Magic was one of the most fun books I read last year, so I was extremely excited that The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry is one of the first non-Moby-Dick books I got to read this year.

The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry is a sequel of sorts to Unnatural Magic, in that one of the characters is a next-generation scion of two of Unnatural Magic's principals, but stands extremely strongly on its own and is also quite structurally distinct -- Unnatural Magic sort of functioned as two very differently enjoyable books woven together, and The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry is very much one book all throughout, with a strong focus on one protagonist's arc.

That protagonist is Dellaria Wells, a stressed-out petty crook whose powerful fire magic has so far been no help at all in boosting her and her drip-addicted mother out of poverty -- at least, until she manages to pick up a job working with an all-female team of bodyguards to protect an affianced heiress up through her wedding day. The high wages on this relatively easy gig are one benefit of the position; her various high-class colleagues are another, especially Winn Cynallum, a jovially well-bred part-troll lesbian jock who seems to have wandered right out of a Jeeves and Wooster story with a 'FREE MATRIMONIAL REAL ESTATE' sign on her back.

When Winn responds to some early on-the-job flirtation with promising indications of being willing to put a ring on it, Della figures she just may have finally hit the jackpot!

When the bodyguard gig ends abruptly with one of the team dead and the rest of the crew bound on a quest for vengeance that plunges them into a lot of ill-advised subterfuge in the magical drug trade, the road to jackpot suddenly starts to look a lot more perilous! not to mention potentially fraught with Feelings, of both the friendship and the romantical variety!

Unnatural Magic reminded me very much in parts of the best of the YA fantasies of the late nineties and early 2000s, such as Caroline Stevermer's College of Magics, with a more grown-up flavor to it. This one has a bit of that vibe, but also reminded me somewhat unexpectedly of Terry Pratchett -- somewhere between the Pratchett of early Soul Music, when Susan is hanging out for a sadly short period with her set of unusual friends at the school for young ladies, and the Pratchett of Unseen Academicals, when Glenda is struggling to get herself and Juliet out of the crab bucket. These are several flavors that go EXTREMELY well together, but I don't want to spend all my time talking about other books that this one reminds me of; Della is a fantastic character with an extremely strong and compelling voice of her own that carries this book all the way to the finish line. It will not be news to anyone that I'm extremely weak for a short-sighted bisexual con artist with a heart of tarnished silver!

Winn is also very fun and dreamy, and all the side characters are also great -- I'm a particular fan of the bitchy mean girl academic struggling to come to terms with the fact that a very good friend has made Very Bad Choices, but also one has sort of got to mention the unexpectedly helpful possessed undead mouse.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

snickfic

This sounds really fun and charming. Thanks for the review! I'm going to have to order this one from my library.

From:

skygiants

I hope you enjoy it if you read it! :D

From:

dimestore_romeo

I hugely loved this book and was yelling with delight the whole way through. I loved all the characters, Dell being a total disaster, but what made me love it even more was the way it was really uncompromising about discussing the root causes of inequality and not demonising characters like, say, Dell's mum. That totally elevated the book to the next level. I still can't forget the bit where Dell discusses how she was set up to fail at fancy schooling.

From:

skygiants

YEAH that was so good! I also loved the moment where it, like, clicks into place for the reader (and also for Dell a bit) how young Dell's mom is (quite possibly younger than me!) and you suddenly get a whole different lens on her and on Dell's childhood ... and also how much the narrative lets you see and sympathize entirely with Dell's perspective on her while also constantly pushing into question some of her assumptions about what's going on in her mom's head.

From:

genarti

YEAH to everything both of you are saying! It would have been a fun romp without all that, but all that sharp insight and compassion, and deft balancing to keep the story firmly inside Dell's head while showing us all the reasons to question Dell's conclusions and assumptions (and highlight the systemic inequality even more clearly than Dell saw it) made it so much stronger and more compelling, and anchored it much more deeply. I loved it a whole lot.

From:

kate_nepveu

I am shocked, shocked I say, to hear that you particularly like the bitchy mean girl academic. (Because she's great and I love her too.)

The ill-advised subterfuge had a strong actual-play vibe to me, in the "this is objectively a bad idea but it's definitely what our/the characters would do so we/they are going to commit."

Anyway, great book.

From:

skygiants

Yes it's very unpredictable. >.> No but okay I loved her SO much, I loved the constant thread of her being really, really shaken by the reveals and never getting a properly cathartic answer and just having to deal with the fact that sometimes people make choices you can't understand! In a way I felt like she got more of an arc than Winn -- Winn is obviously wonderful but she stays more or less the same kind of wonderful throughout rather than having to grow in any real way.

Also, you are absolutely on point, I just the other day this book to our DM of our Star Wars campaign as "the d&d party gets deeply embroiled in a bad-idea heist' but i mean that in a very positive way -- a bunch of fun characters with interesting backstories having to Work Together on a Bad Plan." And they do, indeed, commit!

From:

halojedha

Okay thank you, this has leapt straight to the top of my reading list!

From:

skygiants

I hope you enjoy it! :D

From:

goodbyebird

Oh, this sounds very promising indeed! *jots down*

From:

skygiants

I have become a big Waggoner fan!

From:

sovay

but also one has sort of got to mention the unexpectedly helpful possessed undead mouse.

Apparently that makes me want to read the book. I also appreciate the reminder that I still need to read Unnatural Magic! (Is Winn the next generation of the people I wanted to read that book for?)

Edited Date: 2021-03-01 12:32 am (UTC)

From:

skygiants

Well, if you haven't gotten your hands on it by the time it's legal to see people in person again, we do have lendable copies of both in our house. :D

(Winn is indeed the next generation of the people you wanted to read that book for! They did a great job!)

From:

sovay

(Winn is indeed the next generation of the people you wanted to read that book for! They did a great job!)

(They did! Delly has great taste! I also enjoyed how much Winn is distinctly her own person while being so very much her parents' child, i.e. the thing where she can run off at the mouth like the Drones Club and also successfully fight anything that isn't a burning building and is not in any direction actually dumb.)

From:

chestnut_pod

"… the best of the YA fantasies of the late nineties and early 2000s."

Well, consider me sold!

From:

skygiants

Back when it was allowed to have unusual pacing/structure so long as you justified it with rich worldbuilding, strong voices and really thoughtful character work! I miss the days ....

From:

lirazel

This sounds lovely!

a jovially well-bred part-troll lesbian jock who seems to have wandered right out of a Jeeves and Wooster story with a 'FREE MATRIMONIAL REAL ESTATE' sign on her back.

What a wonderful sentence, I'm grinning so wide! I always enjoy reading your views even about books I know nothing about because you are so good at writing them!

From:

skygiants

Winn is SUCH a great character! I'm really glad you enjoy the booklogs, I have fun writing them. :D

From:

larryhammer

unexpectedly helpful possessed undead mouse

If this was one word shorter it would be a most excellent title for an album, and two words shorter a most excellent name for a band. Unfortunately, removing any single word wrecks the almost-pure perfection of the phrase. (Almost-pure, because I initially misread it as moose, and an undead moose is I'm sure you'll agree a more perfect perfection.)

On hold through my library.

From:

skygiants

An undead moose is indeed a delightful concept, but on the other hand the mouse has the benefit of being travel-sized for one's convenience.

I hope you enjoy it!