Description

Master fantasist Seanan McGuire introduces readers to an America run in the shadows by the Alchemical Congress, a powerful society focused on transmuting reality itself.

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.

Publisher Review

McGuire has an uncanny knack for taking the worst things that lurk in the shadows and weaving them into an absolute delight.--Becky Chambers 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 stand-alone, 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 Imaginatively conceived, carefully constructed, fantastically written ... another delightful and captivating outing from Seanan McGuire.--bookreporter An excellent recommendation for those who enjoyed Lev Grossman's The Magicians and Lauren Oliver's Replica.--School Library Journal 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