To Serve the Divine by Sophie Lack

To Serve the Divine by Sophie Lack

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


There's an episode of 'Sliders', and here I go referencing a show from longish ago, that involved the 'main characters 'sliding' from their world to another. That world included both modern stuff, like guns, glass, skyscrapers, and active users of magic, I believe they were either Druid in origin or Celtic (I'm sure there are some similiarities and differences between the two). I mention this for a very specific reason - this short story opens with a woman wearing armor like a knight (at least it seemed described that way without using the word 'knight') who was falling to her death, through a glass window, in a sky-scrapper. When she landed she was surprised to find that her magic didn't work - that she couldn't 'feel' the magic actually.

I wasn't sure I'd write anything about this story, but that 'Sliders' episode sprang to mind and I found I had to write something. It's a vaguely odd feeling to read something involving magic users and modern stuff, yet I'm not really sure why I would feel that way. I mean, Urban Fantasy is magic being used in modern times (for the most part), but there's a different vibe to it - even the ones that use actual Druids who've been alive since Druids were an actual thing, seem slightly different from the feel here. Mostly because there's an alternate history aspect missing from Urban Fantasy (for the most part) - most urban fantasy take the world as it is today, and mixes in things, people and creatures, who are hidden from modern non-magic users minds (until forced to face this magic). Which is different from a society where magic is openly used in front of non-magic users, and accepted as the natural away of life. That tends to appear either in a vaguely historical fiction/fantasy setting (see: stories of Merlin), or Science Fiction/Science Fantasy setting (see: Star Wars, you know, those Jedi wizards operating in a science fiction world), rarely, though, in a world contemporary to our own (I mean, magic being openly acknowledged), - it could, of course, just mix in that those magicians, and fortune tellers, and mediums and the like operating in 'our' world have 'real magic', then you have the start of open/hidden magic users in modern setting without going into an alternate reality world where the Druids made it to modern times, and decided to build skyscrapers and the like (like having cameras).

What I'm expressing might be instantly obvious or horribly confusing. I know what I mean, but probably can't express it. So I move on.

Of Note: there are massive editing issues in this work. Words misused (using one spelling of a word, when a different spelling was meant), accidentally inserting words that were not needed, etc. Like an extra 'the'. Just one of those things to note. I ignored as much as I could, the issue. Though a person getting to their feet multiple times annoys me, heh. Eh, near the end of the book, Jasper, the lead character (other than the Goddess, who also has a POV), 'sighed and got to her feet', then 'smiled and got to her feet', never having actually left her feet. Maybe she has more feet to get onto? She'd need at least four to use 'feet' twice.

Rating: 3.44

June 11 2018



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