tamaranth | 2026/012: Troth

2026/012: Troth — E H Lupton

“Don’t be so bourgeois, darling. You’re a powerful magician and your lover is a retired god. Of course things are going to be a bit unusual.”
“It’s terrifying.”
“Eh, bien?” Mariah made a dismissive French noise. “It’s love. It’s supposed to be terrifying.” [p. 191]

Third in the series, and the last (for now) of the novels that focus on Ulysses and Sam. It begins with the two moving into a new apartment together, and meeting the neighbours (Vikram and Sita) who have a ghost problem -- and, it turns out, a connection to Sam's family.

Both Ulysses and Sam are growing up. Ulysses has finally left the family home, has won a prestigious prize, and is a professor: Sam has a real job, and is slowly rebuilding his relationship with his father. The magical bond between the two is intensifying and starting to cause problems, as is the return of Ulysses' brother Lazarus, home from Vietnam / Thailand and not sure how to fit himself back into his former life. And there are government officials literally chasing Sam; mutant spiders; and, in the mundane world, the university being bombed by anti-war protesters.

The building tension in this novel does make for some repetitive scenes, but it's interesting to see Ulysses somewhat less breezily competent than usual, and Sam more comfortable with the fact that he's an ex-god. There's a hint of past homophobia, and an apology for it: and discussions of marriage, and whether it's just a government mechanism for deciding which relationships are important. I found Mariah, Ulysses' mother, delightful and formidable (you may read that with a French accent if you wish) and the finale wholly satisfying. I did feel, though, that the spiders and the tentacles were insufficiently addressed.

This would probably have been a good place to stop, at least for now. But I was intrigued by damaged, prescient Lazarus, and his difficult relationship with his brother...