cover image Madame Bluestocking’s Pennyhorrid

Madame Bluestocking’s Pennyhorrid

Monica Marier. Hunt (Baker & Taylor, dist.), $22.95 trade paper (172p) ISBN 978-0-9834861-3-8

Marier (Runs in Good Condition) shifts from urban fantasy to steampunk with this middling road-buddy novel. Kelly is a multiply phobic wizard. Wingaurd is one of the last elves. Summoned to an underwater city by an anonymous note, they arrive with a literal splash and are greeted as saviors by the town leaders, who received their own note warning of impending doom. Kelly and Wingaurd trade barbs and quips as they dodge a mysterious woman, evade the police, rage at a frustrating steam-and-gears voice-response machine, and try to save the city. The humor is forced, the protagonists are often indistinguishable, and the setting lurches from neo-Victorian to high-fantasy to present-day mundane with puzzling inconsistencies, but the action is fast and furious and the gears and whistles will satisfy less demanding steampunk fans. (Nov.)