I adore Seanan McGuire, but was unable to figure out why I did not like this book at all. I read my usual 100-150 pages and just could not feel anything for the characters. I will continue reading the Toby Daye series, I love those. And I am well aware I am in the minority.

I want to thank NetGalley and Tor.com for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review

OMG, this book is really FANTASTIC, I can’t stop thinking about it. A while since I didn’t come across a book as original and unique as this one, especially because it’s a plot that never ceases to surprise and I was hooked from the first page, it’s a bit slow but worth every moment. I loved it!. This book involves alchemy, and multiple temporal lines, in addition to a unique relationship between twins.


I realized that, although I usually mention the sensitive topics that we can find in the book, I’ve never included Trigger Warning in my reviews, as such, and after seeing on Twitter a long discussion about it, and seeing how important this is for readers, then I’ll begin to include them from now on …

⚠️TW: Suicide Attempt, Depression & Gore/Violence Content 

This is probably the most complicated book to explain, but I’ll try my best. This book is about twins, called Dodge and Roger, who have been created scientifically by an Alchemist named James Reed, who has been trying for about a hundred years to follow the directions of his own creator, the powerful alchemist, Asphodel Baker, trying to embody a universal concept called Doctrine of Ethos in the human body by dividing it in equal parts, within the twins bodies. In the case of Dodge and Roger, one of them is mathematics, while the other is language. Reed decides to deliver all these pairs of twins individually to couples to them to grow up in a natural way and see how they evolve. After a few years, the twins will begin to find each other and they’ll realize that they’re entangled in ways they still can’t understand and that they handle a very dangerous power. Reed’s real intentions behind the creation of these kids are darker than anyone imagined and plans to use them, once they’re ready, to master an unimaginable power. 

I know the first thing you’ll think is that it sounds confusing, and maybe it is!. At first when I was reading it I didn’t know what to expect and I was really confused with all that alchemist vocabulary and scientific things that I didn’t understand, but then, when the story is developing everything begins to be clearer and I’ve really found it fascinating, it’s an idea that could only occur to a mind as brilliant as the author’s, plus it shows that she has had to research a lot to write this book and that’s something that’s always appreciated

The plot, in general, is really fascinating, I felt hooked by the concept from the beginning, that first chapter is VERY well done to catch your attention, and you really don’t want to stop reading until you find out what’s happening. The book begins with the ending, and then we go back to the beginning to know the creation of the main twins and also to know a little more about alchemy, how it works and what are its foundations, plus we also know a little more about the goal that moves a woman as Asphodel and who moves now in the present to her creation, and apprentice, Reed. We’ll also begin to meet the main characters, Dodge and Roger, since they’re only children until their adult years, which I loved, I love following the characters for a large part of their lives, I think you get to know them more and create a much deeper connection with them. The book is very complex and it’s cleverly told, jumps in time and plays a lot with temporal lines, which I LOVE. Every time I was reading I thought, how did I not write this myself? lol, because it has EVERYTHING I love in a book, from the brotherhood connection to crazy things happening with time and temporal lines. It’s a book with a fairly hard content due to the number of murders and deaths that occur in the course of the story, so if bloody things impress you then I don’t know if it’s the book for you. But beyond that, I think it’s amazing and it was very close to being a 5 star.


The characters are beautifully created, each of them contributes and is the protagonist of this story, they’re very real and the depth of their development is great. I think all the main characters of the book are created through alchemy so they’re not actually humans, which is very interesting, we read about their ambitions and desires and how their purpose influence their personality and behavior. Several of them are experiments created for a certain purpose but that doesn’t stop them from feeling their own emotions and move according to their principles and needs. We’ll talk a little about each of them, I’ll try to be brief because with this book it’s very difficult not to do spoilers lol 

We’ll start with Roger and Dodger because they’re our main characters, and I want to start by saying that I LOVE the wonderful connection between them, they were made to stay together to make strong together, and yet they were separated at birth. After a few years, they’ll establish a mental connection unique and different, which makes them realize that they’re connected in ways that still can not understand being so young. Both live in very stable homes with people who love them, and both know they’re adopted but live far away from each other.

