Baldacci is plainly up on his ancient Greek theatrical conventions, however just as all hope is lost, a divinity literally descends from the ceiling to referee a winner-take-all duel, and thanks to an earlier ritual that (she and readers learn) gives her a do-over if she’s killed (a second deus ex machina!), Vega Jane comes away with a win…not to mention an engagement ring to go with the magic one that makes her invisible and a new dog, just like the one that died heroically. As Necro repeatedly proves to be both smarter and more powerful than Vega Jane, things generally go badly for the rebels, who end up losing their hidden refuge, many of their best fighters, and even the final battle. The rebellion against an evil archmage and his bowler-topped minions wends its way to a climax.ĭispatching five baddies on the first two pages alone, wand-waving villain-exterminator Vega Jane gathers a motley army of fellow magicals, ghosts, and muggles-sorry, “Wugmorts”-for a final assault on Necro and his natty Maladons. In the spirit of Jane Yolen's The Devil's Arithmetic (1988), with a mix of historical details about the women's-suffrage movement and early printing, tied together with a very Jewish thread of historical continuity It takes all three to help her find the initiative, empathy and common sense to help push her toward adulthood. Miriam pops back and forth between worlds: well-to-do Portland, where she makes morning calls and attends fancy-dress parties biblical Moab and the equally exotic, alien environment of suffragist marches and working-class neighborhoods. The daughters of Zelophehad seek a favor from Moses, and Miriam is needed to provide them with courage. Miriam is visited by her biblical relative, Serakh, who begs Miriam to travel back in time to help her ancestors. If befriending a lovely pair of poor young suffragists isn't enough to make Miriam rebel, what is? Perhaps time travel is what she needs. Miriam's immigrant Jewish parents, proud of the future they've built from poverty, intend an advantageous marriage for their only living child. But respectable, well-to-do girls don't work with heavy machinery in 1912 Portland, Ore. Sixteen-year-old Miriam, lover of typography, wants nothing more than to train at her father's print shop. Travels in time give a middle-class girl the courage to fight for both women's suffrage and her own dreams.
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