Minimum Wage Magic (2018)
Written by: Rachel Aaron
Genre: Cyberpunk, Fantasy
Pages: 286 pages (ebook)
Series: Book 1 in the DFZ series
Publisher: Aaron/Back (self published)
Why I Chose It: Minimum Wage Magic is the first book in a spin off series. As a huge fan of the original series, Heartstrikers, this was a “must buy” for me.
The Premise:
The DFZ, the metropolis formerly known as Detroit, is the world’s most magical city with a population of nine million and zero public safety laws. That’s a lot of mages, cybernetically enhanced chrome heads, and mythical beasties who die, get into debt, and otherwise fail to pay their rent. When they can’t pay their bills, their stuff gets sold to the highest bidder to cover the tab.
That’s when they call me. My name is Opal Yong-ae, and I’m a Cleaner: a freelance mage with an art history degree who’s employed by the DFZ to sort through the mountains of magical junk people leave behind. It’s not a pretty job, or a safe one–there’s a reason I wear bite-proof gloves–but when you’re deep in debt in a city where gods are real, dragons are traffic hazards, and buildings move around on their own, you don’t get to be picky about where your money comes from. You just have to make it work, even when the only thing of value in your latest repossessed apartment is the dead body of the mage who used to live there.
No spoilers
Discussion: The interesting thing about a spin-off series is it needs to appeal to multiple audiences: fans of the previous series who are looking to dive back into the world they fell in love with, and new readers who have no idea what they’re getting into. I think that this is something that Minimum Wage Magic, the first book in the DFZ series, handles well. Rather than linger on the mostly-dragon cast and epic fantasy level stakes that populated Rachel Aaron’s popular Heartstrikers series, the attention is turned to an almost all-new cast of characters, and a smaller, more personal story.
Opal Yong-ae is a Cleaner, meaning it’s her job to go through the junk left behind by evicted citizens of the DFZ in hopes of finding something of value. Living in a magical, sentient, cyberpunk version of future Detroit results in her finding some interesting things. But when her latest job lands her a body, she ends drifting into unfamiliar territory. Opal has stumbled upon a mystery that promises a large payout, but the cost may be deadly.
I really enjoyed Opal as a protagonist. She’s fierce, resourceful, and determined. Sure, sometimes she’s determined to the point of stupid, but I feel like that makes her even more likable. She’s also desperate for money, and fast, which makes her a very motivated/active protagonist (and the reason behind her financial woes are very interesting!). The cast of Minimum Wage Magic is quite small, and the character that Opal finds herself spending the most time with is Nik. While I wasn’t much of a fan the shifty Cleaner when he first arrived, it didn’t take long before I began to find him fascinating. By the end, I was totally on board for the two of them to end up together.
Another “character” who ends up having the biggest impact is the DFZ herself. And sure, we don’t end up getting to see her on the same level that we did in the last few Heartstikers books, but we certainly get to see the effect she has on her populace. The DFZ is alive, and will sometimes move buildings and roads at whims, making for a constantly shifting landscape. In addition, in the DFZ, pretty much everything is free and legal, which can make for rather interesting (and dangerous) developments for our protagonists.
The cyberpunk element seems to come off stronger here than in the Heartstrkers series which, with its emphasis on dragons, emphasized the fantasy over the sci-fi. This time around, the dragons are taking a backseat, meaning the technology has a more prominent role. Opal has a rather active AI that she talks to frequently, and we end up meeting multiple characters with cybernetic body parts. At the same time, magic is still very much a thing, and I really enjoyed the ways that both tech and magic resulted in some unique world building.
In Conclusion: While part of me was sad not to revisit Julius and Marci, Minimum Wage Magic is an incredibly strong series starter. Thanks to the unique mix of fantasy, cyberpunk, and mystery elements, I found myself just flying through the pages. I loved the new characters and look forward to seeing where the adventure takes them next. Minimum Wage Magic may be on the short side (the book is less than 300 pages and includes quite a bit of back matter) but I am hooked, regardless. Bring on book two!
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