Dot Slash Magic

With a distinctly sharp and sarcastic style, Shipton (the Thalassic series) draws readers into this mind-bending science fantasy. Seven, a 20-something self-taught coder with commitment issues, finds herself at loose ends after her time sailing the world with a romantic partner ends in an abrupt and painful breakup. Now she’s back home in San Diego, living on a houseboat, taking community college classes, and growing closer to her stoner classmate Remy, who goes by Kurt due to his uncanny resemblance to Kurt Cobain. Seven’s life drastically changes, however, when she comes upon a mysterious door that leads to a meeting of the campus magic club. Turns out, magic is real, and those who wield it call themselves Makers—among them the handsome Logan. All of this magic talk is new and shocking to Seven but she soon discovers her own powers, leading her to attempt to integrate magic and technology as part of a project for her machine learning class. Things take a perilous turn when people start dying on campus. Along the way, Shipton digs deeply into her heroine’s complex psyche and relationship to AI. Witty dialogue, surprising plot spirals, and resonant questions about machine learning make this a treat. (Aug.)