Seanan McGuire

New York Times bestselling and Alex, Nebula, and Hugo-Award-winning author Seanan McGuire introduces readers to a world of amoral alchemy, shadowy organizations, and impossible cities in the standalone fantasy, Middlegame. Meet Roger. Skilled with words, languages come easily to him. He instinctively understands how the world works through the power of story. Meet Dodger, his twin. Numbers are her world, her obsession, her everything. All she understands, she does so through the power of math. Roger and Dodger aren’t exactly human, though they don’t realise it. They aren’t exactly gods, either. Not entirely. Not yet. Meet Reed, skilled in the alchemical arts like his progenitor before him. Reed created Dodger and her brother. He’s not their father. Not quite. But he has a plan: to raise the twins to the highest power, to ascend with them and claim their authority as his own. Godhood is attainable. Pray it isn’t attained. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Middlegame

Katheryn

Numbers are simple, obedient things, as long as you understand the rules they live by. Words are trickier. They twist and bite and require too much attention. 

New York Times bestselling and Alex, Nebula, and Hugo-Award-winning author Seanan McGuire introduces readers to a world of amoral alchemy, shadowy organizations, and impossible cities in the standalone fantasy, Middlegame. Meet Roger. Skilled with words, languages come easily to him. He instinctively understands how the world works through the power of story. Meet Dodger, his twin. Numbers are her world, her obsession, her everything. All she understands, she does so through the power of math. Roger and Dodger aren’t exactly human, though they don’t realise it. They aren’t exactly gods, either. Not entirely. Not yet. Meet Reed, skilled in the alchemical arts like his progenitor before him. Reed created Dodger and her brother. He’s not their father. Not quite. But he has a plan: to raise the twins to the highest power, to ascend with them and claim their authority as his own. Godhood is attainable. Pray it isn’t attained.

Beck Krystal

 Smart kids get put on a pedestal by parents and teachers alike, and the rest of the class gathers around the base of it throwing rocks, trying to knock them down. People who say "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" don't understand how words can be stones, hard and sharp-edged and dangerous and capable of doing so much more harm than anything physical.

No, silly, this is math. Math is never a trick. Math never plays tricks. Sometimes it makes problems, but they always have solutions. 

Sarah Sammis

McGuire draws a wide range of fantasy and an understanding or familiarity of them will aide in the understanding and enjoyment of Middlegame. Some of these titles include: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818), The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (1899),The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham (1957), The Magicians by Lev Grossman (2009), and All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders (2016).

For its aspects of time travel or temporal loops, if you will, it's a good companion read to All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai (2017), Three Years with the Rat by Jay Hosking (2017), The Ghost Road by Charis Cotter (2018), Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen (2019), and This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (2019).

CCCCFF - siblings uhoria cornfield

Maria

4.5/5 
I loved this so much more than I thought I would. When I first read the synopsis I was thrilled, there were just so many things about this that I love, and it didn’t let me down! The writing was magical and so so vivid at times. The characters were brilliantly crafted, I loved and hated and feared all of them at some point. I also loved that every character’s story fit so well into the overarching story; I wasn’t bored with any of them, every POV we got was wonderful to read. And I loved our protagonists Roger and Dodger. I loved how imperfect they were. I loved them and was frustrated with their decisions, but so so so satisfied with how their stories unraveled. It was Dodger especially that I loved so much. She was brillianta and imperfect and emotional and struggled so much, I loved her dearly. Asphodel Baker, although she made very few appearances, really shined as a character and I would love a novella just about her. Erin too took me by surprise; she was a character I was very skeptical about in the beginning but whom I ended up loving so much until the end. 
My reason for not giving this a full 5 stars is that the alchemical system that drives the entire story is never properly explained, or at least not in a way that makes much sense to me, which is why I was extremely lost at times. This is also a book which focuses on the details, so I think a more thorough explanation of the magic system would have greatly improved it. It also dragged on a bit (some parts could have been easily shortened imo), which could have bothered me a lot more, but I loved Roger and Dodger so much I was willing to overlook this. 
Overall, a delightful read with such a satisfying ending.

chloe rae

This was a super interesting read! From the first chapter, I was pretty dang hooked. I loved a lot of things about the story, but I do feel like there was too much middle (accidental pun?) and it took too long to get to the end. I didn't understand most of what was happening for a lot of the book, but I was still totally interested. I didn't mind being a bit confused until things started getting slowly revealed. I've never read about alchemy (unless The Discovery of Witches counts) and I loved learning about it. I loved the magical element of this book and how it blended so well with reality. I always felt firmly planted in this world of theirs, that I kept forgetting this book is supposed to be fantasy. It blended genres so well. I've also never read a book by Seanan and I enjoyed her style; I'm eager to pick up her others works! I loved the brother/sister bond, I found the plot gripping. The end didn't blow me away quite as much as I'd hoped, but I hope she continues their story because I'd read it in a heartbeat!

