These collection of three short stories have two themes:
One is Tyromancy. The ancient art of predicting the
future using cheese (traditionally by cheese making) beyond just “we’re going
to have something tasty to eat.” This is actually a thing and our ancestors
were odd odd people. I do appreciate this rather unique little twist uniting
them,
The second is the old Polish saying “Not My Circus, Not my Monkeys.” A saying basically saying (simplistically) “not my problem.
This is most excellently done in Prelude to War from the IronDruid Chronicles a story between Shattered
and Staked
which nicely fits into the main plot line of the series, filling in some
gaps and expanding on some points. In fact, if I have any criticism about this
short story at all it fails one of my tests for a short story: it’s probably
pretty incompressible if you don’t follow the main series of books. Since I do,
I loved it because it excellently added to that main series, showing how Atticus
got the information he needed to track down what he finds in the next book
I also always appreciate Kevin Hearne’s dedication to
research – as while the other authors have come up with their own ideas for
what Tyromancy involves, Hearne has actually gone to the original definition
and method.
The “not our circus” comes in when he finds – and learns
she “betrayed him”. A definition she gloriously rejects by pointing out she
doesn’t owe him anything. He bought services from her once. He is now buying
services from her again. She didn’t swear loyalty. She isn’t his friend. She
doesn’t owe him anything – she certainly isn’t required to risk her life or die
for the sake of protecting Atticus or helping in a fight or war that doesn’t
remotely involve her. I appreciate this even more since Mekera is a Black woman
– and a Lesbian or bisexual woman. This genre – and the media in general – is absolutely
full of minorities being sidekicks for straight white men, serving straight
white men and, of course, sacrificing for straight white men that having Mekera
declare firmly that she didn’t sign up for any of that, she isn’t responsible
for any of that and Atticus has no damn right to expect that from her is a
wonderful subversion of that continued expectation. This isn’t her circus.
These aren’t her monkeys. She isn’t involved and she doesn’t want to be and won’t
be shamed into it or feel guilty because her loyalty was expected
The story also nicely touches on her last relationship –
a deep and abiding love that led her to seek isolation when her lover died
which is a nice element of character building I appreciated along with
examination of her ethnicity and history. It’s a short story and she’s a
briefly appearing character, I could understand her not being well developed. I
like that some effort was made to make her more than just the woman who tells
the future using cheese.
