The Middling Affliction
Book One: The Conradverse Chronicles (Book Two, Kakistocracy also available via NetGalley)
by Alex Shvartsman
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Pub Date May 31 2022 | Archive Date Nov 11 2023
Arc Manor | CAEZIK SF & Fantasy
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Description
GUARD BROOKLYN, FIGHT MONSTERS, TAUNT BAD GUYS.
What would you do if you lost everything that mattered to you, as well as all means to protect yourself and others, but still had to save the day? Conrad Brent is about to find out.
Conrad Brent protects the people of Brooklyn from monsters and magical threats. The snarky, wisecracking guardian also has a dangerous secret: he’s one in a million – literally.
Magical ability comes to about one in every 30,000 and can manifest at any age. Conrad is rarer than this, however. He’s a middling, one of the half-gifted and totally despised. Most of the gifted community feels that middlings should be instantly killed. The few who don’t flat out hate them still aren’t excited to be around middlings. Meaning Conrad can’t tell anyone, not even his best friends, what he really is.
Conrad hides in plain sight by being a part of the volunteer Watch, those magically gifted who protect their cities from dangerous, arcane threats. And, to pay the bills, Conrad moonlights as a private detective and monster hunter for the gifted community. Which helps him keep up his personal fiction – that he’s a magical version of Batman. Conrad does both jobs thanks to charms, artifacts, and his wits, along with copious amounts of coffee. But little does he know that events are about to change his life…forever.
When Conrad discovers the Traveling Fair auction house has another middling who’s just manifested her so-called powers on the auction block, he’s determined to save her, regardless of risk. But what he finds out while doing so is even worse – the winning bidder works for a company that’s just created the most dangerous chemical weapon to ever hit the magical community.
Before Conrad can convince anyone at the Watch of the danger, he’s exposed for what he really is. Now, stripped of rank, magical objects, friends and allies, Conrad has to try to save the world with only his wits. Thankfully though, no one’s taken away his coffee.
Advance Praise
Publishers Weekly. "With the fast-paced first Conradverse urban fantasy, Shvartsman (Eridani’s Crown) delivers a laugh-out-loud, snarky adventure, throwing out pop culture references and wry observations with dizzying frequency. As a member of the Watch, Conrad Brent helps keep Brooklyn safe from supernatural threats. But he has a dark secret: he’s a middling—a person capable of seeing magic, but not wielding it. The condition is considered anathema in the magical community, subject to persecution and even execution, and Conrad covers it up using an array of enchanted trinkets. After rescuing a fellow middling from captivity, Conrad stumbles into a sinister plot to rob gifted mages of their powers, turning them into middlings as well. And, when his secret is exposed by a rival, Conrad is expelled from the Watch and stripped of his trinkets, leaving him with just his wits to stop the plot and save the world as allies and foes alike turn on him. Shvartsman takes a kitchen sink approach to urban fantasy, packing enough plot into this volume to span a whole series. His supernatural New York City is vibrant and authentic, and Conrad fits right in with wisecracking fan favorite heroes like Harry Dresden and Simon Canderous. The result is a thoroughly satisfying romp. Agent: Joshua Bilmes, Jabberwocky Literary. (May)"
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Available Editions
EDITION | Paperback |
ISBN | 9781647100544 |
PRICE | $16.99 (USD) |
PAGES | 240 |
Available on NetGalley
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