Review: The Hidden Goddess by M.K. Hobson

The Hidden Goddess by M.K. Hobson

Published: Bantam Spectra, 2011

Series: sequel to The Native Star

The Book:

There are necessarily a few spoilers in this review of the first book in the series, The Native Star, so continue at your own risk!

“Like it or not, Emily has fallen in love with Dreadnought Stanton, a New York Warlock as irresistible as he is insufferable. Newly engaged, she now must brave Dreadnought’s family and the magical elite of the nation’s wealthiest city. Not everyone is pleased with the impending nuptials, especially Emily’s future mother-in-law, a sociopathic socialite. But there are greater challenges still: confining couture, sinister Russian scientists, and a deathless Aztec goddess who dreams of plunging the world into apocalypse. With all they must confront, do Emily and Dreadnought have any hope of a happily-ever-after?” ~barnesandnoble.com

This is the sequel to The Native Star, M.K. Hobson’s Nebula-nominated first novel.  I was really impressed with The Native Star’s interesting historical-magical world, so I decided to follow the series.  The Hidden Goddess did not quite live up to its predecessor, in my opinion, but that could be due to my disinterest in romance. 

My Thoughts:

While The Native Star was a magical adventure with a dash of romance, The Hidden Goddess is a meandering magical tale of romantic love.  The story revolves around Emily and Stanton, the witch and warlock who fell in love in the previous novel.  Emily, a rural witch, was adopted under mysterious circumstances, and she has no memory of her biological family.  She fell in love with the haughty, high-class warlock Stanton.  She knew that he used to be a sangrimancer (blood magic practitioner), but she believed in his fundamental decency.  The core of the novel concerns Emily and Stanton learning much more about themselves and each other, and having to determine if their relationship (and their lives!) can make it through the challenges ahead.  There are other, more magical plots woven into this, such as the Russian scientists scheme to poison magic and the apocalypse of the obsidian goddess, but even these stories were linked in some way to the topic of romantic love. 

I think that anyone who wished The Native Star had focused more on the Emily and Stanton’s love will find The Hidden Goddess to be a welcome continuation of the story. I’m not much of a romance fan, but my existing interest in the lovers made it easier to be drawn into the story.  Even so, I was occasionally distracted by some of the more clichéd romance elements. There was Stanton’s evil ex, the whole ‘pretty country girl dragged into polite society’ bit, and various misunderstandings due to lack of communication.  It wasn’t enough to put me off the book entirely, though, since I had been looking forward to learning more about their histories and seeing their relationship develop.

While everything in the novel links back neatly to themes of romantic love, the explicit plot in The Hidden Goddess sometimes felt a little meandering.  The Native Star had a clear chase plot, and it was focused around the immediate concern of dealing with the “Native Star” magical artifact.  For the first part of The Hidden Goddess, Emily seems to spend a lot of time either trying to survive ‘high society’ or wandering around.  Her travels are certainly interesting, but her purpose is mostly to make herself scarce as Stanton deals with the aftermath of The Native Star.  The story does become more intense and exciting towards the end, but the novel, as a whole, ended up feeling a little uneven to me.

One minor character that really stole the show for me was Miss Jesczenka, Emily’s ‘social guide’ in New York. Much more than a simple etiquette advisor, Miss Jesczenka is the only female faculty member of the Credomantic (faith magic) Institute.  I was initially impressed that she was able to practice in the field at all, since credomancy is based on the belief of others in your power.  In Stanton’s society, women are treated with, at best, sneering condescension.  Though she was not the main character, her story of coping as a woman in a male-dominated field (and society) really struck a chord with me.

My Rating: 3.5/5

In The Hidden Goddess, featuring the continuing story of Emily Edwards and Dreadnought Stanton, the focus shifts towards romance. While there is a fair bit of magical adventure, including an impending apocalypse and the possible poisoning of all magic, everything ties back in some way to romantic love.   However, the emphasis on romance also led to a number of common romance clichés, and it took quite a while for the magical plot to really take shape.  The first half of the book seemed a little aimless at times, as it followed Emily dealing with problems of etiquette and wandering around.  I don’t think that The Hidden Goddess was as strong of a novel overall as The Native Star, but it was still an entertaining addition to Emily and Stanton’s adventures. 