Roger is language, he can handle any tongue and has an extraordinary ability to learn any kind of language and words from a very young age, he feels that letters are his thing and he loves to spend all day writing, reading and learning new things. He was lonely as a kid, but when his story unfolds we can see how he’s creating connections and friendships with other people, although he has never really felt as connected to someone as he’s with Dodge, with whom he can communicate in a telepathic way, which they call “quantum entanglement”. From my point of view, I think Roger is the sweet and supportive one. This character is colorblindness, and I think it’s interesting to mention it since it’s the first time I’ve crossed paths with a character with this peculiarity. I really love him.

Then we have Dodge, she moves like a fish in the water when it comes to math, she lives and breathes numbers, and doesn’t see herself capable of doing anything else other than filling her room with mathematical problems, in fact, was able to solve one of the most difficult mathematical problems in the world since a very young age, which’s impressive. She’s the boldest, but at the same time, she’s fragile although she never shows it. And although it’s not easy for her to talk with others, because she doesn’t have a facility with words, everything changes when she meets Roger and they begin a beautiful friendship. Dodger’s mind is really brilliant and I love to follow her through time, I like how she thinks things always so fast, she’s always one step ahead of others and I love that.


Reed is a smart and ruthless character, I think his ambition for power devoured everything else, I think it was a moment that maybe he thought that as, Asphodel, could improve the world with The Doctrine, but then the hunger of power changed his course. He’ll never hesitate to eliminate whoever gets in his way, he has almost no emotion, very antipathetic, and the way he treats children as if they were objects or things, gives me chills, it’s really spooky and it breaks my heart.

Leigh, I think it’s by far, the most ruthless character in the book, she’s Reed’s creation and it’s very scary, you guys. You really wouldn’t want to be in her way, she has been the protagonist of the bloodiest scenes of the book. She’s a very intelligent woman too, but her ideas are different from Reed’s, although they want the same, I think Leigh would do anything and cross any limit to get it. She’s a deadly machine, she reminds me of Terminator, I swear. She’s working on her own children’s creation, and that’s how she creates Erin

Erin’s an extraordinary character, I like her a lot because she starts out being very calculating, lying and lethal, in fact, she’s something like Leigh’s right hand, to end up transforming herself in something more. It’s very interesting to follow her steps and see the world through her eyes since she’s the one who has all the truth because unlike the twins, she does know what she really is, and what she was created for. There are many things that I would like to say about her but I can’t because spoilers, but it’ a surprising character, at first I didn’t expect so much from her, but then her progress and development is magnificent

The writing style is very good, but the paced of the book is VERY slow, I spent more than a week reading this book, and I don’t say it wasn’t worth it, because it was. But I think it’s something you should know. The fact that it’s so complex makes you don’t want to miss anything, so I re-read several parts to make sure I understood everything correctly, but I can’t complain, was a lot of fun. It’s a unique story like none I’ve read before, It’s very deep, meaningful and incredible. The book is told on dates which makes it too interesting but also jumps from the future to the past and present so you have to be very careful not to miss anything.

I think the book explores identity, family and who you really are and what you would do for power. In addition, the main characters have to deal with problems of normal life too, and that makes it feel very real even though the base of the book is 100% fantasy. I loved exploring the relationship of the twins and how was evolving as the years go by, this kind of relationship I like much more than romance, so if you feel the same you should give this book a chance as it almost doesn’t have romance or at least doesn’t touch it in a deep way.


There are a couple of scenes at the end that I think are quite long and unnecessary, and also kind of weird, and that’s why my rating hasn’t been higher, but it’s not very serious really everything I remember from the book is wonderful so I can’t complain. I highly recommend the book if you want to read something different, full of suspense, tension, and unique relationships. Also if you like science and how it can be used to create life and all those types of concepts, you’ll love this one too. Another thing is that if like me, you love “Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey” things, it’s one of my favorite aspects. And, If you like the author, you can’t miss this book is WONDERFUL and deserves great recognition and a lot of love because it’s not an easy book to write and is perfectly executed

I requested Middlegame by Seanan McGuire through Netgalley when I saw it being offered to review. I received an e-book version. I read Every Heart A Doorway by Seanan McGuire and liked it and enjoyed her idea and writing style so I was interested in Middlegame after reading the synopsis. Middlegame is an urban fantasy mixed with science fiction.

Okay, I'm trying to determine how to review this book without giving away spoilers. I was trying to explain this book to a friend of mine and said that it was amazing and she asked me what else can you tell me about it and I said I don't know what to tell you beside the fact that you MUST read it and if I tell you anything else it could be a spoiler. No joke you guys.  Side note - We came to a conclusion that this book is as awesome as The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins in the fact that it's hard to explain to people the details of the story because it's so weirdly different and wonderful that in order to really grasp it all they would just have to read it themselves.

