What if , alongside all the other huddled masses yearn to breathe free , Manhattan ’s immigrant groups had admit witches , Centaurs , and other figures from universe folklore ? That ’s the premise of Right Hand Magic , Nancy Collins ’s late urban fantasy .
Spoilers ahead …
In search of a newfangled studio at a fair price , struggling sculptor Tate stumbles across ad for a room in Golgotham , Manhattan ’s paranormal enclave . Her new landlord is Hexe , a six - fingered , purple - haired Kymeran . He ’s also Golgotham royal line , as his female parent is the local Witch Queen . But he ’s keep a low profile , see to succeed as a benevolent , torment - reversing Right Hand magician . Tate cursorily regain herself mix up in the local intrigue . The housemates end up working together to protect a teenage were - cat from a mobster who ’s pit shape - shifters against each other in illegal prize fights .
In Tate , Collins has create an appealing heroine . She ’s a sculptor , not a bad - ass hottie with a closet full of knife . It ’s fresh to see an urban phantasy type who does n’t routinely decapitate five fiend before breakfast . Collins also wisely confronts the financial elephant in the room and makes her a trust fund baby . capital deal or no , the economic science make it tough for an creative person to survive in Manhattan without main income . ( It ’s either that , or move to Bushwick . ) And so we get the most dramatically rich mineral vein of the story , which is a deep uneasiness with gentrification .
Tate loves her new neck of the woods . It ’s a charming berth to live and an inspiration to her oeuvre , and she meets all sorts of new friends . But the more she evangelize her sleazy , roomy studio apartment to fellow human being ( “ nump ” ) artists , the faster gentrification add up to Golgotham . Hexe ’s Uncle Easu is prejudiced and cartoonish , but he ’s not incorrect when he says , “ First it ’s the psychics and the medium . Then it ’s the ‘ artists , ’ and then trust monetary fund numpsters . Next thing you have sex , we ’re smother by chuffing numpies , gobbing away on those anathemise cell phones and set up a Starbucks on every other nook . They ’ll gentrify us out of existence . ”
That ’s a sobering thought , because Collins has build a world that ’s vivid , vital , and a whole lot of fun . As best as I can tell , Golgotham overlaps with the old Five Points , but not so much that it displaces the more New neighborhood of Little Italy or Chinatown . Collins has sneaked a few superfluous blocks onto the island , room enough for a vibrant community tucked by in the neighborhood of the former Five Points . The street programme and architecture does n’t seem to have changed since the early nineteenth century . It ’s an insular community , and a knottiness of preconception and prickliness has kept out would - be gentrifiers .
Collins may have miss an story opportunity by keeping Golgotham so wall - off . A population of witches must have impacted the country ’s history — think of the other ethnic groups that have passed through low Manhattan . It ’s also virtually unimaginable a nigh - autonomous neighborhood could subsist in downtown Manhattan without some serious political muscle at City Hall . ( Robert Moses would have occupy this place as a personal affront and rase it at the first chance . ) Every Golgotham needs its Tammany . That enunciate , Right Hand Magic is merely the beginning of a new serial publication , so it makes sense the focus would be on creation , rather than elaborate politicking . The book ’s provincialism also keeps the story centre . Collins really skin when depicting some public space where Golgotham ’s magical dweller gathering . Here ’s Allen Tate ’s visit to Fly Market , where Kymerians get together to hawk their wares :
After leading me through a serial of confusing bend , Hexe came to a halt in front of a small room only slenderly larger than the fair office worker ’s cubicle . Sandwiched between a magic candle peddler and a crystal ball pro shop , it did n’t even have a tangible room access , just a tizzy of sure-enough tapis with a business card pinned to it . The card register FARO move : IF I CAN’T MOVE IT , IT ’S NOT YOURS .
The account book is full of consequence like this , blending elements of modernistic Manhattan with an earlier era of the metropolis and adding a magical twist . It ’s a little bit Chinatown , some Fulton Fish Market , and a hyphen of Diagon Alley .
There ’s also a good bit of madcap randomness , along the line of work of fantasist like Diana Wynn Jones . The upper floors of Hexe ’s star sign are a bit shifty , and the uncle who plan the home went miss somewhere up the stairs . His other renter is a geriatric oracle with an apartment full of cats . One of his pal elopes with a Maenad barmaid . Among the local characters : Two motorcycle gangs , the Maiden Lane Amazons and the Odin Street Valkyries , former patronising enemies whose leaders are now go steady . The native cuisine comprise of dish like blackbird pie , parsnip and prune bar , and candied sea sawbuck .
alas , Tate ’s male trail is underwhelming , and their romance is strangely perfunctory . Hexe is cunning and he apparently reek good and his determination to come to out sovereign of his royal mother ’s influence is admirable . But it ’s not cleared why he likes Tate , and it ’s evenly get why Tate of a sudden fall for him . We seem to have a case of two attractive hoi polloi in a firm together . Maybe it works that mode sometimes , but cram your landlord is a bit wild .
Ultimately , the action plot is only okay , and the Latinian language is little more than serviceable . But the book is most entertaining when Tate is explore Golgotham and familiarise herself in her unexampled home base . Here ’s hoping the forthcoming installment build on this fascinating world , while perhaps fleshing out the supporting regorge a bit more .
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