Today's paid update features an intrepid bookkeeper...
BogiReads brings you the daily speculative reading recommendation of editor Bogi Takács.
Today's recommendation -
This week's paid story recommendation includes a bookkeeper on a slightly terrifying magical adventure...
Author: Uchechukwu Nwaka
Title: “The Rainbow Bank”
Venue: Giganotosaurus, Aug 2023 (Edited by LaShawn M. Wanak)
Type: Novelette – 10516 words
Themes: Fantasy, sword & planet, magic comes back, adventure
Where to read: Text + ebooks free online
This was a lot of fun – an action-packed sword & planet story, except the “planet” is our own, set after a magic-comes-back type of apocalypse. Thin, weak-boned Mezie is the bookkeeper of a crime lord in Lagos, and when he hears of a magical artifact that produces endless wealth, he decides to venture past the enormous magical wards keeping out all manner of monstrous creatures. He hires a magical swordswoman to accompany him, and things rapidly become a mess. Or an adventure. A messy adventure.
I felt this story played with genre tropes in a refreshing way, and I’m always here for bookkeepers as protagonists too – one I already recommended a lot was Ken Liu’s “You’ll Always Have the Burden With You.”
Enjoy your weekend,
Bogi.