But I'm going to try to touch on a few basics.

Get used to Roger and Dodger because they are the main focus or the focus of the whole story. The story switches from both of their perspectives and then sometimes to Reed and a little bit of Leah, his alchemist creator of a sort. Erin is also another character that becomes a lot more prominent in the second half of the book but I don't think the perspective shifts to hers, if it does it's very little. Although I would've like to have seen more from Erin's perspective. She was a very interesting side character.

Confused by their names? Again, you'll have to read the book in order to find out why they are named the way they are. Or is it another author ploy to get you to remember another weirdly unique book character name? Who's to say? I liked Dodger more than Roger. Roger could be frustrating and though I liked him at times I was often more annoyed with him and with some of the choices he made. Dodger was feisty and didn't shy away from anything thrown at her. Together though, together they are better.

While Roger has a way with words, Dodger is a master of math. I LOVED the concept of this - them being twins while each mastering two subjects that determined the laws of the universe. It was SO COOL how McGuire executed this whole idea.

Middlegame was a fun and dark read. I felt like I had to slow down my reading pace to make sure I understood and remember certain parts. I wouldn't say it's a super easy read but not a difficult one either. It's definitely a lot of fun and very unique. I enjoyed the writing style quite a lot.

One might believe this book has some magic to it and maybe it does but it's mostly based on alchemy. What is alchemy you ask?

Alchemy - a form of chemistry and speculative philosophy practiced in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and concerned principally with discovering methods for transmuting baser metals into gold and with finding a universal solvent and an elixir of life. (Dictionary.com)

This is important to understand from Reed's perspective, he always has an ulterior motive for Roger and Dodger - they aren't human - they are an experiment, his experiment. That's the part that trips me up, they are basically human but they've been created for greater things - they just don't know it yet.

I think this is my favourite part of the story. The whole progression of Dodger and Roger being children when the story starts and reading different stages of their life throughout the book and them ultimately finding out what they are and what they can do as they grow and mature. This added so much more background detail to the twins characters and their decisions and I enjoyed watching them as they grew, fumbling over mistakes, triumphing when they could and always interconnected with one another. I don't think this story would have been as powerful if it was written any other way.

If you were like me, what's middlegame mean?

The middlegame in chess refers to the portion of the game in between the opening and the endgame. There is no clear line between the opening and middlegame, and between the middlegame and endgame. In modern chess, the moves that make up an opening blend into the middlegame, so there is no sharp divide.

I thought this was a cool title and reflected how the story was much like a game of chess and from the beginning till the end - it was all just the middlegame. Fun fact - Dodger is also a successful chess player!

A thousand times yes, I recommend! Middlegame is a very unique story and I think anyone who wants to give this epic novel a chance - should! Seanan McGuire is a wonderful writer and always seems to have a trick up her sleeve. This is a story that really makes you appreciate good writers and how they weave their words. I don't know what else to say other than you MUST read this book, it's so epic!!

Yet again I am impressed by Seanan McGuire. This one is definitely different, and more in line with her Mira Grant pieces, but I still loved it. The world building was fantastic, and I am left thinking about the story and the world after finishing it days ago. I know I can always trust McGuire to deliver an intelligent, well paced, and inventive plot.

A wonderfully creative, imaginative story that was a total pleasure to read from start to finish. This HAS to be a series!

Middlegame, by Seanan McGuire, is one of those reads that stays with you.

McGuire has created an extraordinarily complex world here, but as you read, it all falls into place.

I loved the characters – especially one who was sort of a villain and sort of…not.

The book is epic.  Be prepared to be thoroughly enmeshed in a world that you really don’t want to live in.

Five stars.

*ARC Provided via Net Galley

This book had everything from great writing, to a compelling plot, and intriguing characters. Not once did I find myself bored. Roger and Dodger have a deep, familial connection. And while it's not directly asked, there seems to be an underlying question of, "What makes someone human?" The trials and tribulations the two protagonists go through are immense yet wonderful to read about. And parts even had me nearly in tears. In the end, this lived up to the hype and surpassed it. Full/longer review to be posted at thefantasyinn.com ~30 days prior to the book's publication.

