The Future Falls by Tanya Huff

Due to the busy-ness in my life right now, I'm not going to write a long-winded essay about the latest in the Gale Aunties series by Huff. Huff is a superb and well-established author who writes very readable fiction. BUT...this particular iteration of the series spends most of its time going nowhere, while indulging in maudlin whining from the main character, Charlie (Charlotte) about the unable-to-be-consummated love affair between herself, and Jack the Dragon Prince. The plot should have been about the existential threat of global extinction posed by the asteroid which is about to strike Earth, and about the characters and their friends doing everything in their power to stop it, but instead it was mostly about interpersonal power juggling and emotional foolishness. I still love Huff's writing, and it was vastly entertaining, but if you're looking for adventure, it ain't here.

The Wild Ways by Tanya Huff

In this sequel to The Magic Emporium, I felt like I had a bit more of a clue what's going on with the whole Gale family, though it took a bit to get back into the flow of family politics. The focus of the action moves from Allie to Charlie (Charlotte), one of the younger members of the clan who has not yet been forced to take her place in the hierarchy, and who is, indeed, a bit of a wild child, spending most of her time on the road playing music, whether it's rock & roll, country, or Celtic. After returning from a long country tour, through Canada, she gets an offer to go on the festival circuit with a Celtic group, and rapidly decides, with a little prompting from the magic mirror in Allie's shoppe, to go for it.

Allie's grandmother, Catherine, is stirring up some trouble again, by getting into the middle of a political battle between an "evil" oil company that wants to drill offshore on the Breton coast, and a group of environmentalists trying to stop the project. The environmentalists' core leadership turns out to be a band of Selkies, whose primary concern is preserving the pristine nature of the oceans for their race; any benefit to humans is purely incidental. When one of the band members' girlfriend turns out to be a Selkie, and Charlie finds out that her skin (which allows Selkies to transform between their human and seal shapes) has been stolen, and along with four others' skins, being held hostage by the head of the oil company, it only follows naturally that she'll bring her Gale powers to bear on the situation.

There's a lot of fun stuff in here about the antics of the band members on tour, and some references that will probably make a lot of sense to Celtic music fans, and some subtle moralizing on the dangers of offshore drilling, while acknowledging the need for cheap energy and jobs. I figured out fairly early that Aunt Catherine's motivations weren't quite what they seemed, though I didn't find out the full truth until the big reveal at the end

Charlie and Allie's "nephew", Jack, becomes an integral part of this story. He's a teenager, and that's a dangerous thing for a Gale sorcerer, and even more dangerous time for a dragon Prince. Coming to terms with his odd status in the family, both for him and the elder Aunties, is fraught with trouble, but by the end of this story, his character gets a bit more fleshed out and he seems to secure a place for himself. I wouldn't be too surprised to see him as the primary character in a sequel, actually.

The Enchantment Emporium by Tanya Huff

Either it's a strange coincidence, or it's just my week to read books with a heroine named Allie. In between Allie Beckstrom books by Monk, I begin reading a new novel by Huff and the protagonist is Allie Gale, a member of a very strange family from rural Canada. Huff begins with and maintains a little mystery about what's really going on in this one. We meet the Gale family as they're preparing for a ritual in the woods, and, from a not-so-casual observer, we see that the men of the family sport somewhat spectral antlers during the ritual. Are they shapeshifters, or what?

The Gale family (no relation to Dorothy from Kansas) is ruled by the Aunties, who may or may not have supernatural powers; it's a little vague at the beginning. Allie's grandmother, who technically was one of the Aunties, has been away from the family for a long time, and when she apparently dies, she leaves control of her junk shoppe in the big city to Allie. Allie leaves the family farm and heads to Calgary, where she finds out quickly that Grandma's shop is more interesting on the inside than outside. The merchandise in the shop ranges from the mundane, like boxes and boxes of yoyos, to the macabre, like the monkey's paw with one wish left on it.

The shop also serves as a mail drop for some of Calgary's denizens who aren't exactly Canadian citizens, a variety of shy and magical immigrants from the Under Realm. While Allie is getting a handle on the business end of things and looking into her grandma's disappearance, she gets tangled up with some interesting folks, such as a too-tall leprechaun named Joe, a tabloid reporter named Graham, a sorceror named Stanley, and a baker's dozen Dragon Lords.

This novel moves along steadily and enchantingly, with lots of interesting characters, dialog, and a great sense of humor. I've liked Huff's writing for years, and she may have the beginning of a wonderful new series here.


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