Title: Tales From the Mystic of Sage Street (Rat City Chronicles 2)
Author/Publisher: Alina Lee
Price: $4.99 (ebook)

Liza Tanaka is a mystic. After a fortuitous(?) lightning strike, she was granted the gift of ancient magic; magic so old that it draws on feelings and intuition, not language or rational thought. As a mystic, Liza is in a unique position to solve unusual problems for both the mundane and not-so-mundane citizens of Rat City (not its real name; more on that below). One day she’s helping a trans woman reclaim her true name from a fae, the next Liza is hunting for a lost artifact in a parallel world or assisting a brand new sin eater with a difficult demon. Life is never boring. And, despite her occasional gripe, Liza wouldn’t have it any other way ….

I discovered Lee’s work on a fantasy Discord server, where it was recommended to fans of urban fantasy. Intrigued, I ordered a copy from Bookshop.org. Halfway through the collection, I ordered the other two books in the Rat City Chronicles.

Yes, the stories are that good.

First is the setting. Rat City, as it is not so affectionately known by its residents, is … somewhere on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. The city is rife with corruption and rot (Liza knows a single honorable police officer), and the buildings and streets reflect the moral failings of the people. The population is the usual wild mixture of ethnicities due to its size and history, with a notable portion of Asian descent, but also home to demons, vampires, magic users of various stripes, and (yes) ninjas.

The ninjas, by the way, use sonic booms to jump between skyscrapers.

Then there is the cosmology. Lee draws primarily from various Asian spiritualities, mythologies, and folklores in crafting Liza’s adventures, as well as the tropes of weird fiction and urban fantasy. The result is a delicious smorgasbord of Gods, cosmic beings, monsters, and magic types that I rarely if ever see in modern urban fantasy. I kept reading because I couldn’t wait to see what new-to-me creature or bit of lore Lee was going to toss into a story; for example, in one adventure, Liza travels to a parallel world that is all ocean and that is filled with monstrous critters, in another she travels inside a cosmic being, and in still a third she is unwillingly recruited to star as a knight errant in a dying woman’s dream.

And, of course, there is Liza herself. A queer straight arrow. Her love life isn’t great (her last girlfriend thoroughly shattered her heart), and her mystical work is demanding and sometimes a little grey around the edges. But Liza herself is honorable and honest; when she makes a deal, she sticks to it; when she makes a promise, she keeps it; and when she owes a debt, she pays it in full, because she understands the personal and magical consequences of not doing so.

I was fortunate to snag physical copies of Lee’s books while they were still available. Currently the books, as well as Lee’s other publications, are only available from their itch.io storefront. (But the ebook will load directly into your favorite reader app.)

Tales From the Mystic of Sage Street is a terrific collection of short stories set in a strange urban landscape, filled with even stranger magic and wild adventures. Highly recommended to fans of Lee’s other stories, as well as fans of Under the Dragon Moon by Mawce Hanlin, the Little Yokai series by Scott Walker, the Augustus Derlyth series by Blaze Ward, and Touched by Magic by Celine Jeanjean.

[Reviewed by Rebecca Buchanan.]