Bad Magic

by Stephan Zielinski

Magic is real. Strange forces and uncanny creatures abound. Cosmic evil is loose in the world--especially around San Diego--along with transcendent evil, primordial evil, simmering evil, objective evil, and specific evil.

In sheer self-defense, most of the human race long ago taught themselves to shut their magical Third Eye, blinding themselves to this supernatural world around them. As protection goes, it's not 100% effective, but it's still pretty If you can't see them, they can't see you.

Fortunately for the rest of us, a few people can deal with the weirdness. In San Francisco, a motley group of adventurers have banded together to fight evil. They're an uncanny mix of alchemists, thaumaturges, necromancers, and totemists, working their wildly different magics in a milieu where thaumaturgy is a laboratory science and raw pain can be kept in a flask of liquid nitrogen. They know they don't know what they're doing. And they have to save a world that doesn't know it's under attack from forces that they wish were beyond comprehension.

Poised, headspinning, and richly inventive, Bad Magic shows us what people really see when their third eye opens.

Genres: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Fiction, Humor

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Mir · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is that cover not hideous? But it is actually a good representation of the book, which is ugly and confusing, but also imaginative and interesting. It reminded me a bit of another very original fantasy I read recently, The Year of Our War, in that in both you are thrown in medias res and must figure out the world building, sides of the conflict, backgrounds and relationships of the characters, etc as you go along. Obviously there are many other novels that use this technique, and I often prefer it, but in both these books it was fairly difficult to get a handle on the situation. In The Year of Our War I felt like Swainston was pretty well in control of how and at what speed this information was revealed and that it became all clear to the reader (me) when she meant it to. I'm not sure if Zielinski just wanted to keep the reader reeling, but I never felt that I entirely understood the situation. The central plot conflict, yes, but lots of the peripherals never came together for me, and at the end I was still wondering why a number of things had happened at all.

Part of the difficulty was that it took me a long time to get the cast of characters straight, despite their colorful attributes. There are many of them and each referred to by at least two names and sometimes other sobriquets. Swainston does this, too (I had a hard time keeping straight which titles went with which proper names), and like Zielinski's her characters are generally not very likeable, but at least she had one main character for the reader to follow, and she did a good job developing that character and getting into his head. Zielinkski probably should have done the same -- with Rider as the main character, I guess -- instead of spreading his time roughly (very roughly) equally between so many that I ended up not caring about or understanding any of their motivations. I found Chloe particularly opaque: how did she become a Geoduck worshiper? Why would she agree to be the "cell whore" (which they hardly seemed to need)? And unless I missed something major the whole episode near the middle where they are all sent on different solo tasks never actually gets explained nor do the things they are sent to do have much bearing on the outcome of the battle with the Vulture Cult.

Also, in case you, dear reader, are sensitive to such things, the sex in this book is really gross. It is almost more bizarro than horror. There is sex with zombies, or some zombi-like things with toothy mouths in their stomachs, and maybe tentacles? And sex with jaguars. And sex with one's elderly, wrinkly professor (ew). There might be normal sex between Chloe and whatsiface the naval officer, but that's not described. Stephan Zielinski is not interested in boring old normal sex, I guess! No wonder his characters take aphrodisiacs. But the sex is not a large portion of the book, so don't let it put you off reading unless you are squeamish. If you are squeamish this book is not for you, for other reasons.

I think a lot of these are debut author flaws -- having trouble keeping straight everything that is going on and remembering what you've actually explained to the reader and what's just in your head. Despite my confusion I did enjoy the read much of the time. It is original and imaginative, especially in terms of the varieties of magic systems. The writing is solid and the dialogue often snappy. I'd definitely pick up another book by this author.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

An old book (2004! -- relatively early in the urban-fantasy craze). Still very enjoyable, although in retrospect it doesn't quite feel like it's pulling in any particular direction. Retrospect includes the fact that the author never wrote a sequel, or any other fiction at all, as far as I know.