Middlegame, I think, will be a book that divides readers.A few weeks after reading and I'm still unsure of how I feel about it - there are definitely significant parts of the story that really, really appealed to me as  a reader, and others that almost had me putting it down for good.The basic premise (if there's even such a thing for a book this complex) is an experiment in genetic engineering that sees pairs of twins being tested for their potential to achieve godhood over the course of their life. Rodger and Dodger, twins separated in their infancy and raised in different circumstances, are children of a sort of the alchemist Reed who wants to use them to harness a higher power that he cannot claim on his own. We follow the twins over the course of their lives, from childhood to adulthood, as their paths cross and diverge and change as they begin to realise their potential.I want to say, upfront, that I went into Middlegame knowing nothing except that I'm a huge fan of McGuire's Wayward Children novella series and I was very interested to read a full-length novel by her to see if her writing style transfers well across both formats for me personally.The answer to that is yes... and no.Middlegame is an intensely interesting story, but I really struggled with the pacing. A lot of it, I believe, is intentional, because we need to build up a relationship with the protagonists and see how they develop their relationship with each other. There are a lot of cool things that happen, but there's also a lot of downtime in between which had me wondering when the next major event would occur. That downtime is what I really struggled with.That said, the entire concept is very intriguing - it's like Frankenstein's monster started running the laboratory and is powerful enough that no-one is going to get in his way. The story itself is a fantasy (but not), set in our world (but not) and entirely normal except for the alchemists living in the shadows and secretly controlling things. There's time travel, magic, paranormal-aspects and a whole host of things I love. I love it when books involve jumping around in timelines and this had some awesome moments.I also really loved Erin, who was one of the side characters who ends up in an almost guide-like role, but who is entirely her own person with her own motivations.So, I'm still conflicted, but it's definitely worth a read to see where your opinions fall.

I'm a longtime fan of McGuire's work, which is how I know that my not loving MIDDLEGAME is less a problem with the book and more a matter of personal preference. The slightly disjointed storytelling style is a bit like the FEED trilogy (written under her Mira Grant penname) on steroids, I've always jived more with the more straightforward style of the Toby Daye series. MIDDLEGAME is an ambitious book and one I'm thrilled that TOR is putting support behind an aggressively weird project like this.

Twins born with abilities beyond normal skills and talents. A connection that spans a continent and across the reaches of time. Roger and Dodger have a gift of language and mathematics, respectively. They were adopted and placed in families on either side of the United States (Palo Alto and Cambridge), and at a certain age they found they were able to communicate with each other and see out of the other's eyes. When Roger was reading Shakespeare at age 5 and Dodger was computing high-level calculus at 6, there are few friends to be found, but they always have each other, a "call" away. You may not be able to call it sibling rivalry exactly, yet there are times when the brother and sister do not get along and communication is broken and they have to develop on their own.

Orchestrating this experiment is James Reed, a man who is descended from a distinct line of alchemy and wants to use the twins as a source of great power. He gives them reign to develop their abilities to maturity on their own and uses his henchwoman Leigh at various times to help them on the desired path. Reed and Leigh are a wicked pair and are more than ready to take out anyone who gets in their way to perfection. Several other pairs of twins are being created and tested to ensure the odds are always in the favor, but they keep going back to these two who may show the greatest potential.

Roger and Dodger's story starts at the origins of youth, the discovery of latent talents, and proceeds through childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. The first half of the book is that, a growing up, but the tale shifts and the second half really turns out to be an all-out battle. While the pacing does ebb and flow, it's McGuire's phenomenal writing that holds it all together. A spot-on metaphor or turn of phrase can be found on most every page. The characters are experiences that can be seen walking down the street next to you. They are real and in your face, and stuck in an experiment with their lives, and maybe more, on the line. 

Two Notes:  1. The epigraphs are well-placed and important. 2. Loved the Bay Area setting. I knew many of the places the characters visited.

Middlegame is a book that turns a madman's experiment into story of developing individuals and lifetime companions.

Full of twists and turns peppered through with eerie mystery and fun fantastical situations. Despite the lack of explanations for wild occurrences I really enjoyed this fast-paced novel.

Middlegame is a deeply intelligent story about a pair of engineered twins designed to embody two separate halves of reality - math and language - and therefore open the path to a utopia.  While they were envisioned with a path of good, their minder has world domination in mind.  Using alchemical theory as a basis, this subject matter of Middlegame can come off as a bit cultish... but it's really a very intellectual novel with intriguing conversations and characters.

