Seanan McGuire Weaves Magic with Theory in Clever Science Fiction, Coming-of-Age Standalone, ‘Middlegame’

Clever, cunning and character driven, Seanan McGuire writes with precision and care in Middlegame, a genre-bending science fiction standalone that blends magic with theory, logic with reason. Paring mystery with slice of life, Middlegame offers a fascinating examination of alchemy through the monstrous James Reed, a cold, cruel man intent on manifesting the greatest feat of alchemy in the name of his creator, Asphodel Deborah Baker.

Intent on achieving power in the form of domination, Reed is starving: a man determined to destroy everything in his path, including children created with the purpose of achieving salvation. Domination comes in the form of a manifestation of the Doctrine of Ethos, a long-held dream of Baker’s to achieve a world in which we want for nothing, but Reed has other plans: a power-hungry ploy to control everything around him, to mold the world in his image. The feat is made possible with the right conditions: two halves of a whole, twins with the ability to control language and mathematics, to bend the world to their will with the power of spoken word to bend reality, math to alter time itself. To know a thing is to control it, and McGuire does just that with brilliant attention to detail, carefully crafted sentences bringing an unforgettable story to life in the coming-of-age story of Roger Middleton and Dodger Cheswich.

The math would be true, and that’s all she’s ever asked from the world. He knows the words that apply to this situation – exsanguination, hypovolemia, hemorrhage – but they don’t reassure him the way numbers reassure her. They never have. Numbers are simple, obedient things, as long as you understand the rules they live by. Words are trickier. They twist and bite and require too much attention. He has to think to change the world. She just does it.

– excerpt from Seanan McGuire’s Middlegame

Separated by birth as a controlled experiment, Roger and Dodger are placed on opposite ends of the country in closed adoptions with the intention of promoting a normal life, a first in the long-standing chain of indoctrinated children created by Reed. The first we see them, the twins are seven-years old, and McGuire deftly describes children through and through, exploring the world through their eyes: curious, determined, and adventurous, but intrinsically different from their peers, their intelligence both astounding and uncomfortable to those around them.

Where Roger is accepted and praised for his reservation, organization, cleverness and fondness for books, Dodger is lonely, criticized for her eccentric and brash view of the world, order coming in the soothing equations of the universe. It’s easy to love words and pick up languages, strange to solve the mysteries of the modern mathematics when you’re nine years old, and so Roger is adored, Dodger ostracized. In the unsuspecting twins, McGuire offers a careful critique of the expectations placed upon children, and especially, women, in a patriarchal society, laying bare the harsh reality that is mental health: pressure building to anxiety and depression in children.

Book smart is okay for girls, as much as any sort of smart is okay for girls, but math-smart isn’t the same. Math-smart belongs to skinny boys with glasses and pocket protectors and heads full of science. That’s what the books say, that’s what the TV says, and that’s what her classmates say in a thousand tiny ways, every time she finishes her math work ahead of the rest of them.

– excerpt from Seanan McGuire’s Middlegame

When Roger hears a voice in his head, seven years old and so caught up in language that he can’t bear to be parted with books to do homework, the world shifts, Dodger a missing puzzle piece, her voice the promise of friendship – and perfectly answered math problems. McGuire pens their story with whimsy and caution, a tale of two halves meeting, bonding, connecting – before being inevitably forced apart by Reed and his alchemical henchmen, placed precisely to watch over the unknowing twins. Destiny has other plans, however, as the world tilts to bring Roger and Dodger together by slow degrees, the duo reuniting through fear as teens, wary of the world around them, and later, as grad students at Berkley. Fear gradually turns into trust, a fickle thing in a world unequipped to deal with the Doctrine itself, slowly but surely manifesting in inquisitive minds, intent on uncovering their similarities.

It is at this moment of inquisitive experimentation that reality itself shifts. McGuire paves the way for true manifestation in a high stakes game born of will and time travel. When Roger and Dodger uncover the secret of their birth and learn to command the simple, yet undeniably complex powers given to them, the world crumbles around them, giving birth to an unforgettable quest along the Improbable Road – a thing of whimsy turned reality, the work of A. Deborah Baker’s Up-and-Under, alchemical tenants told in childhood tales. When extinction beckons, McGuire’s puzzle box of a narrative coalesces, past and present colliding in an exhilarating quest to save the world – and Rodger and Dodger themselves.

That’s the trouble with playing Choose Your Own Adventure with reality: when they go back to the beginning of the book, none of them remember.

– excerpt from Seanan McGuire’s Middlegame

Unconventional, yet delightful, Middlegame is an exploration of power, mental health and the true meaning of words paired alongside an intricately plotted equation to alter time itself. Within its pages, past and present converge alongside snippets of Over the Woodward Wall to create a thing of remarkable beauty, everlasting and unforgettable in scope. A must read that pairs science fiction with fantasy.

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