TIDAL CREATURES - Seanan McGuire

Seanan McGuire's Tidal Creatures is the third book in her Alchemical Journeys series and it's a powerhouse.  It's been a while since I read the previous two books, but it's likely that you may want to read them before taking this particular journey.

The Lunar gods take human hosts and navigate the skies at night over the impossible city. The Alchemists are looking for a way to infiltrate the skies, using the lunar gods, and then rule the world. ("Alchemists have no morals" we are told.)

At Berkely College, Jane, the human incarnation of the god Change'e tries to avoid a professor who she is sure can see her god identity, while meeting up with another god who is returning from his journey across the sky. What she finds, however, is the incarnate of the god Mani at the door to the world where they begin their journey.

Working with other gods, and bringing the death - most likely a murder - to the attention of her superiors, Jane will try to find out how this god could die and what the danger means to them all.

We will also meet Kelpie - the result of a lab experiment when the Alchemists were trying to create familiars of the moon gods. She's managed to escape the confines of the lab and is still trying to understand her place in the universe before the Alchemists find her. She encounters Roger and Dodger (characters from earlier volumes) who assist her.

Not only is McGuire an outstanding writer (not to mention extremely prolific), I am constantly amazed at how fresh and unique her work is. At its core, this is a murder mystery set in a fantasy universe not unlike our own. And if there's one thing that McGuire does, maybe better than any other living fantasy author, it's world-building.

This world of Moon Gods, their human hosts, and the travel across the sky is fantastic (and I encourage multiple meanings of the word). It's so different from anything I've read, and yet McGuire weaves it into the story so seamlessly we don't feel like we're getting a different world - we have always had this world.  Some of this comes from tossing in little nuggets from our culture. For instance:

She could have been a modified human. They came through the lab sometimes .... The other alchemists scoffed at them behind their backs, called them 'Moreaus' and acted like they were fools for making themselves less than human.

Perhaps there aren't a lot of people out there that recognize 'Moreau' and why it would be a term ascribed here, but it helps me connect these people and this story with the world that I already know.

There are some down sides to this, though.  It is easy to get caught up in the beauty McGuire's work and overlook the story that's going on. At least that's the case for me.  I've caught myself numerous times having to go back and re-read something because I missed the action for the language.

But if I missed something, that's on me. I think McGuire is an amazing author and she brings it all together - the fantasy, the mystery, the world - with grace and precision.

Having read a number of McGuire's books, I find it more than just a little bit interesting that the author has a fascination with doors or at least sees access to new worlds through hidden doors in our world.  Doors play a part in the story and they are very important in the Wayward Children series as well. I don't know that there's anything specific to make of this - it's just something I noted during my read.

Looking for a good book? Tidal Creatures by Seanan McGuire is a powerful book, with creativity, great language, a unique mystery, and phenomenal world building. Fantasy fans will want to dig into this series.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

4-1/2 stars

* * * * * *

Tidal Creatures

author: Seanan McGuire

series: Alchemical Journeys #3

publisher: Tor Books

ISBN: 9781250333551 

hardcover, 464 pages

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