Mel 

3/3.5 stars 

I wish the villains were more complex and had stronger motives. They felt a bit flat to me. A very fascinating plot but not the greatest execution.

"Timeline: five minutes too late, thirty seconds from the end of the world. There is so much blood."
--------------------
First of all, WHY did I assume this was a YA fantasy? I think it was around the 3rd unnecessarily violent murder that I came to terms with the fact that I, in fact, did not know what this book was about. It did not occur to me, until some limbs were removed to be made into candles, that I had not read the blurb before starting.

The book itself is actually a dark mystery that is equal parts confusing and captivating, shape-shifting from fairy tale to sci-fi to horror to fantasy in head-spinning velocity. The concept itself of the story is really clever and imaginative, with complex timelines spooling forwards, then winding backwards, and rewriting itself. In fact, I think the concept might be so imaginative that it is almost too hard to explain (and to grasp). For me, the balance between improbable and wildly impossible eventually spiraled into sheer confusion and impenetrable gibberish towards the end.

In the end, it was a book with a very interesting concept with not good enough execution for me.

Krystyna 

It's no secret that I love The Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire; it's one of my all-time favorites! I was so excited to read this as soon as I could get my hands on a copy. I love this cover! The synopsis was interesting to me. I thought the first line of the book was intriguing and definitely caught my interest, "There is so much blood."
To me, this book sounded super intriguing and I already knew that I loved her writing. Overall, I really enjoyed this story but I did have some issues with it. I feel like the villains in this story weren't really as predominant as they could have been. It kind of felt like a Scooby-Doo episode, where the characters are figuring it out as they go but the villains don't really interact with them face-to-face, and then there's the reveal at the end. 
The writing was great but I do feel like the story could have been condensed down some. I also wanted more from the ending. This book was an enjoyable read for me and I'm looking forward to reading even more by this author.

Apiecalypse Jen

Midori Kobayashi

3.5/5 stars 

I know this book book is either a hit or miss for everyone. Trust me I loved this book, loved it so fucking much, it was a beautiful concept, the world the premise: loved it. Also was my first Seanan McGuire book. No I have not read the Wayward children series but i sure do plan to after this. 

This book is an odd mix of sci-fi, action and fantasy and it was interesting to see how the author manages to maintain a balance between the two. There are times when I wanted to skip ahead certain info-dumpy paragraphs to get to the action part of it and see where the story progresses. But like this quote from the book very well puts it: 

 You can't skip to the end of the story just because you're tired of being in the middle. You'd never survive.


The writing style is very intriguing, keeps you on the edge and you only figure the timeline shifs and a big revelation only when you're like 60-70% percent into it which might be the reason so many people ended up not liking it? and i do agree if frequent timeline shifts are not your forte, you might not like(or even fully understand) this one. 

But for those of you who like me love that sort of a thing, this is a great read. And the best part is along with the so many fantastical things going around, this book also depicts the lives of two ordinary teenagers (young adults in the later part of the book) who are unique in their own ways and are desperately trying to fit in this world and be "normal". 

I definitely plan on rereading this book some time later (it is too good to pass up this c'mon) and i'm very sure my rating will bump up a star when i am able to see past the initial hype of the book and the urge to get to end, to find out the big ending spoiler.


  Words don't mean anything without someone to understand them.


JUST READ THIS BOOK, OKAY? GIVE IT A CHANCE, YOU WILL THANK ME LATER!

Belle

I was surprised how much I enjoyed this book. The part with the kids at the start was better than I expected, but the last third or so was less enjoyable. I liked some of the ideas set up early in the book but I didn't find the explanations satisfying. It all felt a bit hand-wavy, and I struggled to suspend my disbelief and buy into what was happening by the end.

Janice Hopper

I don't know exactly what it is, but I am the wrong person to read this author's books. Pretty much everything I've read by her has annoyed me. This is apparently a "me" thing, because she's pretty popular. It's ok - not everybody has to like everything.

