4.5 Stars - Having been a HUGE fan of McGuire's "Wayward Children" series, I was beyond excited for this latest standalone novel. McGuire certainly did not disappoint, I was definitely there for the full ride and absolutely loved both Roger and Dodger (and Erin and Leigh - <<shudders, what an awesome villain>>!). Novels about time travel and alchemy can easily get messy and convoluted, but McGuire handled it like a pro, making this aspect of the story all the more fascinating and engaging. The only, teeny, tiny, issue I had was the length, which typically isn't a problem. However, there were moments were the story lagged and I found myself skimming instead of really engaging in the story. That said, I would certainly still recommend this to McGuire fans or anyone looking for a truly epic sci-fi novel.

This review is a part of a larger post reviewing a number of books
Another great find on NetGalley was Middlegame by Seanan McGuire. A game is afoot and the game pieces are two young children - Roger and Dodger. Dodger is a mathematical genius while her twin brother is extremely gifted with words/vocabulary. They live on opposite sides of the country and communicate telepathically. The game master is Reed. He created the twins as a means of releasing magic into the world and to elevate him to godhood. This is a game of life or death and the twins have decided not to play by the rules.

I have to admit that for the first 5-6 chapters I had no clue what was going on. It took me a while to get into the story and before the references to a child's book started every new chapter. The story really didn't take off until Roger and Dodger were adults and met for the first time and this doesn't happen until mid-way through the book. It wasn't the easiest book to read but it was well written and the plotline quite innovative. It looks like a one off so not a big investment in time if you already enjoy other books by this author. I suggest giving it a go with an open mind.

*I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

DNF @ 8%

Seanan McGuire is hit or miss with me. I love the InCryptid series as well as Feed, and am on the fence with the October Daye series. So, going into this one, I wasn't sure what I was going to feel about it. By the time I got around to reading it, I had heard so many good things, so I was pumped!

The thing is, and the reason I won't rate this one, it just isn't my style. This is 100% a case of it's me not the book, because I know of people who would probably dig this. The hardest part is I can't firmly put a finger on what it is that wasn't working for me. Part of it was that I was confused about what was going on and I feared that there would be some time traveling going on. It was picking up when I finally put it down, but by then I was already skimming it.

I think I might try this one again at a later date, when I'm in the mood for this type of science-y fantasy. It really does have a lot going for it and feels very unique.

I can't believe this book exists! What an original novel -- I've seriously never come across anything like this before!

I haven't read a Seanan McGuire novel before but trust me when I say I will now. This is a sci fi novel about twins who aren't twins: Roger and Dodger. They're seperated from birth to see what happens, but they can contact each other. The novel follows them for a good portion of their lives: from childhood to early thirties.

The main characters are compelling and just wonderful. Roger is gifted with language -- but not in the way that you're thinking. Dodger is gifted at math. She loves numbers and nothing else matters to her, except for Roger.

The novel starts in their childhood and how they "meet" and then we follow along as they grow up. Please be warned there is a suicide attempt, but it is handled with grace and courtesy.

I was also really interested in the science side of the book, and what the bad guys were doing. It could be confusing sometimes, but I feel like it really added to the story.

I never wanted to put this book down so I highly recommend it!

Hoy os quiero hablar de la última novela de Seanan McGuire que he leído, dejando un poco de lado su serie de Wayward Children (que en España publica Runas) me apetecía probar algo suyo autoconclusivo, así que me lancé a Middlegame, una novela interesante y curiosa que se inicia con Roger Middleton y Dodger Cheswich, dos gemelos a los que separan al nacer y que se nos describe como dos niños no completamente humanos. Al parecer los gemelos tienen poderes telepáticos y de vez en cuando se van metiendo en la cabeza de su hermano y pueden comunicarse de este modo. El tema central de la novela es el suicidio, como ocurre a menudo con los libros de McGuire que ofrecen este tema de espina dorsal de la historia, la autora profundiza en motivos, consecuencias y traumas.

