Breach by W.L. GoodWater

Title: Breach 
Author: W.L. Goodwater
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Cold War Magic # 1

Paperback, 368 Pages
Publication: November 6, 2018 by Ace

Source: I received a review copy from the publisher in exchange for a honest review.

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AFTER THE WAR, THE WALL BROUGHT AN UNEASY PEACE.

When Soviet magicians conjured an arcane Wall to blockade occupied Berlin, the world was outraged but let it stand for the sake of peace. Now after 10 years of fighting with spies instead of spells, the CIA has discovered the unthinkable:

THE WALL IS FAILING.

While refugees and soldiers mass along the border, operatives from East and West converge on the most dangerous city in the world to stop or take advantage of the crisis.

Karen, a young magician with the American Office of Magical Research and Deployment, is sent to investigate the breach in the Wall and see if it can be reversed. Instead she will discover that the truth is elusive in this divided city, and that even magic itself has its own agenda.

BECAUSE THE REAL PURPOSE OF THE WALL IS ABOUT TO BE REVEALED.

One cannot mention the Cold War without mentioning the Berlin Wall, the two are mutually inclusive. In Breach, Goodwater’s alternate Cold War Era, The Berlin Wall separates East and West Berlin as well; except the wall is made up entirely of magic. The strongest magic anyone has ever seen and is said to be unbreakable and impenetrable. Until a soldier discovers a breach.

Fantasy war novels are usually a hit or miss. And I’ll be honest, I don’t know much about the Cold War except what was taught in junior high and that was a long, long time ago. However, Goodwater does an excellent job using the history of what is known and added his own embellishments for an intricate magic realism espionage mystery. Breach is narrated by different characters from a young magician with rose-colored glasses, an American operative based in Berlin to a boogieman of legends told to frighten and keep people in line known as The Nightingale.

One of the main narrator is Karen, a young magician called in to help evaluate the wall from the US Magic Research and Deployment office. I was immediately immersed in her voice. Unlike many people around her who feared and still saw magic as destructive, Karen believed magic can be used for good. Karen was a very realistic heroine (well the only heroine in the entire novel aside from a brief mention of a prostitute) who is perfectly flawed. She had moments of triumphs and mistakes and faced oppositions and hostility from the majority of her male colleagues and strangers on a daily basis. And despite it all, she never dwelt on the matter too long, rather she focused on doing everything she could to help the people affected by the wall. All of Karen’s actions and reactions throughout the novel felt very real, considering magic is involved. And speaking of magic, the magic system in Breach wasn’t as fleshed out as I hoped. It was never clearly defined but it’s wasn’t overly complex either making it easy for readers to understand. The magic consisted of verbal incantations and occasionally a locus, a source of the magician’s power (something that held personal meaning).

At the core, Breach is a mystery. There’s a spattering of action scenes here and there but what stands out are the characters and their interaction with one another. I enjoyed the mystery surrounding the Berlin Wall and following Karen and the team as they uncover the truth for the wall’s creation. My favorite scene was when their lead led them to an impromptu rescue mission of a high ranking Nazi magician, who turned out to be one of the most interesting character in the entire novel. I highly recommend Breach, it was a solid debut novel and in my opinion, a great Cold War Fantasy introduction.