Her writing style just does. not. work. FOR ME. The fact that the two main characters are named Roger and Dodger makes me ANGRY. I KNOW that's a useless attitude on my part, yet here we are. Every time I saw the name "Dodger," I fumed a little. Jeezopete.

I don't like her takes on fairy tale or fairy-tale-adjacent-kinds of stories. That's again just my personal preference. People, I'm afraid I have OPINIONS about this stuff, and Ms. McGuire's writing just doesn't work for ME.

Plus there's the pandemic and the dumpster fire of American society and politics right now and honest to doG I did NOT need to be reading a book where two people who WERE APPARENTLY STILL CHILDREN AT THE DRAMATIC ENDING EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE ALMOST 30, were in so much peril. I stressed. A LOT. 

Ok, there were some interesting twists and turns here and there. But honestly? I'm really pretty over ordinary (so-called) people turning into gods in a lot of stories these days.

Wrong book for me, wrong time to try to read it. It took me DAYS to read it because I had to keep putting it down. But I'm old and cranky and hate everything. 

But lots of folks love it. Read and make your own decision.

This is the first book by Seanan McGuire that I've read and I am glad it was. It's an incredible story and so sad and so uplifting at the same time. I loved the characters. Each of them felt like living, breathing people. It was amazing. 

jess

This is only my first/second Seanan McGuire book -- the last one I read being Into the Drowning Deep -- and I am once again absolutely blown away by her writing. It took me a week to read the first few chapters, and then it took me three days to read the rest of Middlegame -- once I got into it, I was absolutely, utterly, hooked. 

I genuinely loved both Roger and Dodger equally. They're two sides of the same coin, as they were made to be, and they both seemed so realistically human. Both of them are endearing, nerdy, and wholly likable, and have had difficult childhoods in their own way. I really enjoyed seeing how they both changed as they grew up and how intricately connected to one another they both are. 

One thing that I found McGuire is excellent at is the suspense -- my god, the suspense. I vividly remember one scene in Into the Drowning Deep that had me so hooked I got jumpscared. Something similar happened here where I had to put the book down because my heart was racing. It's so cinematic, the way that McGuire writes; it's so vividly real that you forget that you're reading a book. I also think that the less said about the plot, the better. I honestly went into it knowing next to nothing and I felt jostled around by the twists in the best way possible. 

I absolutely loved Middlegame. It's genuinely unputdownable, and I found myself wishing for more but unable to stop reading because of how fast the plot carried me along, and I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a wonderful standalone urban fantasy. 

content warnings | (view spoiler)[self harm, suicide (hide spoiler)]

Savannah Winchell

DNF @ 50%
Lisssssen
I actually liked what I read but I also don’t care enough to finish lmfao

Sonja H

Ich konnte damit einfach nichts anfangen, es ist mir zu abgedreht.

absolutely fantastic! in middlegame seanan mcguire channels all of my favourite elements and themes from her writing and does so exquisitely and in a very engaging manner; the book felt both like a throwback to the newsflesh series (which are some of my favourite books) and a fresh novel standing on its own merit.

the pacing and structure, i think, would fit a tv show format very well. i know it seems like a bit of a random thought but i felt it was important to share, in case people are struggling with it.

i guess my only sort of complaint would be the narration of the audiobook. i both understand why certain choices were made and think that at places it was just distracting. i did really like roger not having an accent until and only during his phone call to dodger's dad, though - i thought it was a really nice touch.

Fraser Simons

I enjoyed the book and liked the concept quite a bit. Even the structure was engaging. It just failed to grip me and keep my interest apart from that because a lot of chapters focused on mundane aspects of Roger and Dodgers lives. 
It skips around so often that I just never got attached to the characters and got my pleasure from the overarching story, which was cool. Sadly didn’t blow my expectations away as it seems to have done for everyone else.

elif sinem

In theory this book shouldn't have worked, I don't think. So many things... so many plot lines, so many elements. You could see this book as a buildup to like... eighty fucking percent... and I wouldn't disagree with you, not necessarily? 

AND YET. This book is BRILLIANT. 

