Left Hand Magic by Nancy A. Collins

Recently I read a fun little UF/PR excursion called Right Hand Magic by Nancy A. Collins. That its sequel is named Left Hand Magic is not only unsurprising it’s quite logical. The titles refer to the two types of m performed by the Kymerans, the six fingered, cat-eyed humans who form the dominant population in Manhattan’s magical borough; Golgotham. Right hand magic is considered ‘good’ and is practised by the series’ love interest; Hexe. Left hand magic is the ‘bad’ type and the book is fittingly named, as the threat in it comes from champions of the left hand magic path.

Artist Tate Eresby and her partner Hexe have settled down into life together in Golgotham. One of the effects of Tate’s recent move and the events of Right Hand Magic have caused Golgotham to be brought into sharper focus from the community outside of the borough and it has become a trendy place for cashed up hipsters to hang out. A confrontation between a group of bullying fraternity boys and an angry leprechaun develops into a full scale riot and two groups rise to prominence out of the incident.

One is a pro-human group calling itself Sons of Adam and the other is a militant magical group that want to remove Golgotham’s current council, known as GoBOO. The second group is headed by Hexe’s violently anti human Uncle Esau. Without meaning to Tate becomes involved and people associated with her start being killed off. Tate’s on someone’s hit list and if she, Hexe and Hexe’s obnoxious familiar Scratch don’t find out who it is they won’t be the only ones who wind up dead.

After having introduced the concept and the main characters in Right Hand Magic there was less exposition needed in Left Hand Magic, so this was a welcome change, as I felt it was overdone in Right Hand Magic. Nancy Collins seems to like it, because she does still do it, but not to the same extent. I didn’t feel as much like I was reading a visitor’s guidebook as I did with the first book in the series. Hexe and Tate’s relationship now that it’s solid also doesn’t move as much into paranormal romance territory as it did in Right Hand Magic. Teenage werecat Lukas only has a cameo in this, but Scratch does appear more frequently, and he is a highlight. His love/hate relationship with Tate’s Boston Terrier pup; Beanie, was a particular highlight for me.

Left Hand Magic is a solid followup to Right Hand Magic, and while the book has more of a final feel to it that RHM did, I’d still like to see it continue and hope that we get more than two books out of the Golgotham concept, because I feel the author can do a lot more with it.

Right Hand Magic by Nancy A. Collins

Right Hand Magic by Nancy A. Collins is another entry in the urban fantasy market. It has paranormal romance elements as well as urban fantasy, but only rarely strays into paranormal romance territory and the human protagonist’s love interest is not a werewolf or a vampire (werewolves do make an appearance, but no vampires as yet), but a magical race called Kymerans.

What attracted me to the book, normally any mention of paranormal romance is enough to steer me in the opposite direction, was the premise that there is a borough in Manhattan which is specifically there for magical races to live in, Golgotham, the setting of Right Hand Magic, is not unlike Fabletown in the comic book series Fables, one main difference being that no one knows Fabletown exists, whereas Golgotham is actually tourist attraction. Where else can you see leprechauns rubbing shoulders with dryads or take a old fashioned cab ride from a genuine centaur?

The fact that very few humans live in Golgotham is largely what attracts trust fund baby and metal sculptress Tate to the area. She rents a room in a house owned by an attractive Kymeran named Hexe, who practises a beneficial form of magic known as right hand, as opposed to the left hand kind which puts curses and the like on unsuspecting people. From the moment Hexe appears at the door to answer Tate he has love interest written all over him and that’s the way it goes, but along the way to romance for Tate and Hexe there’s the bust up of an illegal fighting ring run by a vicious and unscrupulous Kymeran mob boss. The finale to that is a hoot with the mob bosses crew going head to head with shapeshifters, demons and a motorcycle gang whose membership is composed of valkyries and amazons.

It’s a fun read, and while the excursions into paranormal romance territory were at times excruciating they were only mildly painful and not explicit, and they were also thankfully rare. The concepts in Left Hand Magic were great, there’s a lot to like about it. Nancy Collins is a little heavy on the exposition early on and at times I felt like I was reading a vistors guide to Golgotham rather than a novel. This does settle down about halfway through and the story starts to take shape, rather than meander on as it was before that point. This also lets readers get to know the three main characters of Tate, Hexe and the runaway shapeshifter or werecat Lukas. Of the three I tended to like Lukas the most, he was the most believable. Hexe was a little too good to be true and tate vacillated between being clueless and the tough tattooed butt kicker that populates many urban fantasy and paranormal romance novels.

It’s pretty disposable fiction, but it was enjoyable and easy to read. I’ve got the sequel (Left Hand Magic) ready to go and I can see this series becoming a bit of a guilty pleasure for me, because I do love the way it deals with mythical races. The dwarves subway and their kingdom directly under the streets of New York was a delight.