Sometimes Ariel and I end up getting approved for the same books on NetGalley! We did a few such unplanned buddy reads in 2020 and this year we decided to take a serious look at our NetGalley shelf together and find the common books. First up we bring you a discussion of a unique historical fantasy, The Conductors by Nicole Glover. Check out the synopsis below and then dive into our discussion.
As a conductor on the Underground Railroad, Hetty Rhodes helped usher dozens of people north with her wits and magic. Now that the Civil War is over, Hetty and her husband Benjy have settled in Philadelphia, solving murders and mysteries that the white authorities won’t touch. When they find one of their friends slain in an alley, Hetty and Benjy bury the body and set off to find answers. But the secrets and intricate lies of the elites of Black Philadelphia only serve to dredge up more questions. To solve this mystery, they will have to face ugly truths all around them, including the ones about each other.
In this vibrant and original novel, Nicole Glover joins a roster of contemporary writers within fantasy, such as Victor LaValle and Zen Cho, who use speculative fiction to delve into important historical and cultural threads.
Content Notes: Depictions of Death, Slavery, Racism, Violence.
The Conductors
Whole book Discussion
The one word I keep repeating for this book is ‘unique’. The cast, the magical system, the points of views, the time it is set in… so many things about this book made it a new experience for me. This book has been compared to Octavia Butler’s Kindred and Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files so if you have read either of those, you will probably be more familiar with the feel of the book. Personally, I will admit the cover was a major draw for me to choose this book. The murder mystery mentioned in the synopsis was a good hook as well. More and more, I have been preferring standalone books and duologies to longer series and I am glad to have found another standalone fantasy that I like. What drew you to this book, Ariel?
I have seen this book hyped up a lot on Twitter throughout the year of 2020, and that’s what originally piqued my interest. I do love a good mystery, and the celestial magic system blended in with a historical fiction setting seemed like it would be a really interesting read. As we drew closer to reading the book, I saw this page of principal characters on Nicole Glover’s website, and the character profiles made me even more excited to dive in.
A number of Fantasy books have recently made me think about the balance between the number of characters and the plot. At first, I struggled a little bit with the sheer number of characters in this book but once you explained to me that African American communities are usually quite tightly knit, that automatically took away my stress. I appreciate the depth to which each character was written and the clue cards that the author shared on Twitter and her website were really helpful in adding more grounding for me.
Something I really appreciated about this book was the nature of the magic. The usage of stitching and embroidering by Hetty, as well as the usage of celestial magic and casting spells through tracing constellations was really something that I loved to see, given my own love for all things space and my personal hobby of embroidery.
Yes, me too! And with you doing embroidery regularly and me doing art, I think it also got us to do our other hobbies with a little more passion. 🙂
Concluding thoughts
I’m really glad that this book worked out as a buddy read for us, Kriti! All in all, it was an enjoyable mystery that kept us guessing till the very end. The entire story feels like it has the perfect amount of closure, and I wouldn’t mind reading another story with Hetty and Benji again.
Haha nothing better than crossing off a book from our NetGalley shelf and marking it as ‘read’ and ‘read with a friend’ at the same time. This book is the first in the Magic and Murder series.
The Conductors is available in stores starting March 2nd, 2021. We would recommend finding it at your local library and supporting them!
Many thanks to the publisher for providing us a complimentary copy of the book with a request for an honest review.
Thank you for reading! For more book discussions, check out the books with * in the Book Review Index.
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