Business Makes Strange Bedfellows by E. E. Ottoman

Dr. Gertrude Bowers is a scientist – studying the quasi arcane art of resurrection. She’s definitely making progress and she is even facing a conflict not of whether she can raise the dead – or whether she should

And in the middle of all that she pulls a terrifying tentacled monstrosity out of one of the bodies she’s experimenting on. That rather interrupts her work

When she hears of a series of brutal murders, she realises the monster is killing and she feels responsible. Her only choice is to make a deal with Vi, mysterious, capable, dangerous – and a vampire. And she doesn’t want money to pay for her services.

I find myself slightly frustrated by this book

I’m frustrated because there’s a lot about this book that is utterly fascinating. Dr. Gert Bower is a fascinating character. She is the heiress of a dead, wealthy family trying to pursue her career as a doctor in a deeply sexist period. She’s also exploring a quasi-forbidden and certainly highly controversial scientific/occult field of study. She is discovering the occult, discovering far more is real than she had previously expected and having whole new vistas opening up to her. But she’s strong willed, indomitable and determined to face any challenge. In fact, she’s outright intrigued by any challenge – including a vampire who wants to share her bed and blood

This character is awesome. This character is amazing. This character could do so much. This character’s story will be fascinating. Her daily life, battling her peers, her powerful curiosity discovering more about the world, her passion for her work – all of this adds up to a character that is amazing and I want to read a whole series about her. Just what has been hinted here suggests so much more to her series. She also have some interesting complexities of ethics – figuring out not just what she can do – but what she should do.

All of this hints to a much deeper world – different kinds of vampires, Lovecraftian monsters, a Frankenstein’s monster plot developing…

But these hints are what we get and, as far as I can see, this isn’t the first book in an ongoing series – it’s a stand alone. Aaaaargh – so much potential, so much that could have been done! So much I wanted to see, so much that could have been developed – it’s like watching an awesome film through pin-hole lens! There is so much potential here, such excellent characters and such an excellent world…

Selume Proferre by E.E. Ottoman

An-An lives a rather casual life, happily doing her thing, involved in the LGBTQ community and working casually – when one of those casual jobs has her working for MC Anderson. MC is driven, determined talented and making a name for herself in the magical community. She’s an exorcist and an extremely good one

And she’ll need to be, because the demon she’s been called in to evict is not responding how anyone expected; though for all the curiosity, An-An is far more interested in her boss than any demonic activity

This book did a pretty awesome job of covering a lot within the format of a short story – cramming a lot in a short space without it feeling rushed or forced or out of place.

The world is painted pretty richly with just a few of these indications – the idea of magical universities, different branches of magic, the official qualifications and professional reputations of the magic users – the rather delightfully dusty, established-lawyer sense to the magical firm all excellently portrayed with just a few references. You don’t need pages and pages to describe magic as a legal profession – just these little hints really establish that aspect of the world

Similarly, the description of the several kinds of exorcism and the research into different kind of demons help reveal the full range of magic and creatures that our out there – by using a lens on a small section while implying that there’s so much more there the world is revealed without lots of minutiae that just aren’t necessary for the story and would bog it down. It’s a nicely restrained way to world build that works really well in the short story format where you have so little room to world build without bogging down your main characters.

The story itself was also well balanced – interesting enough to keep things moving and intriguing with just enough elements of danger and tragedy to pull things along and add some stakes to the plot. But, ultimately, neither complex enough nor involving people are who presented enough to create any real dominance. This is a character driven story, the story is there as a background to show An-An and MC get to know each other, it’s not there to be the main plot. In some ways that disappointments me – because the world setting and plot line deserves some development and could have been an excellent book in their own  right. It’s well done to put the focus on the romance but, personally, I’d rather have had a longer book, more use of this excellent world than a romance story which was good, but entirely predictable.