Battling for Bremen — Lions In The Fog

A book of many different titles...

Untethered Magic: A Wizard in Bremen 1, (The Realm of False Gods, Part 1), Steve Higgs, 2020.

I got this as a freebie back in early 2022 with the intention of branching out from my routine reading diet, which is space opera-heavy. For context, around the same time I tried out some Sean Platt/Johnny B. Truant stuff, including Fat Vampire and Unicorn Western. And it certainly was a success as a broadening effort.

This was an odd read, at least for me. First, the genre is a bit out of my usual reading pattern but it was also a bit hard for me to pin down precisely which niche it fills. I suppose speculative wizard detective fiction is a thing? (Amazon has stats for the title’s sales ranking in “Superhero Fantasy” and “Superhero Science Fiction” although the latter of those seems out of sync with the book.)

Partly, this may be because Higgs is versatile. His website says he writes in multiple genres, and “Among his passions are cozy mystery, supernatural suspense, and urban fantasy.” That spans a lot of literary territory. (Er schreibt auch auf Deutsch -- zumindest in übersetzung...)

This is versatile, although I can’t say I see myself ever reading “Der Cumberland Wurst Schock”. (In *any* language.) Or the one about the German Shepherd-inflicted death of a Yorkshire pudding. The voodoo magician and ghost pirate look a little more promising.

Whichever genre this is, it was funny and engaging. I appreciated the German references and little touches sprinkled through the book. I also liked that the protagonist (a) is a German named Otto because of course he is, and (b) starts the story in a soap bubble of competence and invincibility that gets popped pretty quickly, leaving him to come to grips with that. What starts out as a missing persons investigation quickly gets much more complicated.

**Snarky but useful (and hot) werewolf sidekick. I’m willing to take bets based on the cover about how nuanced and emotionally complex he is, or maybe isn’t…**

By way of sidekicks, Otto acquires a Bremen police detective who spends much of the key parts of the story being a kidnapping victim herself and a werewolf with an attitude problem. These become key allies in Otto’s struggles with: the rest of the Bremen police, who do not find him particularly amusing; a secret organization masquerading as other police who really, really want Otto to join them; and assorted beings sporting various levels and combinations of evil, lethality and “dark triad” personality traits. Most of these are supernatural creatures, although interestingly not all.

The writing was surprisingly good, at least relative to my usual SFF reading fare. Higgs does a nice job providing enough detail to set the scene without slipping into narrative overkill. His word use is fine: there are few uses (3) of my least-favorite word, “smirk” -- and all of them describe the actual facial expression rather than being stand-ins for more complex, nuanced and thus indescribable emotions. The book did a good job of keeping my attention and immersion. Neither the plot nor the characters broke lots of new ground. The plot in particular had a deus ex machina vibe that was a little heavy-handed, but both sported enough nuance and twists and flashes of dry humor to stay interesting.

“There’s a number of skills that came with the ability to use ley line energy, but there was nothing magical about my ability to hit people with a withering stare.”

— Otto

Smirk factor: All clear: 2 pts (3 smirks, all describing actual smirking)

Immersion factor: Shallow water: 1 pt

Writing quality: Above-average: 1.5 pts

Character/plot development: Average: 1 pt

Innovative/interesting: Above-average: 1.5 pts

Total: 7/10 (3.5, rounded to 4 stars)

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