The Future Falls

Continuing the adventures of the powerful ladies of the Gale family, the third Enchantment Emporium contemporary fantasy (after 2011’s The Wild Ways) focuses on the Wild Power, Charlotte Marie Gale. Charlie hears the music of the world, and a series of magical coincidences puts her in the path of Gary Ehrlich, a bouzouki player who just happens to know the secret of the apocalypse. The immensely powerful women who propel this story could easily be overwhelming and even melodramatic in their casual exercise of immense magic, but the cosmic scale of their dilemma and each character’s unusual individual abilities make this a step into a new world only gently framed by our own, rather than a painful stretching of the familiar. With geeky in-jokes, dynamic leads, convincing romantic complications, and a threat that is both unusual and wonderfully convincing, this is an enchanting example of contemporary urban fantasy. (Nov.)