The Future Falls

Starred review from September 22, 2014
Continuing the adventures of the powerful ladies of the Gale family, the third Enchantment Emporium contemporary fantasy (after 2011’s The Wild Ways) focuses on the Wild Power, Charlotte Marie Gale. Charlie hears the music of the world, and a series of magical coincidences puts her in the path of Gary Ehrlich, a bouzouki player who just happens to know the secret of the apocalypse. The immensely powerful women who propel this story could easily be overwhelming and even melodramatic in their casual exercise of immense magic, but the cosmic scale of their dilemma and each character’s unusual individual abilities make this a step into a new world only gently framed by our own, rather than a painful stretching of the familiar. With geeky in-jokes, dynamic leads, convincing romantic complications, and a threat that is both unusual and wonderfully convincing, this is an enchanting example of contemporary urban fantasy.

October 15, 2014

An asteroid is heading for Earth but the Gale family gets an early heads up from Auntie Catherine who can see the future. Musician Charlotte "Charlie" Gale has been avoiding her family as much as possible, partly because her wild magic puts her outside the rigid control of the aunts, but also because she has fallen for her much younger cousin Jack, who is half-Gale and half-Dragonlord. His special place in the family allows him to work with Charlie to search for a way to stop the asteroid. VERDICT As this is the third book in the series (after 2011's The Wild Ways), there is a lot of family history that new readers will have to catch up on. Although Huff has a habit of repeating a lot of the phrases and mannerisms of her characters and the sexual rituals hinted at are a bit off-putting, there is plenty to like about the Gale family and their squabbling, controlling matriarchs.

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