Ambos gemelos se conocen por primera vez cuando Dodger, la chica, se mete en la cabeza de Roger para ayudarle con un ejercicio de matemáticas. La verdad es que como elemento estructural de la novela me pareció una idea bastante original y fácil de asimilar. La autora se sirve de esta telepatía (aunque en realidad la llama "unión cuántica", por lo que es un error llamarlo telepatía, aunque usaremos ese término por comodidad) para situar a los personajes en un nivel mucho más profundo de entendimiento y elaborar situaciones y conversaciones bastante profundas sin caer en dramas forzados ni en conversaciones estilo-anime, como yo las llamo (personajes bañados en lágrimas chillando el discurso trágico de turno). También entra en juego el alquimista James Reed que al parecer es quien los "creó", a falta de una palabra mejor. Es muy curioso el uso de las diferencias temporales que McGuire usa en la novela (Dodger vive en California y Roger en Massachusetts) y me ha parecido un detalle curioso que aportaba credibilidad al libro.

Dejando la trama atrás, me gustaría centrarme en el aspecto que mencionaba antes, el suicidio. Veréis, tras haber leído varios libros de McGuire me parece que es uno de los elementos centrales que suele tratar la autora (otro es la sexualidad), y se nota que McGuire está sensibilizada con el tema ya que la novela no es para nada burda ni tosca en este sentido. Aunque la historia en sí, la trama, no me ha apasionado, sí me ha commovido la relación entre los hermanos gemelos, ciertas cosas que se dicen y reflexiones sobre su día a día. Es posible que McGuire no sea una autora destacable en cuanto a tramas (me pregunto si la velocidad a la que escribe y publica le permite otra cosa), pero se nota que tiene muchísima experiencia en perfilar personajes atormentados, cambiantes y con muchas facetas distintas. Al mismo tiempo esto hace que destaquen los personajes secundarios por planos. Los hermanos están tan bien construidos que el resto se queda en peones narrativos. En defintiva, un libro interesante pero que habría disfrutado mucho más de no ser tan extenso (casi 600 páginas en total). Aún así es una historia y una lectura interesante por sus reflexiones.

The practice of alchemy is one of those things that most people are familiar with even if they don’t necessarily know that they possess that familiarity. Certain basic notions – turning lead into gold, the Philosopher’s Stone – have transcended their protoscientific origins and made their way into the common vernacular.

But what if alchemy worked? Really and truly worked? And what if its adherents still walked among us, operating at the behest of secret cabals devoted to both preserving and elevating the practice? What if the alchemists sought to rule not just the universe, but the very laws that governed it?

That’s the world we get with Seanan McGuire’s “Middlegame.” But our entry into this world is not through alchemy writ large, but rather through its products and practitioners and (sometimes) both. It is a story of magic by way of science – or vice versa – but it is also the story of what it means to have gifts you don’t understand. It’s about living in a world where the possible is possible, but only to a scant few. It’s about being the sort of special that scares just about everyone who doesn’t share that kind of specialness.

It’s about the choices we make and the consequences, both near-term and far-reaching, of those choices.

Roger Middleton is a gifted youngster living in Massachusetts. He has an immense talent for language. He has an innate facility with words, a grasp of the power that comes with narrative communication. He’s a shy kid, but not unreasonably so.

Dodger Cheswich is a gifted youngster living in California. She is a mathematical prodigy, someone with an incredible talent for numbers. She has an unerring instinct for how figures fit together, using that instinct to understand and predict the world around her.

Roger and Dodger are twins, separated at birth and deliberately placed in homes a continent apart. Their gifts are not the product of anything natural, but rather are the culmination of a generations-long experiment by James Reed. Reed is perhaps the most accomplished alchemist in the world, having devoted his life to the idea of creating human (or human-like) manifestations of certain universal alchemical concepts.

He is also not a human being. James Reed is an alchemical construct, built to the exacting specifications of his master Asphodel Baker, considered one of the greatest alchemists to ever live. But her gender led to many of her ideas being dismissed; she did her best to disseminate them, largely through a children’s book.

But when a telepathic gateway opens in the minds of the two children, an ability to communicate with one another over the vast distance between them, Roger and Dodger discover just how special they are. And despite the efforts of the powers that be to hold off that connection, to continue that separation until the time is right, the bond between them is too powerful. Again and again, they are drawn together – and drawn into danger.

As they grow into adulthood, parting and reuniting and parting and reuniting, they become more and more aware of the uniqueness of their circumstances, until it becomes clear that if they are to ever be truly safe, they are going to have to fulfill their destiny, but on their terms.

