Tenth in the InCryptid urban fantasy series revolving around a family of cryptozoologists. The focus is on Sarah Zellaby. If you’re interested, there is a chronological listing of the InCryptid books on my website.
My Take
Events in Imaginary Numbers, 9, have stranded Sarah and those who no longer know her, and therefore don’t love her in another dimension. Thank goodness McGuire starts Calculated Risks with a recapitulation of events in Imaginary Numbers.
While the perspective is primarily Sarah’s in first person protagonist point-of-view, Angela does provide the prologue and her thoughts about puberty and cuckoo behavior emerging at the same time — it has some merit — is from a third person point-of-view as is Mark’s commentary on the back history on how the cuckoos came to earth and why the luck-benders were so bad for them. It’s also why Frances Brown was an orphan. Plenty more back history comes as Sarah tries to remind her fellow travelers that they do indeed know her.
We also learn the “truth” about survival of the fittest, and it does make more sense, lol.
”Survival of whatever fit into its ecological niche the most efficiently, without getting eaten by something else before it could make more of itself.”
Ooh, major fight about ancestral habits versus growing up “human”. I’m on the side of humans.
Then again, that human bigotry in which too many humans here on earth believe that if you’re not exactly like them, with their beliefs, then you’re monstrous. Explains why so many idiots believe that anyone not of their religion, LGBTQ, racial make-up, etc., are “monsters”.
It’s a fear of return without death that drives a good chunk of the story, keeping us in suspense with this primarily character-driven story. Yes, there is action too.
The Story
Sarah’s fellow cuckoos had triggered her second instar and made her their cuckoo queen, except that Sarah’s human upbringing hasn’t inculated her with those cuckoo beliefs.
They do make that dimensional jump, but not with everyone and Sarah does bring part of the campus with her. It’s how to get back that worries everyone.
The Characters
Sarah Zellaby, a telepathic ambush predator, is an adopted member of the Price family. She’s also a mathematician, a cryptozoologist, and the Calculating Priestess of the Aeslin mice. The McNallys had been Sarah’s first human family. Angela and Martin Baker were the second family to take Sarah in.
Angela Baker, a cuckoo who can project but can’t receive, has raised many young cuckoos in Ohio, besides Sarah and including Evie, a human, who is now a combat medic and herbalist fascinated by cryptid biology and medicine, and Drew, a boogeyman whose birth family was killed in an accident.
Evelyn “Evie” Baker is not a biological cuckoo, but having been raised by and with cuckoos, has developed a learned resistance. She’s married to Kevin Price (a descendant of Frances Brown who had also been resistant to cuckoos) is something of a cryptosociologist. Their children (Sarah’s cousins) are Verity, a competitive ballroom dancer, is married to Dominic; Alex is married to the pregnant Shelby; and, the judgmental Antimony “Annie”, the Precise Priestess who is a pyrokinetic. Laverne is the Aeslin mouse who is part of Annie’s clergy. Sam Taylor is Annie’s fūri trapeze artist turned boyfriend whom she met at the carnival in Magic For Nothing, 6. James Smith is another sorcerer whose power is ice (That Ain’t Witchcraft, 8, and “Follow the Lady“, 8.25). He’s been adopted into the Price family. Sally is James’ friend who made the bad deal with the crossroads.
Jane, Kevin’s sister, has two children, half-human and half-Lilu and all empath: Arthur “Artie”, the God of Chosen isolation with a pheromone problem, and Elsinore, a succubus like Grandma Alice Price (she’s still searching for her missing husband, Thomas). Both are Sarah’s cousins. Theodore Harrington, a Lilu, is her husband, their father. Aunt Mary Dunlavy and Aunt Rose Marshall, a crossroads ghost and a hitchhiking ghost, live with them.
Miranda, a biochemistry major, brought her “little sisters” to school with her: Ava, Morag, and Lupe. Morag’s gran was one of the magpies, a cuckoo. Terrence, a drug-seeking junkie with a gun. Michael, an agriculture major, is a cornwife. Heidi is a regular, human, student. Crystal, a comp-sci major, is a bogeywoman; her father and fiancée were there too. Maria is a chupacabra. Gwen Stacy.
In this dimension, the Patriarch had been an incubus traveling the dimensions with fellow travelers. The waheela woman with him was fleeing the High Arctic. Another traveler with him was Betsy, a sorcerer. Kenneth is his grandson and their current Patriarch. Greg is the giant cannibalistic spider Sarah coopts. They call them the heartless ones or hunters in the dark.
The Johrlacs’ . . .
. . . original world was Johrlar, a prison planet? Mark is a cuckoo who changed sides. Cici is Mark’s human sister. Ingrid, Sarah’s actual mother, organized Sarah’s kidnapping in Imaginary Numbers to transport the cuckoos o n earth to another dimension.
Luck-benders are . . .
. . . divided into three types: jinks who saw luck; Fortuna who made luck; and Kairos with internal luck, a haze of coincidence, making them immune to the cuckoos.
The Covenant of St George is . . .
. . . an organization based in Penton Hall that hates and despises cryptids. Cousin Margaret Price showed up in Midnight Blue-Light Special, 2, as part of a Covenant strike team.
The Prices broke away from the Covenant and became monster saviors. Cuckoos, their true name is Johrlac, are invaders from another dimension, completely sociopathic, not caring about others’ feelings in any way, and telepathic. Madhura and Apraxis are competitors with the Johrlacs. The Aeslin mice are evolutionary mimics who are a religious cult which is passionate about documenting every move of every member of the Price family. Instar is a cuckoo biological metamorphic process. Dr Morrow was a Caladrius at St Giles, a cryptid-only hospital in New York.
The Cover and Title
The cover is golden-hued with a blackboard in the background covered in mathematical formulae. In front of it is Sarah with her short dark hair and purple top. In front of her is a cracked glass with a huge shard missing, and in front of that, on the right, is a partial shadow of Sarah. The text is all white, starting with the info blurb at the very top with the author’s name immediately below. The title, outlined in yellow, crosses Sarah’s chest with the series info below that. On the right, starting at the top of Sarah’s head is a yellow badge, outlined in purple with award information in black.
The title is all about the Calculated Risks involved in getting home again.