This is a book that is a metaphorical house of cards. Any misstep and it would slip, and yet, this one stands as rock solid as any other building. It absolutely works: every risk, every arc... even the prose that I really didn't like for so long. (That I still didn't like until the end, so it's a 4 and not a 4.5/5.) I wasn't on board with the characters until 60% (I know) and when I was, it made the second to third act that much sweeter. This book is absolutely not for everyone, there is no reasonable way to summarize this book except "this is for people that like sci-fi and stories within stories" (both of which are me!), but... if you are patient, this book knows how to reward you. It really does.

vins

Love the characters, and a fan of the author's writing style---will definitely wait for the omniscient found family sequel.

Sometimes it's okay to throw your strongly written characters into an expansive yet worryingly thin worldbuilding. As a Chainsaw Man fan,

Mark Wadley

I picked this up at the thrift store over the weekend, read the first 20 pages while I was still in the store, then kept reading it before I had even finished the other book I had going. “Page-turner” doesn’t quite do it justice: this is good shit.

I recognized McGuire’s name because she’s made a habit of cleaning up at the Locus/Nebula/et al awards the last few years, and while those awards don’t necessarily line up with my taste I know they don’t hand them out to just anybody. And look at that cover — obviously my vibe.

It’s a solid urban fantasy setup: alchemists try to gain power by embodying the universal building blocks of language and math in a pair of twins, separated at birth but impossible to keep apart. This leads to a lot of problems and some pretty neat time-twisting plotting. It avoids some of the pitfalls of other fantasy stories in this vein (i.e. The Magicians series) by finding the story in a lovingly rendered, realistically complex sibling relationship more than the external circumstances surrounding it.

If The Absolute Book (which I thought was fine but not great) is a beach book for middle-aged mythology nerds, this is one for 30-something recovering academics/occultism nerds, and I feel seen. So it’s probably not for everybody, but it’s definitely for me. What a blast.

Alexa Jade

zee ✨️

What a wild ride this book was; it's a whole new world that pulls you in and man, it is a scary world.

The plot, in some parts, was a bit too much - there is a lot going on, and it's going fast, dragging your attention to many different directions. But at the same time, it is thrilling, interesting; keeping you at the edge of your seat throughout each and every scene.

I loved these characters, even though I disliked some of their decisions; and the villains, they were absolutely phenomenal, creepy and dark in all the right ways. The whole combination of alchemy and a society that thrives because of it was one of my favorite parts, and it was brilliantly created and written. 

This book is a whole ass journey - big recommend from me.

Marisa S. Pan 


Even tho I felt like I hadn't had strong feelings for this book. I was constantly thinking about it when I stopped reading it and wanted to pick it up. 

Besides... I, also, for some reason cried at the end. Like, this is not even sad. And I feel like in a re read this could be a whole 5🌟

Tia Pickering 

Arden Kowalski

Oh my God.

This book was absolutely brilliant. I read all five hundred plus pages in just one day and immediately wanted the sequel after. I think I was somewhere around the hundred page mark when I thought "this is why I like reading so much." That sounds so pretentious, but I think I'm allowed to be a little pretentious. As a treat. 

What can I tell you about this book? Nothing about the plot, because I would definitely spoil something. I can tell you that it has lush and captivating prose, developed characters who seem to have minds of their own, and a plot that prioritizes logic over surprise. In the weirdest way, I think it was what Avengers: Endgame was trying to be. I don't usually enjoy fight scenes (I think they're protracted and I always prefer extended banter) but here I found myself legitimately engaged in even the most dramatic. Things this book reminded me of: Artemis Fowl, A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Mysterious Benedict Society. Obviously this is adult fiction, but it felt like a natural extension of the ideas in these books.

One thing I will say (to the author's credit) is that I got up a couple pages in to go and find some sticky notes. I proceeded to use those to flag my favourite quotes, and photographed the pages before returning the book to the library. The last book I was motivated to do this with was The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, another novel that ranks among the best I've read this year. What I'm trying to get across is that the description is exceptional. I've honestly never read anything like it.

While reading Middlegame, I was motivated to comment on it to my mother. I said (and I quote) "the primary appeal of adult fantasy is that it does not underestimate the intelligence of its audience." This is a trap I feel a lot of young adult fantasy falls into, and I felt as though Middlegame was the antithesis of that. It forces you to keep up and rewards you for doing so. How brilliant is a book like that? (It is prudent to mention that the formerly cited children's books rank among my favourites because they do not underestimate the intelligence of the reader, but consider said reader among the uncommonly smart characters.)

Basically, I think you should read this book because I loved it. And I have awesome taste.

Middlegame

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