Shoestring Theory

The creation of a new subgenre comes fraught with danger, there may be a good reason it did not arise before. I am seeing an increase in what can be called Cosy Fantasy, novels that have many of the tropes of the genre but concentrate on character interaction over the action. The threat is that Fantasy can have some big consequences; hobbit killing wizards, flesh eating undead. It is not always a genre that fits with cosy, but somehow Mariana Costa has managed to make the story in Shoestring Theory a delight, even if it is about avoiding the end of the world. 

Cyril has spent the last years of his life hidden in a small cottage on the coast. The land around him is dying, the seas emptying of fish. His only company, a familiar in the shape of Shoestring, a finickity cat. When even Shoestring dies, Cyril has nothing left to live for, so as a final act of sacrifice he gifts his own blood to a spell that may change everything. The chance to return thirty years earlier and undo what happened. To relive and reform old memories, old friends, old lovers, old lovers turned enemies. 

Shoestring is not a book that opens on a cosy premise. It is a bleak outlook, the fantasy equivalent of a Terminator future. One dead cat later and some suicide and I was worried that this was the darkest romantasy fiction I have read yet, but then the book takes a twist. One of many excellent twists that the book contains. The first chapter is just a prologue, the real events all happen in the past. 

It does not take much longer after this for the tone to shift to something lighter and as the book progresses it lightens further, even when one or two surprise antagonists turn up. Cyril has found himself in a serious situation but is an unserious man. He came off as a handsome, younger version of Rincewind. All angles and worries. One worry is his former lover and husband, King Eufrates, who through a series of unfortunate events creates the end of days. Cyril’s task is to change the future, but his relationship with Eufrates and Tigris, the woman who would be Queen, is complex made worse by knowing what is coming. 

It is the relationships within the book that make it so compelling. The lifelong friendship of Cyril with the royal siblings, but also the new King who has arrived to take Tigris’ hand in marriage. The book takes many twists and turns, several of which I did not see coming and have a remarkable effect on the direction the book takes. It would have been simple for Costa to have written a linear story, but the author is constantly surprising and delighting the reader. The flexible nature of the book and ever-changing relationships is what make the book feel cosier. 

No matter how you choose to class Shoestring in terms of genre or subgenre, I know that it is enjoyable. It has a quirky sense of humour and great characters. I miss the heyday of the 90s amusing Fantasy and the likes of Pratchett, Rankin, Holt and Harman. Costa has gone a long way to recreate the joy of those days. Even with big stakes at the beginning, this is a book that becomes a joy as it progresses. One of the happiest fantasy books I have read in a while.