The reader follows twins Roger and Dodger through most of the story, taking pauses only to slip into the POVs of a few supporting characters along the way in order to tell a fuller story.  The deeper you get in the novel, the clearer it becomes what the twins are and have been doing, but it's all lai out very slowly.  The last 20% of the story is a rollercoaster... but the rest of it is a slow lead in and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't bored in the first half of the book.

Generally speaking, it's a fascinating novel with interesting - if not endearing - characters and you really have to admire Seanan McGuire's writing.  While this one wasn't a smash hit for me, I was captivated by it and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to an audience who enjoys authors like Dan Brown as well as other fans of Seanan's.

Seanan is great at fitting fantastical worlds into the corners of the real world, and she's in top form here. The beginning was a bit... not necessarily slow, exactly, but it requires a bit of time to get into the flow of things. Or at least it did for me. But once I got my proverbial sea legs, it was so hard to put it down to do other things, like eat or sleep.

Middlegame is a book I'm not sure about. After finishing it and having some time to think on the story I feel like the story had a lot of realistic characters that were gripping and kept me on the edge of my seat. The alchemy interested me greatly and the premise was well executed. My only issue was that it was a little slow but there were a lot of details that needed to be brought to life so it was understandable. I do believe that I'll end up re-reading this to fully understand everything.

How is one supposed to play a game when one doesn’t know the rules? Roger and Dodger, two children with strange abilities, have to find out in Seanan McGuire’s Middlegame before the game kills them. Because they don’t know the rules of the game—and neither do we—there is a long learning curve to this book. I’ll admit that I didn’t full understand what was going on until almost the halfway point of the novel. Readers who are patient, however, will be rewarded with an incredible, magical, and terrifying journey to the cutting edge of alchemy.

One day, when he is seven years old, Roger hears a voice in his head. The voice belongs to Dodger, who Roger doesn’t believe is real until she helps him with his math homework and lets him see the world through her eyes. The two share a deep connection. They balance each other. Roger knows words. Dodger knows numbers. Roger pumps the brakes when Dodger runs ahead. But then then their connection is broken when a strange, frightening woman shows up at Roger’s house with threats if he doesn’t stop talking to Dodger. Every time the two children reconnect as teenagers and young adults, it seems like someone is always standing in their way. They are pawns in a very long, very dangerous game.

As Middlegame unspools, we watch as Roger and Dodger experience what appears to be multiple lives. It’s impossible, but a lot of what happens in this book is impossible. Alchemy sneers at impossible. Books that reset like this can be difficult to read because it’s easy to lose track of the overall story or to figure out what’s going to be important later on in the novel. Sometimes it’s hard to tell, in these kinds of books, if we even are in a different timeline because the differences can be very subtle. A character zigs instead of zags and a butterfly gets to cause a storm somewhere. Reset books are just the kinds of books I relish for the challenge of reading them. That, and I am fascinated by the way that little decisions can have huge consequences.

While Dodger and Roger connect and disconnect, we visit the other players in the game and learn more than the two children know about what’s going on. Some readers might want to do some extra reading about alchemy before diving into this book because the villains in this book are after much more than the philosopher’s stone. They also speak in metaphors without explanation, in the best tradition of actual medieval alchemists. If it weren’t for the fact that this book is full of magical creations and events, Middlegame would’ve been a purely intellectual exercise in the form of a thriller. Even though the first half of the book is bewildering, the magic and the excellent character development are more than enough to keep readers going. At least, I hope so, because Middlegame is one of the most brilliant books I think I’ve ever read.

I’ve enjoyed Seanan McGuire’s books since I discovered Rosemary and Rue and the “Incryptid” series. Her sense of dramatic flow, finely-handled narrative pacing, and just plain nifty stuff made each successive adventure more enjoyable. I quickly learned that when I picked up one of her books, I was in for a good time. Sometimes I wondered how she was able to maintain the quality of her work, given how productive she was. Not only did she consistently deliver one good story after another, but her recent releases have leapt from “good” to memorable. Her novella, Every Heart a Doorway, was stunning, a journey of the heart as well as a series of dramatic events, richly deserving both the Nebula and Hugo Awards. I loved her “Sparrow Road” ghost stories, too. Now I can add Middlegame, an alchemy/Frankenstein/time-traveling/sibling-story to that list.