“Middlegame” takes a non-traditional approach to time; the story isn’t told in a strictly linear fashion. The beginning is near the end, and we pay numerous visits to that ending over the course of the story. The chapter headings do a nice job of keeping the reader’s place on the timeline, although they aren’t really necessary – McGuire juggles the narrative back-and-forth expertly.

The story switches perspective as well, with chapters related from the points of view of Roger and Dodger, yes, but that of Reed; we even get to look through the eyes of other supporting figures on occasion. It might sound confusing – and if it was even a little less well-executed, it would be – but again, McGuire deftly shifts from POV to POV without missing a beat.

(There’s a fantastic through thread that involves excerpts of Baker’s children’s book – titled “Over the Woodward Wall” – and serves as a lovely companion to the narrative. It’s a lovely continuing detail that seasons the rest of the story just beautifully. One of the smartest choices in a book full of smart choices.)

The developing dynamic between Roger and Dodger is the heart of the book. All of the other stuff – the alchemical detail, the time-shifting, the clever stylistic efforts – is great, but none of it matters without the relationship between our heroes. It’s remarkable, really – even as the fantastical elements start to pile up, we never lose the feeling that these are two genuine kids. Preternaturally gifted kids, but kids nevertheless. And the evolution of their dynamic as they grow into teenagers and young adults is just as genuine. They are compelling, fully-realized characters about whom we are invited to care – their honest interplay is as magical as anything in the book.

It has been a while since I read a work of genre fiction that resonated with me quite like “Middlegame” did. The complexity of the world building is impressive, with a real depth of thoughtful detail. It’s stylistically challenging in the best way, making the actual reading experience all the more engaging. And yet, it’s the relationships that have stayed with me, the idea of true and unbreakable connection and what something like that actually means.

All in all, Seanan McGuire definitely brought her A-game to “Middlegame.”

I don't even think I can begin to attempt a synopsis.
Can I just say, what an achievement for Seanan McGuire?!

A tour de force of science fiction. Expertly crafted from start to finish in order to make you feel like the secrets of the universe are being exposed to you.

There are so many intriguing concepts in here and the narrative is so vast, following our two main characters, Roger and Dodger, from the time they are children up through adulthood.

I can't lie. It's a challenging read but so worth the effort. You shouldn't be multi-tasking whilst reading this. It needs deserves your full attention.

This gave me Dark Tower vibes a bit, a huge positive for me, in how prodigious and all-consuming the narrative was. I absolutely adore McGuire's writing. Each and every word seems to have been carefully selected and placed where it would be most effective.

I am really excited for more people to read this. I am so interested to see what others think. I know it will not be for everyone but I know a lot of people are going to be just as impressed as I was.

At this point, I will read anything, ANYTHING, that Seanan McGuire writes. She is a gift.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Tor, for providing me with an early copy to read and review. I certainly feel blessed to have received it. I appreciate the opportunity and know it will be a huge success!

I don't think it even crossed my mind that I might not like Middlegame. I absolutely loved McGuire's Wayward Children series, with the author's insightful wit and charm, but it seems what worked for in the form of short stories didn't translate into the novel form. My problem with Middlegame? It was charming, but so, so dull.

It was hard to stay interested in the plot when there wasn't much going on. Twins are too connected. The villains working the background are staying in the background. While there are so incredible lines and paragraphs that stick with me, it's not enough to make it a plot. It's beautifully written but cyclical and repetitive. The last chapters were incredible and made the read worth it, but it was sad how long it took me to get to that point.

Middlegame is a new fantasy / SF novel with some horror elements by Seanan McGuire. Released 7th May 2019 by Tor, it's a whopping 528 pages and available in hardcover, ebook, and audio formats. Paperback format presumably to be released at a later date.

I have read and enjoyed the author's Wayward Children series, so I was quite looking forward to this one as well. It's a standalone novel with a lot of interwoven plot-lines which orbit around the central theme of alchemical immortality. The science based magic system is creative and well designed. I was frustrated that the reader is basically just dropped in the middle of the plot and left to puzzle out and interpret the underlying mechanics themselves. There are quite a number of plot elements which are never fully explained and are left to the readers' interpretation.

