Review by Booklist Review
After a disastrous breakup with her mentor, psychiatric magic graduate student Annae moves to England to finish her studies. Unfortunately for Annae, her new academic advisor, Dr. Marec Górski, is even worse than the man she just left--he is volatile and belittles Annae and the other graduate students who study under him. Marec is like this because he created a homunculus, pulling from himself all of his more humane qualities. This homunculus is Dr. Ariel Górski, a therapist who Annae gets to know. Annae, who can read minds, uses her power to invade the minds of Marec, Ariel, and her fellow graduate students. Annae, who seems to be a victim of Marec, is actually the true monster, reading people's minds without their consent, violating them. Her actions and abuse of her magic have devastating consequences for those around her. More adventurous readers, especially fans of Marina and Sergey Dyachenko's Vita Nostra (2018), might enjoy this dense, esoteric, and dark novella. Readers seeking deeper world building and those who read for plot might be disappointed by this slow-moving treatise on the world of academia and abuses within it. For larger collections only.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Set in a fictional British university on par with Oxbridge, this dark, tactile novella from Lambda Award winner Fellman (Dead Collections) seamlessly weaves inventive magic into a recognizable world of brutally competitive academia. The two doctors of the title are Dr. Marec Górski, a once-renowned magician who has faded from the public eye after making a homunculus from the better parts of himself, and the homunculus himself, Dr. Ariel Górski, who now works as a therapist and yoga instructor. Fellman flips the Frankenstein story of scientist and creation on its head: in creating Ariel, who is kind, charming, and empathetic--all things Marec wanted to rid himself of in hopes of becoming a more focused magician--Marec has made himself into a monster. The relationship between the two is fascinating and thorny, leading into an exploration of queer monstrosity that is more overt in Fellman's rendition than in Mary Shelley's original. Readers encounter the doctors through the eyes of Annae, a student of Marec's who, as a mind reader and a magician, proves the perfect vessel to bring questions of morality to the fore as she, like Marec before her, discovers the disturbing extent of her magic's capabilities. Though brief, this brilliant, haunting tale packs a powerful punch. (Nov.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
This novella from Fellman (Dead Collections) defies easy characterization. Annae is a brilliant graduate student who suffered abuse by her former mentor and his institution. She is now on her last chance in academia, studying with Górski, a famous "has been" professor notorious for tearing all his students to psychological ribbons. Fellman resists the familiar story trope of mixing destructive magic with deadly academic rivalry, and instead this story shifts to another common trope, the age-old paradox about attempting to perfect oneself by splitting off what is perceived as being one's worst impulses--only to discover that they were the best after all. Dr. Marec Górski's alter-ego, Dr. Ariel Górski, was intended to contain his worst self, but instead it is his best, and the only parts that survive a final, destructive act of self-immolation. VERDICT Either the magic-academy plot or the splitting-the-self plot, both classics in their own right, would have made an excellent story. Together, they coexist uneasily and are a bit unfulfilled side by side, much like the Doctors Górski themselves. Readers will wish that both stories had come to more satisfying conclusions.--Marlene Harris
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