The outer frame of the story involves a precocious and wildly talented alchemist who devises a way to remake the world through the human incarnations of the Doctrine of Ethos. 

“In the ancient world the Greeks believed music had a magical power to speak directly to human emotion. In what has come to be known as the doctrine of ethos, the Greeks believed that the right kind of music had the power to heal the sick and shape personal character in a positive way. The Greek philosopher Aristotle believed that when music was designed to imitate a certain emotion, a person listening to the music would have that emotion.” – From Music and the Doctrine of Ethos, classicaltyro.com.

McGuire uses a somewhat different sense of this doctrine, albeit still in the sense of possessing transformative powers. The alchemist, Asphodel Baker, and her disciples set about creating pairs of twins whose natural talents (language and mathematics, for example, or order and chaos) complement and complete one another. Adopted out and separated as infants, when mature they will be drawn together to fully manifest the Doctrine and grant the one who controls them power over the universe. Or so goes the plan.

The inner story involves one pair of twins, Roger and Dodger, and their early ability to communicate telepathically and experience the world through one another’s talents and senses. Dodger helps Roger with his math homework, and he guides her through learning to talk to people and develop relationships. But they have made contact too soon for Asphodel’s heir (and Frankenstein creation), the sinister autocrat James Reed, who then takes measures to divide them until he determines the time is right.

All of this is done up in prose that ranges from really good to luscious:
        “For your safety,” says Dr. Barrow, in a voice like butter and cyanide.
….
       Roger knows the words – shock, surprise, epiphany – but he doesn’t know how to put them in an order his sister (his sister, he has a sister, not just a weird quantum entanglement with a girl on the other side of the country, but a sister, someone whose blood knows his almost as well as his heart does) will be able to hear and understand. He supposes he’s stunned. The impulse to close his eyes and retreat into the space that exists between them is strong. He forces it aside. This is a real thing; this needs to be a real thing. He didn’t realize until this moment how badly he needs it to be a real thing, something spoken in the open air, something honest and concrete that he can put down between them, look at from all the angles, and know for the truth. Real things are too important to entrust to quantum entanglements.

I stayed up way too late on a number of nights, following Roger and Dodger on their quest for one another and for a life truly, humanly lived. I heartily recommend this book and expect it to be a contender for major awards in speculative fiction.

The usual disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book, but no one bribed me -- quite unnecessarily -- to praise it.

This is her best book yet. Roger and Dodger were fascinating characters and the eerie fairy tale tone of McGuire’s writing tells this story perfectly.

After adoring the Wayward Children series by the same author, I was so thrilled to pick up a copy of this very different book from her. A hard read in places but a captivating story weaved together with mystery and charm.

Middlegame was a fascinating read on many levels. The intricately woven plot took some concentration to navigate, but the characters were well presented and engaging, and I really came to care about them as the story progressed. I had expected to prefer Roger, since I'm a 'word person' myself. However, I actually found I related more to Dodger, due to some of her personality quirks. I enjoyed the fairy tale-like elements woven into the narrative, mingling with the science in a way that spoke of the alchemy driving the story. There was some stunning imagery too; although, I almost wish I could have read the fake children's books mentioned in their entirety first, to better follow the symbolism. The brief excerpts we were given from them sounded really intriguing. As a book that requires some attention and deep thought, this may not appeal to all readers. However, if you are looking for a story both captivating and thought provoking, you should definitely give Middlegame a try. Just keep an eye on the timeline notes under the chapter headings, so you know when and where you are. 4.5 stars

Two babies are born: brother and sister, born on the same day, from the same surrogate, identical but not. They are adopted out to two different families, as far apart as they can be geographically, and still be in the same country. They are unwittingly part of a plan that if it comes to fruition, will give one man unimaginable power. As young children, they find each other inside their own minds. Together they must find a future where they can survive against almost insurmountable odds. An edge-of-your-seat adventure/horror/fantasy/time travel/crazy math/language mashup unlike anything else you've ever read. McGuire constructs a world and a mythology that feels real, fitting bits of children's literature, pop culture, alchemy, mathematics, semantics, and science fiction classics in with her own inventions. It's an extraordinary piece of work, a thrill-ride of a book that will keep you thinking and reading far into the night. Highly recommended.