There are some horrifying and potentially triggering elements. The experiments (matching pairs of psychically linked babies) are manipulated and planted like cuckoos into adoptive homes. They grow up unaware of what they are. The main plot elements revolve around one such pair Roger and Dodger.

The language is fairly rough, but generally speaking no more so than a lot of modern fiction. There are some discussions of suicide and self-harmwhich could be triggering for some readers.

The author is undeniably a gifted writer. The dialogue and plotting are well done. Whilst reading the book, I felt at the time that the book was a few hundred pages too long, but now after I've finished it, I can't see many places where it could have been trimmed down without significantly impacting the plot development and eventual denouement. It's a 'meaty' book.

Three and a half stars. It's a worthwhile read, but a significant investment in reading time.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

It is dark, the plot line is twisty as is the time line. Only the two main characters are two dimensional, but this feels intentional. I am being very vague because this is the type of story you have to figure out yourself as you go along, but for those who need to know it has a hopeful ending.

Middlegame is the first book that I’ve read by Seanan McGuire and I finally understand what I’ve been missing out on all this time. Seanan McGuire is an amazing storyteller and Middlegame was a great read. I am so glad that I gave Middlegame a chance, because I had pretty low expectations and this book wound up being pretty great. Middlegame is a fantasy that focuses on a brother-sister relationship and even though it was over 500 pages long I never got bored.

This has never been about good and evil. This is about power. Who has it, who doesn’t. Who knows how to use it.

The idea behind the novel was pretty interesting. Two siblings were created to embody the knowledge of the world, one through math and the other though language. The author also incorporates a children’s fantasy book into the world that is supposed to help guide the siblings to reach “The Impossible City”. The constant comparison of the real world to a children’s fantasy book was really interesting, but lead me to expect the beauty and rich fantasy of that story to be incorporated into the real world, but the book remained much more realistic and I was pretty disappointed in that aspect.

“Someone made us. Someone made us, and then they separated us because we were dangerous when we were together.”

The book is told in third person omniscient narration, which was especially interesting during conversations because as a reader you get insight on both characters. The narration mainly focused on a few main characters, one of which is Reed, who is a mad scientist and the villain of this story. I hated reading the chapters that focused on him as they felt impersonal and there was only so much egotistical mad scientist narrative that I could take. These chapters disrupted the flow of the novel for me as they felt so clinical in comparison to the rest of the book that was otherwise so human and rich. I understand that Reed was supposed to be lacking in some emotions, but as a villain he fell kind of flat for me.

In that moment, Roger is sure– absolutely certain– of two things: Dodger is real, and he wants her to be his friend.

The relationship between Rodger and Dodger is what made this book shine. I loved watching their friendship grow throughout their lives and I absolutely adored these characters. I favored Dodger over Rodger as she looked at the world as a thing to manipulate to her favor. Dodger was more social and friendly, but Rodger was more interesting to me. As far as the characterization of these two siblings the book gets five stars from me, but there were many other areas that I found to be disappointing.

She’d approached the issue of social interaction like it was another puzzle to be solved, another prize to be won.

The pacing was a bit too slow, even in high action scenes. This book was lacking in tension and fell a bit emotionally flat. The main characters were amazing and the idea behind the book was interesting, but I feel like the plot needed more work. I didn’t feel like the story was complete, even though it is a 500 page stand alone. I felt like it was 500 pages of character development and it needed more plot movement and better pacing. I did really enjoy it, but I felt like it missed the mark a little bit. After reading Middlegame I am really interested to check out some of Seanan McGuire’s other books.

Magic doesn’t have to be flashy and huge. Sometimes it’s the subtle things that are the most effective of all.

The nitty-gritty: Ambitious in scope and imagery, Middlegame is an epic tale of friendship, both uplifting and heartbreaking.

I’m a huge fan of Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant, although I’ve barely scratched the surface when it comes to her huge backlist. But I have been trying to keep up with new releases, and when I heard about Middlegame I knew it would be high on my list of anticipated 2019 reads. And I was not disappointed. Middlegame is a complex story that not only delves into the dark art of alchemy, but also gives readers a time-bending, ambitious tale about the lives of two special twins who are destined to be weapons for an evil genius.

