Review – Middlegame by Seanan McGuire (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Length: 528 pages
Publisher: Tor.com
Release Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN-13: 978-1250195524
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Borrowed from Library
Rating: 4/5 stars

“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.”

Series Info/Source: This is a Stand Alone book that I borrowed from the library.

Story (4/5): You can tell this story was very intricately thought out and it is very thought-provoking. I really loved delving into alchemy and thought how the story bounced through time was interesting. In the end though, it felt a bit long to me and I didn’t really enjoy reading it a whole lot. I have never been a huge fan of books that involve a lot of “time travel” and jumping through time.

This book ends up being both a story about an alchemist trying to take over the world and a story about Roger and Dodger growing up with their strange abilities. There is a bit of a twist at the end which was absolutely mind-bending…I thought this was a bit over the top.

Characters (4/5): There are three main characters in this series: Roger, Dodger, and Erin. They are all interesting characters that I didn’t really like much or engage with. However, Roger and Dodger pretty much make the story. The are embodiments of a godly doctrine but they are human too. They are incredibly complex. At times it was really interesting to watch them trying to grow up with their special abilities in math and language, but at times it also got a bit long. Roger and Dodger also have a tendency to make the same mistakes over and over again which was frustrating.

Setting (4/5): For the sake of no spoilers we’ll say that this is set mainly in current day Earth. The setting was fine but wasn’t really a big driver in the story.

Writing Style (4/5): This book is written in parts. The parts aren’t necessarily in order as we go back and forth between one pivotal moment and the main story of Roger and Dodger growing up. It was cleverly done and you can tell a lot of work went into making this a clever and cohesive story. However, it was really long and parts felt really long. This took quite a bit of effort for me to get through and I am not sure if it was worth it.

Summary (4/5): Overall I have mixed feelings about this book. It was a masterfully written, very intricate, and very thought-provoking. However, it felt long and I didn’t really actually enjoy reading it a whole lot. You can tell a ton of thought and effort went into this and it’s also a bit mind-bending. I loved delving into alchemy like this but have never been a big fan of the whole time-bending concept. By the end, I found myself skimming some parts because it was just sooo long. Still it was cleverly put together and I have a lot of respect for the effort it took to think this all through and make a cohesive story….it is completely unique.