Review: Cicero James, Ardent Fool by Hal Emerson

A brash and brilliant slice of urban fantasy, Cicero James, Ardent Fool by Hal Emerson combines familiar societal stakes with immortal defenders and reality-shattering enemies that have been duking it out since time began.

Cicero James has come back to life – again – following his last torturous clash with Mallory Shrike and her defenestration to a nether realm. Dying is hard work, and resurrection is illegal, so he took a few days off to pen the first mad installment of this series, before plunging back into the mayhem as an immortal Miracle Worker, tasked with handling the foul forces breaking into the real world from the Space Between Spaces.

Determined to save the Blissful masses from oppression, while keeping other Workers on the path of righteousness, and getting up to speed on his new divine skillset, Cicero finds himself overwhelmed and in the spotlight as an unlikely savior. Wrestling with grief over the loss of his mentor and navigating the unpredictable effects of his own death-defying trauma, Cicero doesn’t have time to process or mourn, but he is armed with his Prime Gift pocket watch and a cadre of hard-as-nails companions. He’ll need them all to keep his secret safe, because “the cycle has begun” and rifts to the Space Between Spaces are opening faster than ever, edging humanity towards Armageddon.

Unlike so many other fantasy novels that rest on the clash of good and evil, Emerson blurs the edges of this classic dichotomy, tangling the lines of ideological allies and existential enemies. Cry Havoc’s indifferent anarchy, Shrike’s authoritarian dream of social stratification, and the Order of the Magi’s relentless pursuit of balance and healing combine into a powerful contemporary allegory and political critique. The intentional complication of goals, motives, strategies, and morals is a more accurate and relatable representation of humanity’s struggles than the traditional binary.

On a storytelling level, the magical system of this world is original and flexible, combining elements of Celtic, Norse, and shamanic cultural traditions in a way that feels visceral and authentically rough around the edges. Juxtaposing magical instruments, conduits, and tattoos with a treasure trove of future tech gives the prose a surreal yet steampunk feel, like Arthur C. Clarke’s Third Law come to life on the page: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

While the premise of a semi-resentful guardian with magic tattoos holding down a data analyst day job to pay the bills echoes Clark Kent’s journalistic cover, the story refreshingly strips away the glamor and glory of other metahuman franchises. The casually cool tone of the writing makes the story immediately welcoming, as if readers are getting VIP access to ancient secrets, and the caustic narration is saturated with sass, charm, and irresistible anti-hero attitude. Breaking the fourth wall can often be a clumsy mechanism for storytelling jumps, but the formatting unfolds as an unedited stream-of-consciousness screed, as though speaking directly to readers for posterity.

The urgency of the voice creates a fast-forming intimacy between reader and storyteller, maximizing emotional investment and the liberatory feeling of simply being along for the ride. And what a ride it is – breathlessly paced, hilarious off the cuff, and strikingly self-aware on everything from emotional dysregulation and displacement to social responsibility and pursuing one’s potential, resulting in gritty work of urban fantasy that is equally entertaining and thought-provoking.