Roger and Dodger are twins, but not the kind you’re familiar with. They were created in a lab by an alchemist named James Reed, whose life’s goal is to reach alchemical nirvana and find a place called the Impossible City, where he will literally become a god and rule the world.  Roger and Dodger are brought to term inside an unwilling host, and yanked from the womb after nine months, killing the mother in the process. During their creation, Reed imbued his twins with different qualities. As he grows up, Roger becomes adept at using words and languages, while Dodger is a mathematical genius and sees everything around her in terms of math equations. Sent away to different foster homes at birth, the twins grow up apart from each other, never knowing the other exists. Until they are seven, that is.

One day, Roger is struggling with math homework when he hears a voice in his head, offering to help him. It turns out it’s Dodger, who lives on the other side of the country but is somehow able to communicate with him. This discovery begins a long and sometimes torturous relationship, which evolves from childhood to their college years, as the two finally meet in person, separate and come together again multiple times. Always on the fringes of their relationship is James Reed and his diabolical assistant Leigh, both determined that their grand experiment will end in success. And so they observe Roger and Dodger as they grow and change, until the day when the experiment is threatened by outside forces.

There is a lot going on in this story, maybe too much (which I’ll get to later in this review). When I say Middlegame is ambitious, I’m not kidding. McGuire actually starts her story in 1896 and introduces a famous alchemist named Asphodel Baker who was attempting to embody the Greek idea of the Doctrine of Ethos. She became famous for writing children’s stories into which she hid her teachings (in much the same way C.S. Lewis did with his Chronicles of Narnia), and McGuire cleverly starts each chapter with snippets from Baker’s most famous book, Over the Woodward Wall, which eerily parallels the lives of Roger and Dodger. From there she describes how Baker “created” James Reed out of the bodies of corpses (like Frankenstein, and just one of many literary references in this book!) and Reed’s rise to power and his single minded goal of reaching Baker’s Impossible City. All of this history might not be necessary, but I thought it added an extra layer and made McGuire’s villains even more villainous than they might have been without it.

But the real story is the one between Roger and Dodger, and what a joy it was. One of McGuire’s strengths is getting to the heart of relationships, and what better relationship to tackle than that of twins, separated at birth but who nevertheless are able to find each other, over and over again? Because of their uncanny abilities with math and language, both kids are shunned by their peers, bullied and lonely, trying to fit in but unable to do so. When they “meet” the first time, they realize they’ve found something special in each other, a friendship that transcends the normal boundaries of space and time. Unfortunately, this friendship will be tested over and over, in heartbreaking and sometimes horrifying ways, which is also a trademark of McGuire’s writing.

One of my favorite characters turned out to be a girl named Erin, who was also born a constructed twin in Reed’s lab. Erin and her twin Darren, however, stayed in the lab and became assistants to Leigh, rather than being separated like Roger and Dodger. Erin has been raised by a cruel woman, and so she herself is cruel. But Erin’s character was the most surprising, as her role in the story goes way beyond Leigh’s assistant when she is sent to keep an eye on Dodger during her graduate school years at UC Berkeley.

I loved McGuire’s use of literary references, in particular the parallels with The Wizard of Oz. Clearly, Baker’s book Over the Woodward Wall is a reference to “Over the Rainbow." Roger and Dodger must follow the “improbable path” (yellow brick road) to the Impossible City (the Emerald City). There is one scene where the characters are walking through a vast field of corn that reminded me of the poppy fields of Oz. McGuire has a knack for stunning imagery and she uses it to great effect in this story.

Other random things I loved about Middlegame: McGuire shines a positive light (for once!) on foster care and adoption. Both Roger and Dodger love their adoptive parents and will do anything for them. I truly loved their wonderful childhoods, full of holiday traditions and supportive and sometimes strict parents. Roger is color blind and sees color for the first time through Dodger’s eyes! That was pretty cool. Dodger’s incredible math skills literally save their lives, on more than one occasion. I mean, I’ve always hated math, but wow, if I could see the world they way she does, a world made up of complex equations, I might like it a little! Bill the cat! He lives with Dodger, Erin and their roommate Smita and he’s almost indestructible. And the creepiest part of the story, the Hand of Glory (on the cover). If you don’t know what it is, you’ll have to read this book to find out, but it's disturbing as hell!

