Katherine Fabian and Iona Datt Sharma’s Sing for the Coming of the Longest Night reminds me a bit of a Connie Willis novel, where the characters run around trying to put clues together to figure out the solution to a problem before a deadline hits. It’s not quite as madcap farcical as Willis books often are, but it has some of that same feel to it.
In this case, though, the problem is that the protagonists’ boyfriend is missing as the result of a spell he cast; the book is set in a world that’s a lot like ours, but oh yeah also Elfland is right around the corner and magic is a thing, everyday and normal but also a bit disreputable and dangerous.
With protagonists who are collectively bisexual poly genderqueer Hindu Jewish half-elves (okay, arguably the half-elf is less of a protagonist than a quest object), this could have felt like maybe it was trying too hard, but it doesn’t; I don’t know the authors’ biographies, but the details feel lived-in and mundane enough that it mostly ends up feeling like lived experience, at least from where I sit.
This is a relatively slight book (I think actually novella length, maybe), but it’s an enjoyable comfort read in the way those Connie Willis books can be. Recommended if it sounds like the kind of thing you’d like.
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