The Flux
Ferrett Steinmetz
Angry Robot Books
Publishing October 6th, 2015
0857664638 (ISBN13: 9780857664631)
When people love something enough, their obsession spawns a magic unique to their love. It creates a ‘mancer. ‘Mancers literally tear holes in reality, shaping it to how they think it should behave, and reality finds a balance, bad luck for good. Sometimes that bad luck can take everything.
Paul Tsabo has successfully kept his ‘mancy–Bureaucromancy–a secret from all but his ‘mancer friends: Valentine, the videogamemancer who saved his life more than once, and his daughter Aliyah, also a videogamemancer. Things get a bit difficult when Paul tries to brew the magical drug Flex for Oscar, the drug lord he owes a lot of money to.
Every time he and Valentine try a new batch, their remote location is called in as a tip to the task force out to catch him, by a tipster who calls himself The King of New York.
Paul sets a trap for The King, and finds out he’s dealing with an old, familiar face, who offers him paradise in exchange for servitude. What The King really wants is Aliyah, and Paul isn’t necessary once The King has what he wants.
The Flux is the second novel in Steinmetz’s ‘Mancer series, and it stands up well to the first one. Steinmetz’s quirky humor and well developed characters tug both at your laugh lines and your heart strings. While some of the game and pop culture references may make the story dated at some point in the future, for now it makes everything pop vividly, the imagery fairly leaping off the page. If you haven’t read the first one, go pick up Flex, and you’ll want to immediately read The Flux.
JL Jamieson is a strange book nerd who writes technical documents by day, and book news, reviews, and other assorted opinions for you by night. She is working on her own fiction, and spends time making jewelry to sell at local conventions, as well as stalking the social media accounts of all your favorite writers.