I did have a couple of issues with the story. First, it’s too long. I think fifty pages could have easily been shaved off and it would still be just as good, if not better. In conjunction with the length, I thought there was a lot of repetition at times. James Reed in particular loves to spout his beliefs and nonsense whenever he’s on the page, and he tends to repeat himself. I also found some of Roger and Dodger’s scenes to be repetitive, although perhaps that’s because, due to them having the ability to “reset” time, they did actually repeat parts of their lives! Also, the book takes some time to get going. There’s a lot of set-up involved, and truthfully, the story doesn’t really take off until about the halfway point. But I was fascinated by the ways that Roger and Dodger manage to keep finding each other over the years, and this slow pace didn’t really matter that much to me.

Overall, I thought this book was pretty special. Seanan McGuire has a way of making readers care for her characters, and this book is no exception. Roger’s and Dodger’s story may have ended on the page, but I’ll remember them for a long time.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.

I'm a huge fan of Seanan McGuire and once again she shows us a whole new side to her imagination with Middlegame. I will never get tired of reading her books because she is always coming up with something new and different so each of her series are totally unique. I've been trying to write my review of Middlegame for ages now and I'm really struggling to come up with the right words because there is so much I want to talk about but at the same time I don't want to give too much away and spoil it for you. This is one of those books where it's probably better to go in with very little knowledge of what's to come so that you can fully appreciate the journey.

That's probably not enough to sell the story so let me try to give you a bit more information. This is the story of two twins, Roger and Dodger, created in a lab by a mad alchemist and separated at birth they have no knowledge of each other's existence yet they still share a unique and incredible bond. Both of the twins are highly intelligent, Roger is an expert linguist, words come easily to him and he loves literature, he's also a great communicator who finds it easy to make friends and fit in. Dodger on the other hand is a maths genius, words don't always make sense to her and she struggles to connect with people but numbers are something she can always master. The twins are raised by different families on other sides of the country yet they always manage to reach out and find each other.

Meanwhile the alchemist that created them watches on as his experiments age and mature, watching for signs that he was successful. He has big plans for the twins and he will do whatever it takes, no matter how evil, to make sure they come to fruition. I really don't want to say much about what Reed's goals are or how be plans to achieve them though so you're going to have to read the book yourself to find out.

I was fascinated by all of these characters, both the good and the bad. They all have complex motives so even when you hate the actions they take their decisions still make sense. I think Dodger was probably my favourite of all of them though, she was more vulnerable than her brother but at the same time she was more determined and also braver. Roger makes some more questionable choices but when you get right down to it he is just as protective of his sister and wants to make amends for his mistakes.

I get that this review has been very vague but this story is full of twists and turns, it's so cleverly written and you have to pay attention to keep up with the changes in POV but it is so worth the effort. Although it works perfectly as a stand alone I'm so fascinated by this world that I really hope Seanan McGuire decides to write a sequel because I'd love to know more about the alchemists and their goals.

Middlegame is about alchemy and the quest for power, but it's mostly about family - how it's made, how it's navigated, and how it works. Roger and Dodger are twins who were created in a lab by an alchemist who wants them to grow up to manifest into a doctrine of ethos that will allow him to take over the world. It sounds crazy but it works - McGuire has expertly built a world that is like a more intense and more violent Wizard of Oz. I'm not going to describe the plot because I think it's more fun if you don't know what's coming but also it's super complicated. I did feel that the book could have been a bit shorter, but the timestamps at the beginning of each chapter really helped, and McGuire guides us through so well that it's not confusing, despite jumps in times and what ifs and what was-es. Roger and Dodger are both really well developed and interesting characters, as is their friend Erin. The two alchemist villains are not so well developed, and they have a big enough role that I would have liked to have seen more of their motives or background or something to make them a bit more interesting. But this book was a wild ride, and I think any fan of sci-fi/fantasy novels will like it.

"Everything is perfect. Everything is doomed."

There are not enough words to describe how much I loved receiving another Seanan McGuire story. I have numerous other works of hers, but this one took me in a completely new direction.

"Godhood is attainable. Pray that it isn’t attained."

Roger and Dodger are twins, but they grew up apart due to the efforts of an ambitious alchemist, Reed. Roger, with his gift of languages, and Dodger, with her gift of numbers, aren’t exactly human. Reed plans to raise them to the highest power and claim ultimate power through their abilities.

