As Myfanwy’s amnesia (and subsequent efforts to hide it from her co-workers at the Checquy) is a spot-on metaphor for impostor syndrome. While most Urban Fantasy I’ve read is mostly an excuse for various magical critters to beat the snot out of each other (and/or get sexy with each other, depending on if there’s a lady wearing leather pants on the cover or not). But the great part is, there’s more to the book than that. Now, if The Rook were just a novel about weird secret adventures, told in a wry English (or Austrailian, I guess, given O’Malley’s nationality) tone that varies between drolly hilarious and darkly horrifying, it’d be an entertaining enough read. Heck, there’s even an American operative with Colossus-esque living metal powers– but O’Malley is a skilled enough writer to make this more of a clever homage rather than a derivative imitation. In particular, many Checquy agents manifest strange and unique powers as children (or sometimes later as adults)– which honestly feels more X-men than anything. Instead of being something that’s easily ‘defined’ like the standard Urban Fantasy boyfriends menagerie, or even Lovecraftian squeebliness, much of the weirdness in The Rook is … well, weird. Sure, there are some inevitable critters like dragons or vampires– but these are strange and exceedingly rare. For one, in a somewhat refreshing take on things, the world of the Checquy feels fresh and original. ![]() Though to be honest, describing The Rook that way is a bit derivative, as it stands quite well on its own. So you have a (supernatural) spy with no memory trying to escape the conspiracy that gave her amnesia in the first place– it’s basically The Bourne Identity meets Charles Stross‘ Laundry novels. And, when the previous Myfanwy found out she was going to have all her memories erased, she made it a point to set up a contingency plan for … herself, consisting of a whole bunch of handwritten letters to, well, herself. You see, Myfanwy is a member of The Checquy, one of those secret English organizations devoted to protecting the world from various strange and supernatural threats. Lucky for Myfanwy, she planned for this … or, well, the previous Myfanwy did. In any case, The Rook is about a woman by the name of Myfawny (rhymes with “Tiffany.” It’s Welsh) Thomas, who wakes up one evening with two black eyes, a circle of gloved corpses surrounding her, and absolutely no idea who she is. Which is surprising, as it’s a pretty solid Urban Fantasy/Spooky Conspiracy kind of book, it’s just that I hadn’t heard of Daniel O’Malley before. Especially since The Rook probably wouldn’t have popped up on my radar beforehand. Sorry.īut yeah! It’s always nice to see my friends have good taste. How can we design personified computational systems (e.g.Book Review: The Rook, by Daniel O’MalleyĪ friend of mine recommended The Rook to me some while ago– and when I stumbled across it via the Overdrive library app, (which I should note is the best thing ever) I figured “why not?”Īlso, if a completely different friend of mine is reading this, Overdrive doesn’t have that spooky Sabrina graphic novel on it.How can we re-design cities to increase meaningful forms of interacting with nature?. ![]() What are the psychological effects of interacting with Technological Nature?.Why do people, still in modern times, need interaction with relatively wild nature – that which is often big, untamed, unmanaged, self-organizing, and unencumbered by human artifice?. ![]() Are frequent interactions with diverse nature important, or even necessary, for children to develop well - physically and psychologically?.Can interaction with nature help move people into states of higher forms of psychological functioning?.How are every day digital devices (e.g., social media) and current AI (e.g., ChatGPT) effecting people’s psychological wellbeing, and transforming and at times upending forms of social interaction and social systems?.How do we solve what is perhaps the most pressing psychological problem of our lifetime – of environmental generational amnesia?.
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