Barbara Hambly’s THE BRIDE OF THE RAT GOD was so unusual when it came out in the 1990s — a historical fantasy set in recent history? — that according to one article Hambly wrote, the marketing department at DelRey had no idea what to do with it. That explains why the cover paints it as a parody of silent melodrama rather than a serious horror story set in 1920s Hollywood.
The protagonist, Norah, is the widowed British sister-in-law of silent-screen siren Chris, functioning as Chris’s minder and general dogsbody. Weird, seemingly supernatural events start to accumulate and Norah discovers a Chinese talisman Chris wears has marked her as yes, the Bride of the Rat God (the title should not have spoiled that reveal but I like I said, the marketing people were flummoxed). Suffice to say, Chris will not survive the wedding.
As someone who writes historical fantasy, I’m impressed to see how well Hambly (she has a master’s in history and also writes historical mystery) handles the details: clothes, attitudes, bigotries (though Norah is surprisingly laid back about homosexuals for the time period) and the technicalities of filmmaking. It’s thoroughly entertaining with a couple of awkward spots: the Chinese mage who helps Chris comes off as rather “magic Asian” and there’s a reference to one gay victim of the god that makes me wince (the Rat God only kills women but being gay the guy was an imitation woman …). So if either of those is a deal breaker, you’ve been warned.
THE PECULIARITIES by David Liss is an alternate history in which Victorian occultists such as the Theosophists and the Order of the Golden Dawn (both of whom figure to varying degrees in my Questionable Minds) succeed in making magic work, Liss feeling a sudden discovery made more sense than assuming magic had always been around without altering history). The side effect of magic is that London is away in random weirdness such as women giving birth to rabbits and protagonist Thomas slowly turning into a tree. Thomas, however, is just as troubled by the way his family treats him, more like a poor relation than a younger son, refusing to let him rise above junior clerk in the family bank — and why is the bank investing heavily in loans that can’t possibly be paid off? Thomas is too stiff to work entirely as a protagonist but the story works overall despite him (but not as well, I think, as Liss’s earlier The Twelfth Enchantment). The historical detail hear focuses much more on society: the ins and outs of marriage, business, banking and politics, though the physical details are solid too.
RIGHT TO RIDE: Streetcar Boycotts and African-American Citizenship in the Age of Plessy v. Ferguson by Blair LM Kelley is a revisionist work questioning what I gather was an earlier assumption that protests against segregated streetcars and trains prior to WW I were exclusively an issue for black elites, not the general black population. Kelly argues persuasively that while some discrimination was strictly a concern for elites — few working-class blacks could afford trains — segregation in streetcars and local transportation affected everyone. As a public attack on black dignity, it generated pushback from the working class, with black women particularly angry that instead of sharing the private car white women got to use, they were stuck in the smoking carriage and vulnerable to sexual harassment (this overlaps a lot with Dark End of the Street). The solution was a matter of debate: widespread boycotts? Focus on the insults to women? Segregate based on good behavior, so well-bred blacks got treated better than roughnecks? Ultimately Jim Crow won out, as y’all know, but the efforts to thwart segregation are no less heroic for all that.
#SFWApro. Top cover by Robert Rodriguez, bottom by Samantha Collins, all rights remain to current holders.