I absolutely loved this book, although it took a few chapters to understand the story. I am not well-versed in alchemical fields, so it took quite a few more chapters to understand the power behind the twins and their creators. However, the characters are well-written, and the gifts of sassiness and sarcasm are present in multiple characters. Roger and Dodger were my personal favorites and the developments of their lives were balanced and well thought out.

There are very few things with which I struggled in this book, although the length took some time to get through. All in all, another great work from Ms. McGuire!

I have been a fan of Mira Grant (Seanan McGuire) for a while but had not read one that was written under the name Seanan McGuire. While I love her dark parasites and killer mermaids, this was the perfect amount of familiar and new. "Middlegame" has elements of fairy tales and hints of popular culture and drew me in from the start. I was satisfied when I finished. It felt complete.

Seanan McGuire is quickly becoming one of those authors that I'll read no matter what they write - and lucky me, I have a lot to work to catch up on. Middlegame is long, but it's well worth your time. You won't want to put it down and it has just about everything you could ask for at that. McGuire is fantastic at developing her characters - Roger and Dodger are brilliant to follow and to get to know their relationship. Just a fair warning, there are time jumps and perspective shifts so you'll definitely want to pay attention. I don't want to go into a lot of detail on this because I think this is one you'll want to go into with as little info as possible so as it won't spoil the fun of discovery. If you enjoy complex fantasy with fantastic world-building and complex characters, I have a feeling you'll enjoy this unique novel.

“The Midwich cuckoos have nothing on us.”

** Trigger warning for suicide. **

“Reaching into her pocket, she produces a handful of coal dust streaked with glints of silver. The coal came from a mine where a disaster claimed the life of over a hundred men; the silver, melted down from the jewelry of a woman whose husband had choked the life from her body before bedding his mistress in her marital bed. It’s a subtle, complex thing, is alchemy.”

“History is an equation. It can be changed under the right circumstances. It should be terrifying, but it’s really just wonderful, because it means so many of their mistakes have been curated ones, deemed necessary by themselves in the future.”

“Everything is perfect. Everything is doomed.”

Roger Middleton and Dodger Cheswich are two extraordinary human beings…first and foremost, because they aren’t really human beings after all. Not entirely. The identical-on-the-inside, fraternal-on-the-outside twins were created in an underground lab, by a human who also isn’t quite human.

An alchemical construct like them, James Reed was the crowning achievement of his maker, Asphodel Baker, arguably the greatest alchemist of her time, and a wildly successful children’s author to boot. That is, until Reed murdered Baker in his pursuit of the Impossible City, “the alchemical apex which waited at the peak of all human knowledge and potential.” To Reed, Roger and Dodger are just one more brick in the improbable road.

The latest in a long line of experiments (all with cutesy rhyming names: Erin and Darren, Seth and Beth, etc.), Roger and Dodger were made to embody the Doctrine of Ethos. Roger was given the power of language; Dodger, mathematics. Separately, the two are geniuses; together, they have the power to rewrite the fabric of the universe. Which is why, as babies, Roger and Dodger are separated: placed in different adoptive homes on opposite sides of the country. Yet, try as Reed might to keep them apart, the two always find their way back to one another, linked as they are by a psychic connection.

Can Roger and Dodger forgive each other for repeated trespasses, manifest their powers, and defeat Reed’s forces before he discovers the secret of their subjugation – or abandons them in favor of a pair that’s easier to control?

This is their story. This is the story of the world.

MIDDLEGAME is … well, it’s wild. I love Seanan McGuire, and have come to expect the unexpected from her, but MIDDLEGAME is unlike anything I’ve ever read before – for better and worse. I lean towards science fiction over fantasy, and so this might be the first book I’ve read wherein alchemy is a driving force of the story. (I dug it! The Hand of Glory, whoah. There are truly gruesome bits in here.)

But the stuff about the Doctrine of Ethos proved a little more difficult to wrap my head around. One word that seems to pop up in nearly every review of MIDDLEGAME is “ambitious,” and for good reason. Often, and especially in the first quarter or third of the book, I found myself getting stuck up in the philosophical underpinnings of the story and, yuck, who wants that. (I took Philosophy 101 my first semester in college and suffice it to say, it was not as fun as I’d hoped.) Once I learned to just let go and let the action carry me along, I had a much more enjoyable time of it. I guess you can take as little or as much from the narrative as you want.

