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The Middling Affliction
The Middling Affliction: The Conradverse Chronicles, Book 1 | Alex Shvartsman
3 posts | 1 read
The Dresden Files meets American Gods in New York City. What would you do if you lost everything that mattered to you, as well as all means to protect yourself and others, but still had to save the day? Conrad Brent is about to find out. Conrad Brent protects the people of Brooklyn from monsters and magical threats. The snarky, wisecracking guardian also has a dangerous secret: he's one in a million - literally. Magical ability comes to about one in every 30,000 and can manifest at any age. Conrad is rarer than this, however. He's a middling, one of the half-gifted and totally despised. Most of the gifted community feels that middlings should be instantly killed. The few who don't flat out hate them still aren't excited to be around middlings. Meaning Conrad can't tell anyone, not even his best friends, what he really is. Conrad hides in plain sight by being a part of the volunteer Watch, those magically gifted who protect their cities from dangerous, arcane threats. And, to pay the bills, Conrad moonlights as a private detective and monster hunter for the gifted community. Which helps him keep up his personal fiction - that he's a magical version of Batman. Conrad does both jobs thanks to charms, artifacts, and his wits, along with copious amounts of coffee. But little does he know that events are about to change his life...forever. When Conrad discovers the Traveling Fair auction house has another middling who's just manifested her so-called powers on the auction block, he's determined to save her, regardless of risk. But what he finds out while doing so is even worse - the winning bidder works for a company that's just created the most dangerous chemical weapon to ever hit the magical community. Before Conrad can convince anyone at the Watch of the danger, he's exposed for what he really is. Now, stripped of rank, magical objects, friends and allies, Conrad has to try to save the world with only his wits. Thankfully though, no one's taken away his coffee.
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review
BookmarkTavern
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Mehso-so

Conrad is a human who can sense magic but not wield it which makes his job in a magical freelance police force difficult. Things get worse when he tries to rescue someone like him. And his secrets start to crumble around him.

The world was well established. Pace is quick. Characters were interesting. The humor is engaging w/ a LOT of pop culture.

Inconsistent action scenes. Tried to introduce too much & boo to blatant sequel hooks. 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑

BookmarkTavern #ARC #NetGalley Release date: May 31st, 2022 2y
58 likes1 comment
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BookmarkTavern
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Doing the adult thing and getting the battery replaced before it dies again at a highly inconvenient moment. 😅

TheRiehlDeal A battery tip I‘d like to pass along: Don‘t let your battery percentage get down too low, like teens or single digits. I learned that the hard way with my previous phone and was worried it would shut off at an unexpected moment. Now I never let my iPhone 11 percentage go below 30% at most. 2y
BookmarkTavern @TheRiehlDeal It was actually my car battery I had to replace! 😅 But that is excellent advice! 2y
TheRiehlDeal @ozma.of.oz Oh! My bad. I saw your phone and figured it was for your phone. Car troubles are the worst. 2y
69 likes3 comments
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BookmarkTavern
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The battery on my car died as I was waiting to pick up the nibling from school!

This was not how I wanted to get some reading outside done this week. 😂😂

kspenmoll So sorry but reading helps, does it not? 2y
BookmarkTavern @kspenmoll The book helped a lot with the boredom, less so with feeling dumb about the battery! 😂😂 2y
Ruthiella Oh, I hate car troubles! You have my sympathy. 2y
58 likes3 comments