published 1996; paperback 1996, Baen

It's tough to be a single mom. Even if you're a rough, tough, ass-kicking mercenary from another dimension, there are hazards a sword-bearing soldier never dreamed of. Welcome to the Planet of the Paper Pushers. Margaret Ball's Mathemagics gleefully points out the idiocies and incongruencies of our pitiful, red-tape snarled lives.

Riva Konneva has sacrificed quite a bit to give her only child an education. Only on Earth can Salla Konneva obtain the tutoring in mathematics she is going to need to be a first-rate magician in the world of Dazau, a much more dangerous place. However, Earth is beginning to become a dangerous place (rather than merely tedious), as Riva's sworn enemies appear and join up with Christian fundamentalists to grab magical control of Earth and eventually of Dazau.

For the most part I enjoyed this book, even though I was aware that it's an expansion of a story originally written for the compilation Chicks in Chainmail (edited by Esther Friesner). The premise is amusing, as is Riva Konneva's continual bafflement at Earth customs that her world-wise daughter takes for granted. However, I was disappointed, as I generally am, by the flatness and rigidity of the villains. This is amusing irony, since the main problem Konneva and her lover face is how to destroy the thousands upon thousands of stale character archetypes that have flooded Dazau as the villain Mikhalleviko uses his magical power to erase Earth books. This idea isn't sufficient to sustain my interest for long, however.

I'm tired of the two types of Bad Guys who show up in urban fantasy these days: the Amoral Bad Guy and the Too Moral Bad Guy. The latter always has a few incestuous family skeletons hanging in the closet. Both kinds talk too much, and neither needs much fleshing out these days, as we all recognize and loathe these types.

Ball does a good job of demonstrating the sordid futility of mind control as embodied in censorship, but it wasn't necessary for her to make the villainous censor a child-abusing scumbag who mistreats his wife. It's bad enough that he condemns knowledge and shuts down all forms of entertainment that don't fit in with his narrow worldview. Having him be an evil man as well as a stubborn, misguided fool keeps the reader from recognizing the insidious danger of most censorship attempts, which are usually carried out by ordinary people who seek to "protect" other people from thought.

Oh, and of course Bad Guy Boatwright is also a Christian Fundamentalist, which wasn't necessary either. Isn't anyone else sick of being preached to about the evils of patriarchy, especially the sort endorsed by the Christian Right? Hey, I'm willing to listen, but not in the midst of a sword-fightin', magebolt-zappin' fantasy novel. Again, it isn't necessary for a villain to encompass ultimate evil. Stupid, stubborn, and misguided work very well.

Other than my usual gripes, the book is funny and reads fairly quickly, though little enough of it stuck in my mind. All the Bad Guys get kicked and most of the situations are resolved. The title gives away the theory of its magic; the book's worth a glance if only for its chapter headings. I liked it well enough at the time. I don't like it as much now.

Review by Becky Parkhurst
Reviewed March 9, 1997

ISBN 0-671-87755-0

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