Practical Boots – C.E. Murphy

“Practical Boots” is arbitrary in distracting ways. The protagonist can make Artifacts of arbitrary complexity and specificity. I mean ‘arbitrary’ in both senses - she can make any Artifact the plot requires, and for one of them she announces that it will only work for a few minutes. The protagonist swears fealty to an enemy with no restrictions or limitations - but keeps saying that it’s temporary. The plot hinges on the confluence of the bad guy having pulled off something extremely complicated in our world, a woman wanting something specific, urgently, (avoiding spoilers, sorry), and the protagonist being the one hired to courier it. If said bad guy is brilliant enough to have arranged all that, why does he give the protagonist enough rope to hang him?

I enjoyed reading this novella (is that the correct term?) but the plot holes were distracting and I don’t think I’ll read sequels.