Twins born with abilities beyond normal skills and talents. A connection that spans a continent and across the reaches of time. Roger and Dodger have a gift of language and mathematics, respectively. They were adopted and placed in families on either side of the United States (Palo Alto and Cambridge), and at a certain age they found they were able to communicate with each other and see out of the other's eyes. When Roger was reading Shakespeare at age 5 and Dodger was computing high-level calculus at 6, there are few friends to be found, but they always have each other, a "call" away. You may not be able to call it sibling rivalry exactly, yet there are times when the brother and sister do not get along and communication is broken and they have to develop on their own.

Orchestrating this experiment is James Reed, a man who is descended from a distinct line of alchemy and wants to use the twins as a source of great power. He gives them reign to develop their abilities to maturity on their own and uses his henchwoman Leigh at various times to help them on the desired path. Reed and Leigh are a wicked pair and are more than ready to take out anyone who gets in their way to perfection. Several other pairs of twins are being created and tested to ensure the odds are always in the favor, but they keep going back to these two who may show the greatest potential.

Roger and Dodger's story starts at the origins of youth, the discovery of latent talents, and proceeds through childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. The first half of the book is that, a growing up, but the tale shifts and the second half really turns out to be an all-out battle. While the pacing does ebb and flow, it's McGuire's phenomenal writing that holds it all together. A spot-on metaphor or turn of phrase can be found on most every page. The characters are experiences that can be seen walking down the street next to you. They are real and in your face, and stuck in an experiment with their lives, and maybe more, on the line. 

Two Notes:  1. The epigraphs are well-placed and important. 2. Loved the Bay Area setting. I knew many of the places the characters visited.

Middlegame is a book that turns a madman's experiment into story of developing individuals and lifetime companions.

Seanan is great at fitting fantastical worlds into the corners of the real world, and she's in top form here. The beginning was a bit... not necessarily slow, exactly, but it requires a bit of time to get into the flow of things. Or at least it did for me. But once I got my proverbial sea legs, it was so hard to put it down to do other things, like eat or sleep.

Middlegame is a book I'm not sure about. After finishing it and having some time to think on the story I feel like the story had a lot of realistic characters that were gripping and kept me on the edge of my seat. The alchemy interested me greatly and the premise was well executed. My only issue was that it was a little slow but there were a lot of details that needed to be brought to life so it was understandable. I do believe that I'll end up re-reading this to fully understand everything.

How is one supposed to play a game when one doesn’t know the rules? Roger and Dodger, two children with strange abilities, have to find out in Seanan McGuire’s Middlegame before the game kills them. Because they don’t know the rules of the game—and neither do we—there is a long learning curve to this book. I’ll admit that I didn’t full understand what was going on until almost the halfway point of the novel. Readers who are patient, however, will be rewarded with an incredible, magical, and terrifying journey to the cutting edge of alchemy.

One day, when he is seven years old, Roger hears a voice in his head. The voice belongs to Dodger, who Roger doesn’t believe is real until she helps him with his math homework and lets him see the world through her eyes. The two share a deep connection. They balance each other. Roger knows words. Dodger knows numbers. Roger pumps the brakes when Dodger runs ahead. But then then their connection is broken when a strange, frightening woman shows up at Roger’s house with threats if he doesn’t stop talking to Dodger. Every time the two children reconnect as teenagers and young adults, it seems like someone is always standing in their way. They are pawns in a very long, very dangerous game.

As Middlegame unspools, we watch as Roger and Dodger experience what appears to be multiple lives. It’s impossible, but a lot of what happens in this book is impossible. Alchemy sneers at impossible. Books that reset like this can be difficult to read because it’s easy to lose track of the overall story or to figure out what’s going to be important later on in the novel. Sometimes it’s hard to tell, in these kinds of books, if we even are in a different timeline because the differences can be very subtle. A character zigs instead of zags and a butterfly gets to cause a storm somewhere. Reset books are just the kinds of books I relish for the challenge of reading them. That, and I am fascinated by the way that little decisions can have huge consequences.

While Dodger and Roger connect and disconnect, we visit the other players in the game and learn more than the two children know about what’s going on. Some readers might want to do some extra reading about alchemy before diving into this book because the villains in this book are after much more than the philosopher’s stone. They also speak in metaphors without explanation, in the best tradition of actual medieval alchemists. If it weren’t for the fact that this book is full of magical creations and events, Middlegame would’ve been a purely intellectual exercise in the form of a thriller. Even though the first half of the book is bewildering, the magic and the excellent character development are more than enough to keep readers going. At least, I hope so, because Middlegame is one of the most brilliant books I think I’ve ever read.

