''The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump'' is a fantasy novel by American writer

Harry Turtledove Harry Norman Turtledove (born June 14, 1949) is an American author who is best known for his work in the genres of alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction, and mystery fiction. He is a student of history and completed his ...

, published by

Baen Books Baen Books () is an American publishing house for science fiction and fantasy. In science fiction, it emphasizes space opera, hard science fiction, and military science fiction. The company was established in 1983 by science fiction publisher an ...

in 1993.

Premise and setting

While having some aspects of an

alternate history Alternate history (also referred to as alternative history, allohistory, althist, or simply A.H.) is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which one or more historical events have occurred but are resolved differently than in actual history. As ...

, it is mainly a work of

science fantasy file:Warhammer40kcosplay.jpg, Cosplay of a character from the ''Warhammer 40,000'' tabletop game; one critic has characterized the game's setting as "action-oriented science-fantasy." Science fantasy is a hybrid genre within speculative fiction ...

depicting a world where spells, pragmatically used by some to achieve the same results as the use of technology, call upon a spectrum of major to minor deities of the present to the past that are functioning when called upon or omni-present and restricted to local use or having a greater area of influence. Spells are not toxin-free and can have an ill effect on the environment when the appropriate deities and if certain practices are not considered, disaster can follow. The book is set in a recognizable present-day United States (specifically, in a very recognizable analogue of

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

), with many present-day technologies and institutions having a magical equivalent (for example, the analogue of the CIA is staffed by actual, literal spooks, and computers use a multitude of imps instead of microchips). The title refers to magic spells that can have toxic side-effects, much the same as industrial practices in our world; therefore, there is the need for a place where those toxins can be dumped to avoid damaging the environment. The book also employs many of the conventions of the hard-boiled detective novel, transposed to this setting. The protagonist, EPA ( Environmental Perfection Agency) agent David Fisher, is assigned a case that would appear to need little attention and a simple solution soon becomes complicated and dangerous.

References

External links

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Review by Doug Linger

Review on the Baen Books website

Review by Jeph Gord

1993 American novels 1993 fantasy novels American fantasy novels Novels by Harry Turtledove American detective novels Occult detective fiction Mythology in popular culture Novels set in Los Angeles Central Intelligence Agency in fiction Mesoamerican mythology in popular culture Science fantasy novels Speculative crime and thriller fiction novels Baen Books books Imps Novels based on Native American mythology {{1990s-specf-novel-stub

Premise and setting

See also

References

External links