The Misfit Mage and his Dashing Devil, by MN Bennett

[Ulysses]

The Misfit Mage and His Dashing Devil (Diabolic Romance 1)
By MN Bennett
Published by the author, 2023
Four stars

Walter and Bez are the ultimate nerd and jock mismatched pair. It’s the strangest “meet-cute” I’ve ever come across: Walter is an archivist in the Repository at the heart of the Magus Estate in Seattle. Bez is a devil, sealed in a glass orb in the Repository for the past fifty years. For three years Bez has heard every word Walter has said, and Walter describes all of his thoughts and actions out loud as he works, as if talking to the trapped diabolical. Thing is, Walter doesn’t realize that Bez is actually sentient and aware of his presence.

The story is really a sort of “Mission Impossible” tale of a nefarious plot to overthrow the hierarchy of mages who control the non-human world. Walter and Bez get caught up in it when Bez is accidentally released from his orb prison and forms a bond with the unwitting Walter. The rest is mayhem, with Walter and Bez front and center.

A misfit mage is a magical human who uses his magic outside the tightly-controlled system; but they can also be simply magical humans who work for hire outside the Magical Collective that controls all the magic in the world. Walter is such a misfit, but because he has never been able to pass the practitioner exam and become part of the regimental system within the Collective. There’s a whole story of family strife and low self-esteem there.

Bez (Beelzebub) is supposedly a devil, but as he tells us, the mortal world and the world of mages and mythics (magical creatures) is largely ignorant of the realities of the many hells and their minions. Bez is the only devil we know, and we get to know him really well.

Neither of these guys is what he seems, and that’s the critical thing about their accidental pairing. The world it out to get them, and only together can they stop the scheme to overthrow the Collective and save their own lives.

Bennett digs deep into Bez’s memories, and I found that intensity a little confusing at times—but no more than I found Walter’s intensity equally overwhelming. His whirring mind and endless curiosity and overthinking are, I suspect, related to the author’s own way of seeing the world. Both Bez and Walter are far more than the rest of the world sees them.

I would note that I think the title is a little too breezy and romantic for what actually takes place in the book. Yes, in its weird violent way, this is a love story. This is no light story of magical boys dancing among the rainbows. It is devilish and dark, and notably violent in many places. Bennett’s presentation of a post-Harry-Potter magical world is complicated and political. The mages who run the magical world are not necessarily any better than the mythical creatures they oppress or even the diabolics they don’t understand.

I enjoyed this book a lot and look forward to the next adventure for Bez and Walter. Bez will forever be a troubling character for me, but one worth more study.