The Middling Affliction, Alex Shvartsman
The Middling Affliction, Alex Shvartsman
32 Rating(s)
List: $17.99 | Sale: $12.59
Club: $8.99

The Middling Affliction
The Conradverse Chronicles

Author: Alex Shvartsman

Narrator: Patrick Boylan

Unabridged: 8 hr 57 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/31/2022


Synopsis

GUARD BROOKLYN, FIGHT MONSTERS, TAUNT BAD GUYS

"Shvartsman delivers real magic action and surprise twists...You're going to want more."—Esther M. Fiesner, Nebula-award winning author of the national bestseller, Warchild.

What would you do if you lost everything that mattered to you, as well as all means to protect yourself and others, but still had to save the day? Conrad Brent is about to find out.

Conrad Brent protects the people of Brooklyn from monsters and magical threats. The snarky, wisecracking guardian also has a dangerous secret: he’s one in a million – literally.

Magical ability comes to about one in every 30,000 and can manifest at any age. Conrad is rarer than this, however. He’s a middling, one of the half-gifted and totally despised. Most of the gifted community feels that middlings should be instantly killed. The few who don’t flat out hate them still aren’t excited to be around middlings. Meaning Conrad can’t tell anyone, not even his best friends, what he really is.

Conrad hides in plain sight by being a part of the volunteer Watch, those magically gifted who protect their cities from dangerous, arcane threats. And, to pay the bills, Conrad moonlights as a private detective and monster hunter for the gifted community. Which helps him keep up his personal fiction – that he’s a magical version of Batman. Conrad does both jobs thanks to charms, artifacts, and his wits, along with copious amounts of coffee. But little does he know that events are about to change his life…forever.

When Conrad discovers the Traveling Fair auction house has another middling who’s just manifested her so-called powers on the auction block, he’s determined to save her, regardless of risk. But what he finds out while doing so is even worse – the winning bidder works for a company that’s just created the most dangerous chemical weapon to ever hit the magical community.

Before Conrad can convince anyone at the Watch of the danger, he’s exposed for what he really is. Now, stripped of rank, magical objects, friends and allies, Conrad has to try to save the world with only his wits. Thankfully though, no one’s taken away his coffee.

About Alex Shvartsman

Alex Shvartsman is a writer, translator, game designer,and anthologist. His adventures so far have included traveling to over 30 countries, playing a card game for a living, and building a successful business. Over 120 of his short stories have appeared in Analog, Nature, Strange Horizons, Fireside, Weird Tales, Galaxy’s Edge, and many other venues. He won the WSFA Small Press Award for Short Fiction in 2014 andwas a two-time finalist (2015 & 2017) for the Canopus Award for Excellencein Interstellar Fiction. Alex lives in Brooklyn, NY.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Spens on March 22, 2025

2022 Actual rating: 2.5 I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This started out as an interesting urban fantasy with the potential for comicbook quality in terms of an interesting premise for a superhero story and the flashiness and action that comes wit......more

Goodreads review by Jonathan on June 20, 2022

4.5/5 This superhero novel blew me away! I'm new to Shvartsman's work, but after reading this I am very impressed and can't wait to continue this epic journey in the next book. Our main character is Conrad Brent, a middling who uses magical artifacts to pose as a gifted with powers like his friends at......more

Goodreads review by Adam on July 12, 2022

This book is a mess. The main character is a cut-price Harry Dresden, the plot is three or four different plots rather aggressively hacked apart and stuck back together with spit and spite. It meanders all over the place, each idea could have some merit but its so crudle strung together its almost pai......more

Goodreads review by Десислава on September 28, 2023

A fresh, funny and quick read; definitely recommend to fans of fantasy adventure stories and monster-fighting narratives. This book's greatest attribute is, undoubtedly, the snarky narrative voice; there's no way you don't feel for Conrad and enjoy his various antics and attempts to compensate for hi......more

Goodreads review by David on June 01, 2022

"The Middling Affliction is a delightful romp through a New York City alive with Sumatran changelings, Philippine energy beetles, and all manner of bizarre and dangerous magical creatures." Full review at the New York Journal of Books, here: [URL not allowed] A funny book, easy t......more