We are given an *extremely* motley crew of San Francisco occultists. Motley to the point of dysfunctionality, right? Chloe is a shaman whose spirit animal is the geoduck clam. Maggie-Sue is a misanthropic veterinarian and elementalist. Kristof Arbeiter is a psychopharmacist junkie. Joe Washington is a dead midget voodoo sorcerer. And others, ending with Al Rider, who practices the subtlest art: synaesthetic magic. In his spare time he makes sculptures out of traffic noise and the light reflected from stirred coffee.

The group are undercover operatives in the secret war, the war that underlies our reality, the war between... well, between Seattle and San Diego. It's a philosophical thing, or maybe just a lifestyle thing elevated to the level of philosophy. The war is real, though, and the skirmishes are ugly.

I'm not really communicating the tone, here. The point is, this book is understatedly and consistently hilarious. Violent, flamboyant, full of horrific monsters and fates worse than death -- but funny as heck.

You get one bookful of these characters, plus a bonus monograph on *Zombi diego*, the San Diego Sunbathing Zombie. (I haven't been to San Diego so I don't know how accurate it is.) Enjoy while it lasts.

[Ryland · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this way more the second time around, probably because I actually understood what was going on this time. Despite the fact that the universe of this book has tons of magic and pre-established hierarchies about which the reader knows nothing, Zielinski doesn't take the time to explain anything, instead using the characters' dialogue to give you the barest grasp of what's happening—sometimes after the fact. It's enough, usually, if you read carefully. And it helps keep the book moving at a quick clip. The characters were really the only thing that mattered here, and they're certainly vivid enough to keep your interest (although I wish the book had been long enough to allow more fleshing-out). Oh, and it's also hilarious. Good stuff.

[Marniy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Someone else posted this review and I thought it was spot on.
http://www.greenmanreview.com/book/bo...

I liked it but was so confused by what the hell was going on and to whom. I feel like I read a series of vaguely related vignettes. Even with this confusion, there were some moments of genuine humor and intriguing ideas.
I hope the author writes more with this world, and just slows it down and adds some narration.

[Beth Goldberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

In order to fully appreciate this book, it may be necessary for you to be a tabletop RPG player. Because my impression of the book is that the author pretty much just took a 6-12 month long RPG campaign and novelized it.
There isn't really a main character, but instead a motley crew with a few overlapping skills, moreso with unique strengths all needed to defeat the big bad in the end.
Is it excellent urban fiction? Absolutely. Is it complex and hard to follow if you're reading casually? Perhaps. But I'm into that.
Did I buy multiple copies because I keep giving it to people? Yep.
And finally, am I sadly waiting for more from this author? Indeed.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this one is a trip. It's weird and funny and doesn't explain itself a lot of the time so you have pick things up from context. Plot's kind of haphazard, but that's all right because it's a good read. I am kind of surprised this is the only book this guy wrote, which makes me think it's a pseudonym for someone else.

[Nick Dorman · Rating 2 out of 5]

All 8 characters had the same personality. Yawn.

[Carl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the use of present tense, I liked the world-building and character viewpoints in this, and the offhand way it establishes hints of a bigger world with throwaway dialogue. Might be particularly interesting to fans of Delta Green.

[Wendy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a YA novel. Maybe I need to be a YA, as I just was not into the characters. I really liked the idea of "What do you see with your 3rd eye?...." But stopped reading midway. it was choppy, confusing at times. disappointed.

[Discfan2 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not at all what I was expecting. The book reads like a RPG gaming group where there is an underlying structure to magic, but the outward expression is different for everyone. Even the plot fits easily into a gaming mentality.

[Lane]

Reading Bad Magic is like reading an amazing fanfiction for a fandom you've never even heard of. You have no idea what is happening or why it's happening, but it's ridiculously entertaining.

Also, I'm almost positive it was based on a D&D campaign.

[Chriskolak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad first effort, but you can tell it's his first novel. I look forward to reading his future books.

[Bob Gone · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book needed a better editor, but who cares! It's hilarious and interesting and just begs to be a TV show.

[Nesie · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://www.greenmanreview.com/book/bo...