I think overall I’d have liked a bit longer for Owen and Malachi’s relationship to develop the compressed timescale didn’t quite work for me here, and I could’ve used seeing a little more trust starting to develop between them. The power differential between witches and familiars is present in all of these stories, but most of all here, where the personal relationship balances it. I think I liked them a tiny bit less than Cicero and Tom from the first book, and I thought they needed to do a heck of a lot more communicating (including about their boundaries during sex, which they just kind of plunge into), but Malachi and Owen have a totally different and interesting dynamic, and it worked out well. Hawk, queer fic, romance, SF/Fīack to Hexworld, and this second book is as fun as the first. So much more I’d like to know about the background stuff and their sponsor… Rating: 4/5 I was a little worried that the jealousy/inferiority complex stuff so characteristic of Whyborne in the early Whyborne & Griffin books was going to come out here with the references to Oscar’s childhood friend, but luckily it didn’t really go that way too much. Of course, those secrets are relevant to the story, and Oscar finds himself having to use his newly acknowledged talents to help his family - whether they want him to or not. I enjoyed that there were complexities there, that it wasn’t just both parents being a united front of anger for exactly the same reasons. I like that the contention isn’t about Nigel being trans or about it being a queer relationship, and there’s no tension about the non-binary character either instead this is pure family dynamics, secrets being kept, etc.
It’s… predictably awkward, especially as soon as they discover Nigel’s job and what the two of them work on together. I didn’t realise this was coming out, and leapt on it as soon as I did! It’s lovely to revisit Oscar and Nigel, and see them a little further into their relationship - in fact, with Oscar taking Nigel to meet his parents.
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