Middlegame

Middlegame by Seanan McGuire, 528 pages

More than a century ago, a gifted alchemist named Asphodel Baker became convinced that she had figured out the key to complete power and universal control — in effect, to becoming a god. Much like other women of her day, however, her efforts were largely ignored. So she created a tall, handsome alchemical man to carry on her work for her. Eighty years later, her creation, James Reed, is zeroing in on the idea of embodying universal opposing ideals in pairs of twins — Erin and Darren embody order and chaos, for example — though most have failed. But Roger and Dodger (embodiments of language and math, respectively) hold some promise, possibly because Reed adopted them out to families on opposite sides of the country. Middlegame follows this brother-sister pair as they find each other and learn about their true selves.

This is the first novel I've read by McGuire, whose Wayward Children series of novellas is one of my favorites of recent years. It's perhaps for that reason that I found this a bit uneven. I love the complicated relationship between the siblings, and I enjoyed the overall premise of the book. But it seems like a lot of the back-story was shoved into the last 100 or so pages, which left me feeling more than a bit confused until that point. So this one wasn't my favorite of McGuire's, but it definitely won't keep me from reading more of her books in the future.