Review: The Native Star by M.K. Hobson

The Native Star by M.K. Hobson

Published: Spectra, 2010

Award Nominations: Nebula Award

The Book:

“The year is 1876. In the small Sierra Nevada settlement of Lost Pine, the town witch, Emily Edwards, is being run out of business by an influx of mail-order patent magics. Attempting to solve her problem with a love spell, Emily only makes things worse. But before she can undo the damage, an enchanted artifact falls into her possession—and suddenly Emily must flee for her life, pursued by evil warlocks who want the object for themselves.

Dreadnought Stanton, a warlock from New York City whose personality is as pompous and abrasive as his name, has been exiled to Lost Pine for mysterious reasons. Now he finds himself involuntarily allied with Emily in a race against time—and across the United States by horse, train, and biomechanical flying machine—in quest of the great Professor Mirabilis, who alone can unlock the secret of the coveted artifact. But along the way, Emily and Stanton will be forced to contend with the most powerful and unpredictable magic of all—the magic of the human heart.” ~from barnesandnoble.com

I read The Native Star thanks to a dare from the Calico Reaction blog.  This is Hobson’s first novel, and she has described the style as “bustlepunk”.  A sequel, The Hidden Goddess, has recently been published.  The Native Star is definitely a complete novel, but a number of interesting subjects not fully explored in this first book have left me eager to read the sequel.

 The Book:

The Native Star is an exciting mix of alternate history, action-adventure, fantasy, mystery, and romance.  The setting is late 19^th century United States, but in this fantastical version of history, society is being largely shaped by magic instead of industry. Hobson’s magical world is richly developed, from the rural family-taught practitioners to uptight University warlocks.  It’s a world where people can transfer their souls to objects by magic and monstrous jackrabbit “Aberrancies” threaten unwary travelers.  The three specific schools of magic are Animancy, related to spirits and living things, Credomancy, based on the power of belief, and Sangrimancy, a dark and powerful art fueled by blood. There were interesting quirks in the system, such as the fact that anti-magic religious fanatics unwittingly use a kind of Credomancy against magic users through the force of their belief. 

I was a little thrown off by the prevalence of sexism, racism and classism, particularly in the highly educated warlock circles, but these attitudes were definitely portrayed in a negative light.  There was a witch’s rights association, at least, to combat a bit of the sexism.  I think these flaws in Hobson’s society served to make it feel even more plausible as an alternate magical history.   

Many of the characters in the story, even beyond the protagonists, were interestingly multi-layered.  It seemed that everyone had secrets, or were more (or less) than they appeared. Emily and Stanton both had their flaws, but I still found them to be very sympathetic leads.  In my opinion, they both had very abrasive personalities, but they were also both shaped by their share of troubles.  The side characters, such as the gambling witch in San Francisco, the overly gabby train passenger Rose Hibble, and even Professor Mirabilis, all had their own stories and their own secrets to keep.

The story itself is very fast-paced and energetic, but a bit standard in scope.  After Emily inadvertently comes into possession of a priceless magical artifact, she and Stanton find themselves on the run from the many dangerous factions that want to claim it.  All the while, they’re trying to figure out what exactly that artifact is, and what should be done about it. While the fast pace, interesting surroundings, and engaging characters made the story work for me, the basics of the plot seem almost like a usual action-adventure movie. 

The romantic side of the book consisted of a fairly predictable love triangle.  On the one hand, Emily has cast a love spell on the local wealthy lumberman of Lost Pine, a truly decent guy she’s known all her life.  On the other hand, she can’t stand Dreadnought Stanton!  Their personalities grate on each other, he’s sophisticated and arrogant, and he has a mysterious past.  Can you guess who she’ll pick?  I have to admit that this is not one of my favorite romantic tropes, but I feel that the novel focused much more on magic and adventure than on love. In the end, I felt that the world-building and the vibrant characters more than made up for the somewhat simple fundamental plot.            

My Rating: 4/5

The Native Star was a real pleasure to read, which is, I would hope, the goal of most fiction.  The exciting “bustlepunk” magical 19^th century America, with its evil sangrimancers, raging aberrancies, priggish warlocks and ‘skycladdische’ witches, is an endlessly exciting place for adventure.  The characters, from Emily and Stanton to the people they meet along the way, are just as intriguing and complicated as the world they inhabit.  The plot, Emily and Stanton fleeing evil or unscrupulous warlocks with an unwanted powerful magical artifact, is pretty standard, but still a fun romp.  The romantic subplot is also fairly predictable, but it does not take up a huge portion of the overall story.  I found The Native Star to be a very quick and enjoyable read, with a world and characters that I look forward to visiting again in The Hidden Goddess.