The chapters jump back and forth in time, which can be a little confusing if you’re not paying attention, but I loved it. Time travel is my jam, and it comes in many forms in MIDDLEGAME. Roger and Dodger have a really interesting, complex relationship that evolves and changes over decades, and I am so here for that. (Though I thank the gods that McGuire didn’t have them hook up, like another closely bonded sibling pair of hers who shall remain nameless.) And yay for guinea pigs gone rogue! Roger and Dodger are not the only embodiments who yearn for freedom, and the shifting loyalties and conflicting goals keep everyone on their toes.

MIDDLEGAME is a must for Seanan McGuire fans, and for those who like their sci-fi and fantasy with particularly wibbly wobbly time-y wimey stuff. The only rule here is that THERE ARE NO RULES!

I didn’t love the writing in the beginning, though it gets better. I did love how the time manipulation worked and the focus on sibling relationships, but by the end I was a bit frustrated with it all. Overall it was really cool and often sad and sometimes exciting, and just very different from anything else I’ve read recently, but I couldn’t give it five stars. I considered giving it more of a three and a half rating.

In terms of writing, the overly-metaphored style of the beginning didn’t work for me, even though that stuff is usually my jam. I guess it felt kinda stiff, maybe it didn’t work with how confused you are with being thrown into this new system. But the worst offender was how fluid the narration was in terms of focus. Was it the e-book arc formatting? Were there supposed to be breaks between the shifts? Or is this just how it was meant to be and I didn’t like it? Because I disapprove.

Rodger and Dodger’s relationship is incredibly good, and the way they’re always hurting and healing each other is done really well. There’s all kinda of awkwardness, and of needing each other, and being totally different and being the only ones who understand each other. And every time they’re forced apart it does really hurt, and it’s good for the book’s stakes. But another thing about the book’s stakes:

The thing about certain kinds of time manipulation is that it can make you skeptical of bad things that happen, because why can’t the characters get around those events? Wouldn’t you? The book engages with this a lot, and when it does, it’s really good. On the other hand, when I got to the end and everyone was like “Well! We haven’t figured out a way to manipulate around this one thing yet!” I felt kinda skeptical. Like, with all your super special powers, it felt like there was a fix! Maybe you’re just too powerful for me to accept that!

Your feelings may vary, because the liquid nature of time in this world leaves lots of wiggle room, and that’s kinda cool.

Author Seanan McGuire's Middlegame is a twisted story that follows several key characters including James Reed, Leigh Barrow, Dodger Cheswich, and Rodger Middleton. The story begins in 1886 where a children's author uses fiction to encode her principals on alchemy with an end goal of ultimate, godly power. Her creation, James Reed, has tried to breed children in pairs using the concepts of Chaos and Disorder - Language and Math - into each subject.

By splitting the Doctrine of Ethos into a pair of human bodies, one of whom is endowed with an extraordinary deftness for math, and the other an extraordinary dexterity for language, Reed has exceeded his creator Asphodel. His children are attuned to natural elements like Water, Fire, Earth, and Air. Dodger and Rodger have no idea how special they are until they are able to speak to each other cross country. Dodger and Rodger believe that they are able to communicate long distances because of quantum entanglement.

There is a part of me that was saddened that the book was way too long for what could have been decided in 300 pages or so. It was also puzzling that every time the twins got closer, one of them would do something dumb, and walk away thus pushing the timeline ahead several years into the future. There is a particular story line that I had to go back and re-read several times in order to understand. That is the Impossible City which Reed designs his entire plans on being able to be the first one to reach its destination.

Rodger and Dodger struggle with many different issues in this book. The twins are simultaneously drawn together and repelled from each other. They have issues that tear them apart, but they always seem to find a way back together again even if it takes up to 7 years at one point. The curious part of the story was using dozens of bodies in order to create one single one as to what happens to one of the main characters in this book. It is fair to say that none of the characters in this book were born, they were instead made by those like Reed, and Leigh Barrow who is just plain evil incarnate. Rodger and Dodger become a sort of rallying point since they are the only twins who have survived being separated by long distances.

Finally, it is fair to say that because of who the author is of this book, I had more patience than I would if I didn't know who the author was, or what she was capable of in terms of resolving opened storylines.