Middlegame - (Alchemical Journeys) by Seanan McGuire (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A HUGO AWARD FINALIST!

WINNER OF THE LOCUS AWARD FOR BEST FANTASY NOVEL, 2020!

A Pick on the 2020 RUSA Reading List!

New York Times bestselling and Alex, Nebula, and Hugo-Award-winning author Seanan McGuire introduces readers to a world of amoral alchemy, shadowy organizations, and impossible cities in the standalone fantasy, Middlegame.

Meet Roger. Skilled with words, languages come easily to him. He instinctively understands how the world works through the power of story.

Meet Dodger, his twin. Numbers are her world, her obsession, her everything. All she understands, she does so through the power of math.

Roger and Dodger aren't exactly human, though they don't realise it. They aren't exactly gods, either. Not entirely. Not yet.

Meet Reed, skilled in the alchemical arts like his progenitor before him. Reed created Dodger and her brother. He's not their father. Not quite. But he has a plan: to raise the twins to the highest power, to ascend with them and claim their authority as his own.

Godhood is attainable. Pray it isn't attained.

A USA Today Bestseller, and named as one of Paste Magazine's 30 Best Fantasy Novels of the Decade!

Review Quotes

"McGuire has an uncanny knack for taking the worst things that lurk in the shadows and weaving them into an absolute delight." --Becky Chambers

"Seanan McGuire once again demonstrates her intimate knowledge of the human heart." --Paul Cornell, author of London Falling and Witches of Lychford

"I read so many incredible books in 2019, but of them all, there's one I keep thinking about, long after I turned the last page: Middlegame... McGuire makes it look effortless." --Rory Power

"Roger and Dodger are the heart of this story. They're its pulse and purpose -- these two supernaturally gifted kids who come off like kids. And this is the greatest trick McGuire pulls here ... It's the kind of book where you want to reach into the page just to help them out, to warn them of what's coming. It blossoms." --NPR

"This is a fascinating novel by an author of consummate skill." --Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Satisfying on all levels of the reading experience: thrilling, emotionally resonant, and cerebral." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"McGuire sets a high bar for alchemy-based stories in this new standalone, twisting themes of time and space as seen through the eyes of children. . . . This singular work keeps readers thinking long after the final page." --Library Journal, starred review

"An excellent recommendation for those who enjoyed Lev Grossman's The Magicians and Lauren Oliver's Replica." --School Library Journal, starred review

"[A]n ambitious piece of world building from a master of the craft . . . thoroughly engaging." --Booklist

"Readers should come for the tightly constructed world and stay for the pleasure of watching the twins choose each other, come what may." --Shelf Awareness

"This is a tricky book to pull off, no doubt about it. But that trickery is pulled off with the kind of aplomb that has become one of McGuire's great skills. What a story to read (and re-read). If you've got a love for fantasy, you should read Middlegame." --Entertainment Weekly's Cultures

Additional Praise for Seanan McGuire

"Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire is one of the most extraordinary stories I've ever read." -- V. E. Schwab

"Seanan McGuire has long been one of the smartest writers around." --Charlaine Harris on Every Heart a Doorway

"McGuire has created her own mini-masterpiece of portal fantasy--a jewel of a book that deserves to be shelved with Lewis Carroll's and C. S. Lewis' classics, even as it carves its own precocious space between them." --NPR on Every Heart a Doorway

"McGuire's lyrical prose makes this novella a rich experience." --Library Journal, starred review on Every Heart a Doorway

"Astonishing ... a fascinating exploration of the future." --The New York Times on the Newsflesh series

About the Author

SEANAN McGUIRE is the author of the Hugo, Nebula, Alex and Locus Award-winning Wayward Children series, the October Daye series, the InCryptid series, and other works. She also writes darker fiction as Mira Grant. Seanan lives in Seattle with her cats, a vast collection of creepy dolls, horror movies, and sufficient books to qualify her as a fire hazard. She won the 2010 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and in 2013 became the first person to appear five times on the same Hugo ballot.