Synopsis:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Golden Girls in this humorous contemporary standalone fantasy about a group of former Chosen Ones coming out of retirement to save the world one last time.
Three former Chosen Ones have joined together to spend their retirement in peace and quiet, running Second Life Books and Gifts in Salem, MA. A calm, peaceful, tourist-filled oasis, where they never have to worry about saving the world. Until some of the locals start summoning ancient creatures best left where they were…and they discover that their bookstore basement just may be the portal to the underworld. These ex-heroes may have thought they were done…but if they want to finish their retirement in peace, they’ll have to join together to save the world one last time.
Fun, funny, and heartwarming, this is a story of community, second chances, and the healing power of scones.
Review:
As I read Slayers of Old by Jim C. Hines, there was a weird familiarity about it. It took me a while to put my finger on it, but I finally figured it out. I’ve read a fair number of Cozy Fantasy books over the past couple years and this shared some DNA with those. In many of these cozy fantasies, our main characters put down the sword or wand or whatever to open a coffee shop, bookstore, or the quaint little cafe. That’s the launch pad for many of those stories, but Hines takes a different approach. What if our heroes put the heroic lifestyle behind them, only for trouble to come looking for them?
Like I said, there is some similar DNA. There is a whiff of a cozy fantasy book here, but it feels as if we are reading the more action-packed sequel — the time after John Wick’s dog is sent to that farm upstate. But Hines takes our heroes (and we have three, plus a newcomer) either long after their days of adventuring are behind them, or in our newbies case, as they are just getting started. Do they remember how to pull out that bag of tricks that served them so well decades in the past? After decades of living the cozy, comfy life of a bookseller, can they find the strength they once had to deal with a world-ending threat?
Our story is told in a rotation of POV characters – Jenny, a 56-year-old former Hunter of Artemis; Annette, a 60-year old former P.I. and half-succubus; and Temple, a wizard on the verge of triple digits who has accumulated magical power for generations of his family in his house. The three of them collectively run a supernatural bookshop in Salem, Massachusetts — YES, that Salem. Each of them have their own strengths and get a chance to show them off at different points, but thanks to their more advanced ages, each of them are a tad hamstrung along the way as well.
Now, their ages are a factor, especially as trouble starts rearing its head and some big-time demons are working on making an appearance in our world, but I actually think that Hines could have leaned a little more into their ages and all the disadvantages that it tends to bring. Their bonafides were clearly on display, but there were a few times that it felt like our protagonists had only taken a few months or years off instead of decades. Regardless, the book is a cracking good time and I loved the time I spent with each of the characters. There’s even a plot point late in the book where I exclaimed “you’ve gotta be kidding me!” as I read through my ebook copy. Hines was able to take his well-crafted characters and put them in situations that would be challenging for them at this stage of their lives with creative results.
I would happily read more adventures set in Hines’ supernatural universe and was glad to have read Slayers of Old.
Thank you to DAW for providing this book for review consideration through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
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