Geekomancy had a lot of potential—but generally failed to live up to my expectations. The book was billed as ‘the way Geekomancy works’ and so I felt an obligation to read it to better understand paradigm building within a Geekomantic context. Instead, I was left feeling like I had taken a master class on both how to not construct a story and how not to construct an occult paradigm. Warning, this review contains major spoilers.

Setting 

Following in the tradition of other ‘secret, hidden, magical world’ stories, the secret world of very real magicians is just barely hidden from the mundane world. ‘The Doubt’ ensures that most people have no idea what they see—even if they see something spooky. It was caused by the in-setting equivalent of the Technocratic Union (from Mage: the Ascension) attempting to get rid of the elements of magic that weren’t far enough on the ‘science’ side of the scale. But, it actually protects normal people and magicians both by keeping their worlds separated. 

Plot

For unknown reasons, the Main Character (MC) seems to be suddenly immune to The Doubt. There are a multitude of traditions within the Geekomancy setting that rely primarily on Invocation via aesthetic trappings of the inspiration source—or destruction of items imbued with nostalgia and wonder (Glamour by another name?)

Ree is a barista, and a geek. She begins the book nursing the emotional damage caused by her boyfriend dumping her. A Geekomancer named Eastwood shows up while fighting an ‘oni’ and Ree lets her curiosity get the better of her—and she enters the world of Geekomancy. Eastwood cajoles Ree into helping him investigate a string of teen suicides in their city. 

Ree gets a crash course in the art of Geekomancy, which requires the destruction of geek memorabilia to imbue the user with temporary power inspired by the setting of that memorabilia. She also learns a little bit about the underground world of Geekomancers within her city. 

Problems

Geekomancy suffers from several major issues in regards to it as a book, a potential paradigm, and a representation of geek culture. 

As a book, there were too many plot holes and too many characters didn’t make sense. Branwen seemed to be treated as a plot device more than a character. Same with Aiden. I couldn’t find any of the characters to be relatable—mostly because they either were very inconsistent or there wasn’t enough to grab onto them. The first chapter was a slog, and I found myself thinking about giving up on the book about 10 times within that first chapter alone. The DnD stat blocks were painful, and they were dropped almost immediately after that first chapter. 

As a paradigm…Geekomany has several glaring holes and too many unanswered questions. First off, this is what my teacher refers to as a ‘Coins Paradigm.’ There is a currency that forms the basis of magic. In the case of Geekomancer, items with lots of nostalgia value have innate magic imbued within them. Destroying or ‘using them’ up gives a power boost. This is much like the way Dross is used in Changeling: the Dreaming. But, this is where the holes start. 

First, this places the Geek Dross in the position of eventually running out—due to it being actively used up by Geekomancers. So does the magic run out once the stuff is gone? Are all these Geekomancers going to go back to normies once their comic books are all shredded? Unclear.

Second, the Geekomancers don’t actually use a paradigm. They are using dross as a power boost to Invoke powers of the media they consume. So they have no power—it comes from the Dross. The only people who seem to actively use a paradigm are the Bromancers and Drake Winters. The character of Branwen is specifically cited to be suffering from problems because she stuck to a single paradigm—and that is not explored. What was Lady Lucretia using? Why does Drake Winters not suffer the same as Branwen did? 

Third, there is no clear reason for why some items need to get ‘recharged’ and others are merely destroyed. In general, I don’t see the standard Geekomancer paradigm working—because it’s filled with more holes than my usual kitchen colander. 

This Really Twisted My Bloomers

I have been in the Lolita Fashion since 2010, and Underwood’s representation is incredibly incorrect. More insulting, he seems to not have done any research—including a cursory Google search. First, he specifically refers to Lady Lucretia as a ‘rorikon’ several times. 

“I’ve had worse. I’ve stared down demons, werewolves, and rorikon strega—” (p. 311)

“The Goth queen is Lady Lucretia, fortuneteller and rorikon expert.” (p. 101)

‘Rorikon’ (or loli con, for the English translation) is a term that specifically refers to pedophiles who prefer female presenting children. In the 12+ years I have been in Lolita Fashion, I have never heard anyone refer to a lolita as a ‘rorikon.’ It has only ever been used in the anime/manga/geek culture sphere as a reference to those who are sexually attracted to minors—also known as pedophiles. ‘Loli Con’ has its equally disgusting sibling: Shota Con—referring to pedophiles attracted to male presenting children. 

But, it stays bad.

“Ree scanned the room, trying to figure out where Lucretia was or would be. If I were a bitchy Goth queen who makes Nabokov turn in his grave, where would I be?” (p. 198). 

And here we have an overt reference to the book ‘Lolita’ which was written from the point of view of a middle aged pedophile who kidnapped and raped his stepdaughter. These were common misconceptions about the fashion at the time this book was originally written—but they could have been corrected with a single Google search, or if Underwood had bothered to ask a single person with any actual knowledge of the fashion and hobby. Thus I am left with the feeling that he didn’t think it was important enough to do any research. One geek dismissing another’s hobby—and that is not a good feeling.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I’m not impressed by this book, and feel actively alienated as a reader.  It is essentially a case of an interesting concept that failed to follow through on itself. There were a lot of elements that seemed to get dropped without explanation. Examples of this include the difference between people who use the Dross equivalent compared to those who ‘specialize’ in one paradigm, the nature of spirits within this setting, Lady Lucretia’s motivations, and the character Branwen in general.

From a writing perspective, there were multiple issues. I found the statblock bit to be tiring at best, but a roadblock to continue reading most of the time. Branwen’s introduction as Ree’s mother didn’t make any sense. If she had disappeared so recently from Ree’s life, why was it never mentioned before? That would have been a comparatively fresh wound for her to think of during the entirety of the book. Combined with being dumped, one would have thought this one-two punch would have had Ree mulling it over.

I am also not a fan of the characterization. It feels like character development, world development, and plot took a backseat to finding out just how many geek references Underwood could force into a page. I also disliked Underwood describing Ree as ‘exotic’ because she had partial Philippine heritage and then…her heritage never came up. To me, it smells of a white man fetishizing Asians for his own fantasies without any understanding of culture.

Final Grade: C- or D+