Geekomancy (Ree Reyes, #1)

by Michael R Underwood

Clerks meets Buffy the Vampire the Slayer in this original urban fantasy ebook about Geekomancers—humans that derive supernatural powers from pop culture.

Ree Reyes’s life was easier when all she had to worry about was scraping together tips from her gig as a barista and comic shop slave to pursue her ambitions as a screenwriter.

When a scruffy-looking guy storms into the shop looking for a comic like his life depends on it, Ree writes it off as just another day in the land of the geeks. Until a gigantic “BOOM!” echoes from the alley a minute later, and Ree follows the rabbit hole down into her town’s magical flip-side. Here, astral cowboy hackers fight trolls, rubber-suited werewolves, and elegant Gothic Lolita witches while wielding nostalgia-powered props.

Ree joins Eastwood (aka Scruffy Guy), investigating a mysterious string of teen suicides as she tries to recover from her own drag-your-heart-through-jagged-glass breakup. But as she digs deeper, Ree discovers Eastwood may not be the knight-in-cardboard armor she thought. Will Ree be able to stop the suicides, save Eastwood from himself, and somehow keep her job?

• ISBN10: 1451698135
• ISBN13: 9781451698138
• Publish Date: 10 July 2012
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 15 March 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Imprint: Pocket Star
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

I’ve never really been able to get into Fantasy too well but occasionally I find an Urban Fantasy novel that I really enjoy. Geekomancy tells the story of Ree who discovers that she is a Geekomancer; a human that derive supernatural powers from pop culture. One day she is a struggling screen writer work as a barista at a comic shop the next she is discovering the town’s magical flip-side as well as her own abilities. Ree needs to help Eastwood in solving the mysterious increase of teen suicides while discovering who she is.

While this is a typical Urban Fanstasy novel this offers so much more; I would say a must read for any geeks out there is a lot of references to The Princess Bride, Buffy, Firefly, Star Wars, Dungeons & Dragons, Doctor Who, Sherlock and the list goes on and on. Many people talk about this book as a book that Kevin Smith would write if he wrote Urban Fantasy; while I see the homage towards Kevin Smith, I also feel like this is a homage to Joss Whedon as well.

In some parts I think Michael R. Underwood did step into the realm of the clique but overall I think this book was a fast pace geek-out and any predictability was overshadowed by the millions of pop culture references. This is the kind of book I would recommend to anyone looking for another nerdfest after finishing Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. This book would have been so much fun researching and Michael R. Underwood said he has been researching this book his whole life but let’s face it; it would be a good excuse to watch the entire series of Buffy or Sherlock again or to play some more video games like Crimson Skies.

Geekomancy had a nice balance between pop culture and urban fantasy to satisfy a read like myself who is a little wary of reading fantasy novels. This novel is the beginning of what seems like a great series and I’m looking forward to reading the sequel. While the plot is fairly standard, what Michael R. Underwood has done with the pop culture references and blending humour and fantasy elements into this book has resulted in a fast paced enjoyable nerdfest.