While Romantasy has been all the rage another fantasy subgenre has been sneaking into the charts – Cosy Fantasy. Cosy Fantasy is often defined as “low stakes and peaceful”, it involves found family and monsters who are just misunderstood. But even within this subgenre there is a spectrum. There are often stakes, sometimes world-ending ones, there can be violence and there are plenty of dangerous monsters along with the friendly ones. Some of the authors playing in this space include John Wiswell, Travis Baldree and TJ Klune. Marshall J Moore has written in this mode before and now delivers a dark but cosy standalone The Henchperson’s Guide to Unionizing.
The main character of The Henchperson’s Guide to Unionizing is Igor. Igor has been the assistant to the Doctor for many years, helping to him to complete the ‘Great Work’. This involves creating the perfect human out of body parts extracted from nearby cemeteries and bringing that creation to life using electricity drawn from the lightning. When the book opens, Igor and the Doctor are once again being driven out of their home by a local mob of townsfolk wielding torches and pitchforks before they can finish their experiments. The pair wind up at Ravenwald Manor, home of the Doctor’s ancestors, one of whom is the Count, an ancient vampire who still lives there with his wife Cornelia. Also taking refuge in the house is Mag, a witch who is determined to open a portal to a hell-like dimension with the help of her cat familiar Grimalkin.
As the title suggests, the plot revolves around the henchpeople – Igor, Cornelia and Grimalkin – who slowly develop a friendship and realising there is more to life than blind service. In doing so they start to incur the wrath of their masters and also find the stakes getting higher.
The Henchperson’s Guide to Unionizing is built quite deliberately on some very well established tropes. The mad Dr Frankenstein-like scientist and his misshapen offsider, vampire lore, alchemy, rampaging villagers with pitchforks and torches, witchcraft and eldritch creatures with tentacles. The likely familiarity of readers with these tropes allows Marshall to play with them but also play down some of the gruesome details and horror that is inherent in their original use.
In the end, The Henchperson’s Guide to Unionizing is a found family story and also, as the name suggests, builds on the power of the collective. A henchperson on their own may not be able to fight the system but together, possibly they have some power. It is cosy fantasy with a slightly dark edge and for the growing number of fans of this subgenre it will definitely scratch an itch.
The Henchperson's Guide to Unionizing by Marshall J Moore
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