Middlegame by Seanan McGuire

I'm writing this review on 7/2/20. I finished reading Middlegame on May 31, 2020. This is relevant with regard to a fairy tale I will mention later.

I picked up this ebook & audiobook after reading an article on the 2020 Hugo award nominee finalists. Middlegame was among them and there-after I read a great deal of praise for Seanan McGuire.

I'd never heard of Seanan McGuire before that article. I read Middlegame. Now I own several Seanan McGuire books & audiobooks.


Lately, when reading, I tend to think, "This reminds me of…"


I've been a voracious reader for five+ decades. I've studied writing intensely for several decades. There are not that many different basic plots. Ergo, every book reminds me of some book I've read. What I mean though is "this makes me feel like such and such book made me feel." The "made me feel like" is a new concept for me as far as reviewing goes.

This book felt a bit like "The Phantom Tollbooth" by Norton Juster to me. While they feel similar to me, trust me, they are not similar. Milo wanted to rescue Rhyme and Reason in Phantom Tollbooth, and Middlegame has co-protagonists "Roger and Dodger". That's about it for anything "remotely similar". Why Middlegame made me feel like The Phantom Tollbooth is one of life's mysteries when I tried to sort it out.

Roger and Dodger, in another way, reminded me of Shanti & Cayan in K. F. Breene's Warrior Chronicles. That relationship is hard to explain but easy to understand if you've read them both. It has to do with becoming one or joining. It's complicated.

My notes were brief on this one:

Roger & Dodger = Words & Math. Alchemy... The Improbable Road to the Impossible City. See Over The Woodward Wall
Great book. Amazon rejected my review, as usual.

Usually, I just note that the blurb to sell the book is spoiler enough. The blurb on Amazon and Goodreads don't really do justice to Middlegame. I don't think it sells the book well either. I don't think I can do better. But I'm going to try.

I'll start by telling you Ms. McGuire told the story in an interesting way. It's not terribly unique and I usually don't like this little writer's "buffoonery challenge" but she pulled it off remarkably well. Here's what I'm talking about:

Table of Contents
Book VII "The End" FAILURE
Book 0 "The Beginning" GENESIS
Book I "The Second Stage" ONE HUNDRED YEARS LATER
Book II "The Doctrine Matures" INTRODUCTION
Book VII "The End of" DEED
Book II "Reset" CHECKMATE
Book III "Graduate" FAMILIAL VISITATION
Book IV "Complicate" PHLEGMATIC
Book VII "The End of All" COST
Book V "Aftershocks" WE ARE
Book VI "Up-and-Under" COAL DUST
Book VII "The End of All Things" OUTCOME
Book VII "After the End" COST AND CONSEQUENCE

Technically, there are eight "books". Like in War and Peace where a book is really a chapter with multiple semi-chapters, but the idea of "books" helps in understanding the story timeline. You get to read the books in the order indicated above. I did not include the chapters in each book in the example Table of Contents above. I was going to provide a link to the full Table of Contents… but guess what: My example ↑ is about the best you'll easily find.

Roger Middleton and Dodger Cheswich are impossibly identical twins. Keeping the names Roger and Dodger was one of the conditions of adoption. They were adopted separately after "birth" and raised on either side of the country. Both are brilliant gifted children in their own unique ways.

The book tells the story form assorted points of view, including both Roger and Dodger.

The blurb tells you Roger is all about words/language and Dodger is all about math. They meet telepathically. Roger is doing math homework, which he hates, and is struggling with it. While working on it:

“The answer’s sixteen,” says a girl’s voice. It is not, precisely, coming from the air next to him; it seems to be coming from the space he currently occupies.

This particular conversation is uniquely special as rendered by audiobook narrator Amber Benson. Roger/Dodger are 7 years old at the time of that first conversation. You will be just shy of 10% into the book.

So begins the relationship between Roger and Dodger who are the primary co-protagonists in the book.

Middlegame feels like a romance story of unrequited love. You know it is not a romance story. Roger and Dodger are impossibly identical twins. Brother and sister.

The story is tightly related to a famous fairy tale Over The Woodward Wall, By A. Deborah Baker. This title will be released on October 6, 2020. You can pre-order it.

Have I piqued your interest? Have I peaked your interest? It's the same but different… I looked it up.

You will get alchemy, Frankenstein like creations, horror, math, language, vocabulary, culture, advanced mathematics, illusions, delusions, and an actual "Simon says" you must obey Simon ordeal. You'll get the mad scientist, the entirely dead genius ghoul like wicked witch who is part bird, part terminator (the female kind in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines), and is an excellent alchemist. There are wicked adopting parents, good adopting parents, some quasi quantum entanglement, a famous fairy tale you can pre-order before it is published. And since you can pre-order a famous fairy tale that isn't written as of the writing of this review, the time traveling in the book will only be icing on the cake.

Read in 5 Sessions between Sunday, May 17, 2020 & Sunday, May 31, 2020

See my Goodreads reviews here.