Tidal Creatures (Alchemical Journeys book 3) by Seanan McGuire (book review).

There are several authors, mainly in the SF field, who have tried to put their stories and novels into a timeline in an attempt to chart the development of technology and expansion of the human race away from our solar system. Others sneak characters from one book into cameo roles in a subsequent one. Readers do not always spot them, though they do place the works in context with each other. Seanan McGuire has done something different.

‘Tidal Creatures’ is the third book in the ‘Alchemical Journeys’ series but can be read independently of its predecessors. The Alchemists are a group who specialise in gene manipulation. Some of their actions are influenced by the writings of a 19th-century member of the group, A. Deborah Baker. Anyone familiar with the whole oeuvre of McGuire’s writing will know of the four books written for children under that pseudonym about the adventures of Tib and Avery in the ‘Up-and-Under’ fantasy world. They accidentally entered this world by climbing over a wall that shouldn’t have been there, and now they have to reach the Impossible City if they want to return home. The ‘Alchemical Journeys’ volumes quote from these books.

‘Tidal Creatures’ works on the premise that the Moon deities of various cultures have been fragmented, and parts of the original are manifested by various hosts. The setting for the story is around the campus of Berkeley University. Usually the aspects of the deities or Lunars appear as ordinary people like students and teachers, but they have a task to fulfil. Each evening, one of them passes through a gate into a corridor leading to a window. Passing through the window, the lunar spends the night shining over the Impossible City.

The Alchemists want to get to the Impossible City.

Judy is a language student that hosts an aspect of Chang’e, the Chinese Moon Goddess and keeper of the peach trees of immortality. It is her turn to shine over the Impossible City, but Máni, hosted by David, whose turn it was before her, is late getting back. The routine is that Máni will pass the key to the gate to her so she can lock it and be prepared to unlock it the next night, when she will be met at the end of her shift by the next person in the rota. When Máni appears, he is carrying the body of Aske. He says he found her lying under the window. As it is impractical to carry the body of a lunar who is leaking moonlight across the campus, they leave her in the corridor.

Judy tells Professor Williams, who, as Diana, is the most senior Lunar in the group, and is told that this is not the first murder of a minor Lunar. Naturally, complications ensue. When Chang’e and Máni go to retrieve Aske’s body the next night, it isn’t there. Eventually, they work out that each aspect has their own path to their own window, and when Máni went to shine on the Impossible City, the gate to Aske’s path hadn’t been locked. The problem is how to get to the right path. To take over from Chang’e, a new aspect that calls itself Losna turns up. She is actually an aspect of Artemis but does not want to draw Diana’s attention to her while she is investigating the murders.

Running parallel with this mystery is the story of Kelpie. She works in the underground labs of the Alchemists. An accident has disfigured her, according to reports. She believes her mentor, Margaret, when she says that she is helping her adjust and get her memory back. That changes when Margaret is murdered for failing to produce the construct the Alchemists want, the animal companion of a Lunar, to lure them into a trap. Despite being told otherwise, Kelpie finds out that she is a cuckoo, a construct fashioned to be Artemis’s hind. She flees.

The factor that brings the Lunars and Kelpie together is Roger and Dodger Middleton, the twin incarnation of the Doctrine of Ethos. For those who have read the previous volumes in the series, ‘Middlegame’ and ‘Seasonal Fears’, they will be familiar. It is with their help that the Lunars are able to solve the mystery of the deaths, and Kelpie finds her purpose.

‘Tidal Creatures’ is packed full of interesting ideas and is an example of how different series can be interlinked. Two of the A. Deborah Baker ‘Up-And-Under’ novels for children were published after ‘Middlegame’, though it is likely that most of the work for them was done in parallel. The Lunars in particular are believable characters, and Kelpie has a charm of her own. It is a novel full of action and a good addition to McGuire’s ever-growing list of published works.

Pauline Morgan

March 2025

(pub: TorDotCom, 2024. 464 page hardback. Price: $29.99 (US), $39.99 (CAN). ISBN: 978-1-250-33355-1)

check out website: https://torpublishinggroup.com/tidal-creatures/?isbn=9781250333551&format=hardback