I’ve enjoyed Seanan McGuire’s books since I discovered Rosemary and Rue and the “Incryptid” series. Her sense of dramatic flow, finely-handled narrative pacing, and just plain nifty stuff made each successive adventure more enjoyable. I quickly learned that when I picked up one of her books, I was in for a good time. Sometimes I wondered how she was able to maintain the quality of her work, given how productive she was. Not only did she consistently deliver one good story after another, but her recent releases have leapt from “good” to memorable. Her novella, Every Heart a Doorway, was stunning, a journey of the heart as well as a series of dramatic events, richly deserving both the Nebula and Hugo Awards. I loved her “Sparrow Road” ghost stories, too. Now I can add Middlegame, an alchemy/Frankenstein/time-traveling/sibling-story to that list.

The outer frame of the story involves a precocious and wildly talented alchemist who devises a way to remake the world through the human incarnations of the Doctrine of Ethos.

“In the ancient world the Greeks believed music had a magical power to speak directly to human emotion. In what has come to be known as the doctrine of ethos, the Greeks believed that the right kind of music had the power to heal the sick and shape personal character in a positive way. The Greek philosopher Aristotle believed that when music was designed to imitate a certain emotion, a person listening to the music would have that emotion.” – From Music and the Doctrine of Ethos, classicaltyro.com.

McGuire uses a somewhat different sense of this doctrine, albeit still in the sense of possessing transformative powers. The alchemist, Asphodel Baker, and her disciples set about creating pairs of twins whose natural talents (language and mathematics, for example, or order and chaos) complement and complete one another. Adopted out and separated as infants, when mature they will be drawn together to fully manifest the Doctrine and grant the one who controls them power over the universe. Or so goes the plan.

The inner story involves one pair of twins, Roger and Dodger, and their early ability to communicate telepathically and experience the world through one another’s talents and senses. Dodger helps Roger with his math homework, and he guides her through learning to talk to people and develop relationships. But they have made contact too soon for Asphodel’s heir (and Frankenstein creation), the sinister autocrat James Reed, who then takes measures to divide them until he determines the time is right.

All of this is done up in prose that ranges from really good to luscious:
“For your safety,” says Dr. Barrow, in a voice like butter and cyanide.
….
Roger knows the words – shock, surprise, epiphany – but he doesn’t know how to put them in an order his sister (his sister, he has a sister, not just a weird quantum entanglement with a girl on the other side of the country, but a sister, someone whose blood knows his almost as well as his heart does) will be able to hear and understand. He supposes he’s stunned. The impulse to close his eyes and retreat into the space that exists between them is strong. He forces it aside. This is a real thing; this needs to be a real thing. He didn’t realize until this moment how badly he needs it to be a real thing, something spoken in the open air, something honest and concrete that he can put down between them, look at from all the angles, and know for the truth. Real things are too important to entrust to quantum entanglements.

I stayed up way too late on a number of nights, following Roger and Dodger on their quest for one another and for a life truly, humanly lived. I heartily recommend this book and expect it to be a contender for major awards in speculative fiction.

The usual disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book, but no one bribed me -- quite unnecessarily -- to praise it.

This is her best book yet. Roger and Dodger were fascinating characters and the eerie fairy tale tone of McGuire’s writing tells this story perfectly.

Middlegame was a fascinating read on many levels. The intricately woven plot took some concentration to navigate, but the characters were well presented and engaging, and I really came to care about them as the story progressed. I had expected to prefer Roger, since I'm a 'word person' myself. However, I actually found I related more to Dodger, due to some of her personality quirks. I enjoyed the fairy tale-like elements woven into the narrative, mingling with the science in a way that spoke of the alchemy driving the story. There was some stunning imagery too; although, I almost wish I could have read the fake children's books mentioned in their entirety first, to better follow the symbolism. The brief excerpts we were given from them sounded really intriguing. As a book that requires some attention and deep thought, this may not appeal to all readers. However, if you are looking for a story both captivating and thought provoking, you should definitely give Middlegame a try. Just keep an eye on the timeline notes under the chapter headings, so you know when and where you are. 4.5 stars

Two babies are born: brother and sister, born on the same day, from the same surrogate, identical but not. They are adopted out to two different families, as far apart as they can be geographically, and still be in the same country. They are unwittingly part of a plan that if it comes to fruition, will give one man unimaginable power. As young children, they find each other inside their own minds. Together they must find a future where they can survive against almost insurmountable odds. An edge-of-your-seat adventure/horror/fantasy/time travel/crazy math/language mashup unlike anything else you've ever read. McGuire constructs a world and a mythology that feels real, fitting bits of children's literature, pop culture, alchemy, mathematics, semantics, and science fiction classics in with her own inventions. It's an extraordinary piece of work, a thrill-ride of a book that will keep you thinking and reading far into the night. Highly recommended.

