Made Things

July 15, 2019
Thieves, mages, and miniature golems run afoul of each other in this charming novella set in a steampunk fantasy world. Coppelia is an orphaned puppet-maker trying to eke a living through pickpocketing and other petty crimes in a grimy, overpopulated city where the ruling mage-lords grind the common folk beneath their heels. Aiding her are two peculiar companions: tiny wood-and-metal homunculi known as Tef and Arc, part of a homunculus delegation sent from their homeland to grow their number and create more of their kind. When Coppelia and her mentor, Auntie Countless, investigate a possible golem on behalf of one of the local robber barons, Coppelia winds up in the clutches of a dangerous evil beneath the city, and it’s up to the homunculi to save her. The result is a series of capers that involve unlikely alliances, a good dose of steampunk body horror, and some pointed commentary on what makes people human. Tchaikovsky (Walking to Aldebaran) makes expert use of the novella form to tell a self-contained story, and the dashingly roguish cast, clever prose (“Now the tethered battered and buzzed about... like a maddened candelabra”), and well-placed moments of heartfelt emotion are sure to delight.

October 15, 2019
Welcome to Fountains Parish, where ambition curls up to die. Tchaikovsky (The Tiger and the Wolf, 2017) reaffirms his mastery of gritty fantasy settings with this sublime novella about Coppelia, a street-wise puppeteer thief. She has befriended puppet-sized collaborators who help her liberate items from the unsuspecting. Her goals are different from theirs, but they align closely enough that the partnership works. Coppelia supplies them with puppets that they attempt to animate. All goes well until she is called upon to participate in a caper that takes them to the sanctum sanctorum of the Convocation of Mages, who run the city of Loretz. The magically animated puppet creatures must decide who to trust when the caper goes south. Well-fashioned characters and surroundings along with polished storytelling show Tchaikovsky at the top of his form.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)