After a detour to the Half-Continent to battle monsters with D.M. Cornish, I returned last week to Crackpot Hall, home to Flora Segunda, her Butler and a pack of red dogs. Flora’s Dare, the second volume of Ysabeau Wilce’s Flora Segunda books, picks up right where the last volume left off, quickly recapping things with a “how I spent my summer vacation” style recap of volume 1 and moving on to new troubles right away. I enjoyed volume 1 a great deal, but volume 2 was even better. I admire the way that Wilce juggles multiple plotlines, turning what at first seems like a chaotic weave into one that’s perfectly tight, but not overly tidy. Flora is always jumping from frying pan to fire; she’s never quite in control of the situation, but she’s always learning so that next time she’s up against a 10th order stink demon, for example, she’ll definitely have things well in order.

The first volume which takes place on the eve of Flora’s 14th birthday, but now, a few months later, she is decidedly on the path to womanhood. Flora has a flirtation with the mysterious and dangerous Lord Axacaya, a figure in the Jareth mold – dangerous and seductive. She learns to see her family with the greater understanding and sympathy of a nearly-grown-up. Instead of just parroting the truisms of her mentor, Nini-Mo, Flora approaches trouble with caution culled from experience. It’s great character work.

Wilce continues to mingle fantasy and reality in new and unabashedly American ways, a nice change from the ubiquitous psuedo-European settings that dominate the category. (Again, it doesn’t hurt that as Flora dashes from place to place in fictional Califa, I can recognize the routes from their real-life San Francisco inspirations.) I also appreciate how vibrant the world is. In Califa, fashion is every bit as important as power, with men as well as women–especially with men, in the case of Flora’s best friend and dandy-supreme, Udo.

I can’t wait to see where Flora’s adventures take her next.

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