I got approximately a third of the way through this book before deciding to not finish. It was a bit confusing and I felt detached from the story. Unfortunately, this book was not for me. I enjoyed her Wayward Children series, but I don't think her other works are to my liking. Since I did not finish, but the book was not bad, I gave an average rating.

I have to admit that Middlegame is not the type of book I would usually read. However, I am a big fan of Seanan's Urban Fantasy the October Daye series, and after being intrigued by the blurb of this book, I wanted to give it a go. I try to be as adventurous as I can and try out new things. I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this book. In the beginning it was a bit confusing and I had to get used to all the unfamiliar terms, characters, world, and the set-up of the book. But after a while I really got into the story and it started making more sense to me. Middlegame is set in the modern world where alchemists want to have the highest powers in the world. And one in particular will do anything to have ultimate control and power.

I am going to be honest with you guys, I have no idea how to explain this book, so just be satisfied with the blurb. I think it's better to go in blind and discover everything by yourself anyways. I absolutely loved the bond between Roger and Dodger. It was obvious that these two were meant for greatness, but like you and I they have internal struggles and doubts that hold them back. I loved that they weren't perfect and had their own flaws and faults. This made me connect with them better. Middlegame was very unpredictable and I loved all the twists and turns. It had me on the edge of my seat at times, and I couldn't wait to see what would happen next. I was 100% invested in the story, and I was happy the book was 500+ pages. Seanan took her time to fully tell the story and made me fall in love with the world and characters she created.

Rodger and Dodger are twins separated at birth in a complex, mind-bending scheme that is a mashup of Frankenstein, Harry Potter, Fractured Fairy Tales, and alchemy with an unparalleled hubris by alchemists seeking to own all of creation. James Reed created the twins in a very complicated scheme to essentially control the universe and rule over it. Rodger masters languages and words to the extent they are a power within him though he is unaware of it for a long time. Dodger is all about math; she sees the world in numbers and their attendant correlations. At an early age they discover the ability to communicate mentally from a great distance. As Rodger and Dodger grow up, separations occur because of various events and James Reed, who is their puppet master, but each time they come together, their powers of have grown.

James Reed himself was creation of an alchemist who discovered how to reanimate corpses and through alchemical means, affect and alter time. While to most of us time seems linear, in this story, time is mutable and some events may have happened more than once. Reed’s obsession is to imbue in his creations the ability to control the physical laws of the world thus controlling everything and everyone. One thing his creator, Asphodel Baker, did not embody Reed with was a conscience and any type of scruples. He makes sociopaths seem warm and fuzzy. James Reed may be alive, but he clearly has no soul. Perhaps Reed is a cautionary tale of what happens when men try to play God.

Not surprisingly, both Rodger and Dodger are prodigy, genius children who excel in their particular skills; however, they are never truly whole when parted. Each adds something to the other allowing a synergy that if they are allowed to fully manifest, will fulfill every one of their maker’s dreams. The saving grace is that they are not just extensions of the megalomaniac who created them. Rodger and Dodger can actually love each other on a level their maker does not fathom to his detriment.

This wildly imaginative story begins at the end and ends at the beginning jumping back and forth between past and present. Ms. McGuire does a fairly deft job of guiding the reader through all the complexities, but parts of this book will set the one’s head spinning. It reminds me of the C.S. Lewis poem, Little Giddings:” We shall not cease from exploration/ And the end of all our exploring/ Will be to arrive where we started/ And know the place for the first time.” This very dark fantasy has elements of horror, fairy tale, and perhaps and implication of what Mary Shelley’s meant to say concerning what modern man might get up to in her book, Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus. This is a lengthy tale that demands a lot of engagement which some might find it tedious. Middlegame will leave the reader with a lot to puzzle over and think about especially for fans of Ms. McGuire.

Unfortunately, i have trouble with McGuires writing. I have read a few of her books prior and each time I have trouble getting into them. I want to like her writing, but i just get confused and then uninterested.

