Magical Plot Glue - a Lazy Author's Best Friend

This week we have to look at a collection of some of the laziest story tropes we’ve come across in this genre of magic and mystery

Magic appears a lot in out books - it’s Urban Fantasy, magic is almost required. Some of those systems are intricate and detailed and fascinating. Some are powerful and dramatic. Some have deep backstories, some draw upon real world traditions.

And some involve an author chanting the powerful worlds’ “Fuck it, Magic did it” and lo, the knotty problems of the plot are solved…. By magic! Alas, despite it’s vast power, magical plot hole sealant does not have the ability to make a book or show be coherent or enjoyable. It may be convenient to use magic to hastily glue together the shattered remnants of the plot, but like your grandma’s ugly vase you’ve dragged to the Antique Road Show, we can see the cracks

One form of this Magical Plot Glue is Swiss Army Magic. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of magic is specifically designed to be flexible and I’m certainly not going to say that a wizard or witch can’t do something - but if you’ve established your character is an Earth Elemental with the vast powers of big heavy rocks, I’m going to call shenanigans if they start swooping through the air in the name of Granite.

Or if your character starts tying people up, moving them around and bobbing them on the head with fire - somehow without burning them - I’m going to be less intrigued by the plot and more confused by the author who doesn’t know what fire does. Or your have several gods running around but with infinite unrelated skill sets - your god of war and god of love are pretty much indistinguishable. Though, having read a lot of Paranormal Romance, this doesn’t surprise me.

Of course, while Swiss Army Magic is useful, it lacks the power of the greatest Magical Plot Glue:

Legends speak of many artefacts of incredible power. Of tomes that contain the secrets of the ancients. Of swords that radiate power. Of staves that can move mountains and rings that require epic treks across the wilderness to remove (despite those damn birds who would have been really helpful). But truly, there is one source of power that outshines them all:

The Arse of an Urban Fantasy Protagonist with a Lazy Author

Dyre: A Knight of Spirit and Shadows (Dyre Series #2) by Rachel E. Bailey

Ruby the new Dyre of North America, has been kidnapped – and only Des and Thierry, the people who love her, can try and get her back

She’s been taken to Europe, and must choose between a possible escape from the legacy she never asked for – or loyalty to the new family and people she has found.

I do feel like this book pulled out of a lot of woo-woo all of a sudden without a whole lot of weight or depth behind it. And since that woo-woo was convenient for the plot it felt a little flat to me. Like “how will I find Ruby?!” “Oh I’m psychic now! That’s conveniently useful!”

No, it’s not that convolutedly written, not at all. But it doesn’t change the convenience of it – a convenience that is often repeated. The characters don’t know what to do? That’s ok, a dead person is going to haunt them and give them step by step instructions on how to solve this problem. And it works. It also introduces more supernatural woo-woo that everyone just kind of swallows and it all works wonderfully with minimal difficulties. It’s just so easy. It just has all the answers spoon-fed to them by some convenient woo-woo

This is exacerbated by them not even exploring the supernatural woo-woo being handed to them. Like the idea that geas-bound have woo-woo… ok can we explore that? Why? What goes into the process? Where does the power come from? What’s the history here? Or the fact that every time Des has a vision she also bleeds from her ears and nose! Every time she has a vision she has a cranial bleed! She is literally having grand mal seizures, she is having strokes. She is literally asking people to punch her unconscious to help Rose through visions! What Urban Fantasy or Paranormal Romance book doesn’t LEAP on the angst potential of this! She’s risking death and brain damage for the sake of the woman she loves! Where’s the angst? Where’s the wailing? Where’s the guilt and martyrdom and nobility and overwrought emotions?! How can this just be a thing? Or there’s the supernatural afterlife that is revealed. How can the tangible proof of their afterlife not be powerful and world changing and immense?

Dyre: By Moon's Light (Dyre series) by Rachel E Bailey

The werewolf packs exist in peace and hidden from humanity. But a lot of that peace and secrecy can be put down the efforts of one man, the king of the werewolves, the Dyre

And he’s now death – much to the horror of Des, the woman who was oathsworn to protect him

Ruby is the old Dyre’s heir – a newly turned human who has a whole lot to learn before she can step in his shoes even with Des’s guidance and protection. And it’s not just werewolf history and politics she has to grasp – the death of the Dyre was only the first step in someone’s vicious plan.

Werewolves! Always fun to follow – werewolves and politics even more so since it’s usually vampires who play the political game. Different clans and families with their own histories and their own conflicts and rivalries. We have nice little side studies with a pack that was an outsider and worked their way up with new progressive changes to the rules which causes, of course, resentments. There’s some nice work gone into this political system.

The characters are interesting as well – Des and Ruby both have an edge of tragic past – and Des does love her angst. But unlike eighty billion characters out there, her angst doesn’t manifest as Keille Independence. She’s a capable fighter – a clearly dangerous one – but that doesn’t make her a violent rage machine either. I like them both for their skill, their power and the general lack of tropes. I want to follow their story

I want to be invested in the relationship between Des and Ruby – after all it’s a loving, sexual relationship with lots of passion and thought. Werewolf culture is happily free from homophobia (something I like – I mean, if you are going to create a whole new society of supernaturals and actually have no humans in the cast, why should they have the same prejudices as we do?) so both Des and Ruby being together – and Ruby being with other women before that (Or Ruby’s brother being in a relationship with another man) – doesn’t raise any objections or unnecessary homophobia scenes or clumsy teaching us that it’s wrong – and just introduces them as loving, caring, sexual beings who have fun and are defined by other traits than their sexuality and are refreshingly lacking in tropes and stereotypes. Even Jaime, who is “latent” so not a werewolf still makes a point of showing his strength and capability even as a latent (they don’t follow the