The cover of Slayers of Old by Jim C. Hines, which features the bottom half of a person using a cane, and a black cat that has been crossed with a shoggoth.

I received this title as an ARC via NetGalley. Here’s a Preorder Link from the publisher.

I’ve been a fan of Jim’s work for over a decade. His humor is gentle and sly. His characters are always engaging, and his plots are fun. This novel is no exception.

The tag for this novel is “Buffy meets Golden Girls.” For those of you who didn’t have the pleasure of seeing TV from the previous century, that means that the main characters in the novel are older–Jenny, a slayer for Artemis, Temple, a wizard, and Annette, a succubus, are all approaching retirement age or well past it. Retired from active heroism, the three of them have been living together and running a bookshop in Salem, MA for decades. And then one of them is attacked, and weird, bad stuff starts happening to their loved ones.

What I loved about this novel is that these characters are wise. They have scars, both physical and emotional. They think before they act and they encourage everyone else they are working with to do so as well. They fight smarter, not harder. When they make a sacrifice, it hits harder, because it’s intentional, and in the full knowledge that what they’re doing matters to their kids, grandkids, and everyone who has come after them, since they won’t be here to see it. They know what they are giving up, because they have survived high stakes before, and they are choosing to take that on so their loved ones and community don’t have to.

They are choosing hope over cynicism, because they’re wise enough to know that cynicism is way less fun to live through.

This is a book that holds both sides of your face gently, looks you squarely in the eye, and says “we will get through this. Together.” And it means it.

Now, more than ever, that’s what we need.

Strongly recommended.