McGuire has done it again. MIDDLEGAME gave me chills. It's a different kind of book, a good book, a book that will tickle the reader's senses and have them turning to that next chapter. Do not let this gem pass you by.

Unfortunately this book just wasn't my cup of tea. I hadn’t read anything in this genre before, so I decided to give it a try. I was confused so much of the time and lost track of the storyline. I’m sure this is a fantastic read for some but fantasy is not for me. Advance reader copy was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. It’s

I just finished this and I'm still not quite entirely sure WHAT it is I just read, but boy did I enjoy it. What an enjoyable, strange cast and an even stranger plot that somehow also made sense while simultaneously transcending logic. So many interesting concepts and scenes that will stick with me for a while - there was a scene near the ending that, for its weird inventiveness, will always be vivid in my head.

I adored how fairy tale elements were woven into the plot without feeling cutesy or gimmicky, but instead felt real and almost gritty. At one point I actually stopped to google whether McGuire has a PHD in fairy tales or something of the sort, because this is an author who's dove headfirst into the realm of Grimm and Anderson and swam back up to the surface, treading water for so long that it's a natural habitat for them now, the water the same temperature as their skin, someone who understands fairy tales on some deeper, more intrinsic level..

So glad I requested this strange little book, and appreciative of being approved for an arc. And while this could easily be a standalone, I would love to revisit this cast and their weird world.

As always, Seanan McGuire gives us a book with gorgeous prose and interesting, unique characters.

CAN WE PLEASE DISCUSS how her character are aLwAyS unapologetically themselves. They are tolerant of other personalities, and support other characters just ///being themselves//// But at the same time, they're really focused on the things they love, their own passions, and outlook on the world. That's the main reason I'm a Seanan McGuire fan, because she really gets it????????We have the same values !!!!

This felt like a more epic story than her other ones (((The Every Heart a Doorway series))), mainly because it's much longer. But every page is worth it. .It was such an AMBITIOUS book. You can tell an extremely talented author did this.

I only took away stars because I was confused so much of the time. There are so many perspectives to take into account, that I felt overwhelmed at times. But the characters themselves were amazing of course.

Full review to come on my blog closer to publication date :)

McGuire's latest outing is difficult to classify, but told in such a manner that most readers won't get lost, despite the unusual subject matter. Artificially altered children, paired twins that embody and control the core concepts of the universe, with a smattering of The Wizard of Oz-esque fantasy as guidebook. My main quibbles are perhaps that Roger is, while likeable, fairly colorless by comparison to his sister Dodger; it feels as if the author has a less excellent grasp on him than his twin, and the same difficulty extends to Erin, Roger's girlfriend for secret reasons. These may be small quibbles overall.

It started off strong. I was invested in Roger and Dodger's story. They had such a unique relationship. I was desperate to know more about them and what they were capable of. Dodger was my favorite character. She was easy to relate to except for her love of math lol. I liked Roger an awful lot but sometimes I didn't understand him.

I did like it that this was a time travel story that wasn't bogged down with science. The logistics of how time traveling worked was never explained, and the story didn't suffer from that lack of information. Even though they could go back in time, it wasn't used to erase all of their mistakes, so it didn't have that feeling that nothing they did matter because it could all be easily fixed.

Halfway through the pace slowed down. Roger and Dodger kept discovering little things that weren't adding up, but none of it was amounting to anything of significance. Since they were supposed to be geniuses of math and language, I thought they would have figured out more on their own or at least been more inquisitive about their situation. I liked the end once the pace picked up, but didn't get to learn as much as I had hoped about the Impossible City. It would be cool if there were a sequel that delved more into alchemy and the Impossible City.

I.Could.Not.Put.This.Book.Down. I hadn't read anything by McGuire before I read Middlegame and now I feel desperate to go find everything else she's written. I was so deeply invested in the twin characters of Roger and Dodger and their mysterious connection to each other, and their ability to shape and reshape the world around them. This book is epic in scope, ambitious in plot and deeply layered with emotion. My one wish for the book was that I wanted more words from Roger--he was often in the shadow of Dodger and her mathy world. And that I hope this isn't the end...that there is more Middlegame in our future!!

Middlegame is an epic story about the pursuit of knowledge and what those with power are willing to do to achieve this. But even more than that, it's a story about siblings, rewritten time, and believing we have power. It took everything I adored about the Wayward Children, magnified it, further deepened it, and delivered it all to me. Beginning at the end, Middlegame quickly captivated me. If you see the end, you crave the beginning.