Summary: <\/strong>There\u2019s a religious order that is aware of \u201cmonsters\u201d\u2014otherwise known as cryptids, or species as yet identified by (and maybe hiding from) science\u2014that hunts them down. There\u2019s also a family whose previous generations worked for this order and who recognize that these creatures are no monsters and are deserving of protection, and the books follow this family and their descendents in their efforts to fight the real monsters and save the creatures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At least one of the vegetables responsible for the brownish gravy that covered the whole thing shared enough of the chemical makeup of tomatoes to taste like paradise. The rest of the flavors were harder to define. <\/em><\/p> If that sounds weird, you try explaining what a turnip tastes like to someone who\u2019s never tasted one. If you can manage anything better than \u201clike a potato, but maybe sort of sweet,\u201d you\u2019re a culinary genius. Now imagine the person you\u2019re talking to has never had a potato either. You have no common point of reference. I could tell I was eating something close to root vegetables, and some kind of herbs, and some kind of fungus, maybe, along with the large chunks of what could almost have been shrimp, and a piece of what was almost but not entirely like bread. <\/em><\/p>p. 289<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n As soon as I heard of Seanan McGuire\u2019s fae series about October Daye, I went to the library to give the books a try. Within a matter of a few weeks, I\u2019d caught up on the series and was mad that I\u2019d spent so long denying my own interests to even consider giving such a book series a try. And yet. And yet I kept putting off reading her InCryptid series because it seemed sillier. As if sillier wasn\u2019t exactly the sort of thing to appeal to me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, well, you know, the world went into quarantine, and we all thought we might die of this new virus, and suddenly, silly was exactly what I needed. Then, like the Toby Daye series before it, I had caught up on the series within a matter of weeks, this time deciding to buy the trade paperbacks since libraries were often closed, or we feared this new virus as something potentially spread through touch (rather than air). <\/p>\n\n\n\n I managed to catch up before the last two books were released, and it\u2019s been a struggle since to wait the time between publishing, while recognizing that McGuire is one of the more prolific authors and that authors are people living through the same times as the rest of us. Still, this series captivated me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, when the latest came out this past winter, I went back through not the entire series but more than half of it, the ones that centered on my favorite characters, and bits of my favorite moments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For me, while I\u2019d enjoyed the series through all its twists and turns to date, I fell in love with the youngest daughter of the main family branch (so far). I\u2019m the oldest and nothing like Antimony, but her stories spoke to me, mostly because she was the odd man out, and who doesn\u2019t love the black sheep? (I mean, several assholes don\u2019t, but that\u2019s not what we\u2019re here to talk about.) When a perfectly perfect and dramatic arc finished with her, I almost doubted I could love any family member as much, and then along comes cousin Sarah. Introduced in the first book (and per McGuire, one of the first characters she imagined in this world), Sarah is given the spotlight in books 9 and 10, including Calculated Risks<\/em>. Again, I don\u2019t want to spoil the series, but I am happy to say that the distance between her introduction and her turn in the main role was worth the wait for having all the background of the world and the family to truly want to wrap your arms around someone who\u2019d probably prefer you kept your distance lest she manipulate your mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While there\u2019s plenty of other food items to spotlight throughout the series, I couldn\u2019t help but return to the passage about the possible shrimp gumbo-like product discussed near the end of this book. I just loved the way McGuire both captured the flavors of something Sarah was bound to love while acknowledging how difficult it can be to define flavors, especially when the species you\u2019re talking to may not be your own. I am a hater of the dreaded fungi, so I skipped that bit, but otherwise I did my best to envision what she described, and make it edible to a mere human palate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s what I did to make extra-dimensional gumbo: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Calculated Risks \u2013 Seanan McGuire Disclaimer: This is the 10th book in a series, and the second in a mini-series featuring a recurring character, so to avoid any spoilers for anyone new to the series (and in an effort to hopefully convince anyone new to the series to give it a shot), I will simply … <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/christiniacrippes.com\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/extra-dimensional-gumbo-1024x768.jpg\")
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