★★★☆☆ Velveteen returns!

Velveteen vs Gainful Employment

Seanan McGuire

Velveteen vs Gainful Employment is Seanan McGuire's October 2023 Patreon reward. Velveteen is the hero of a series of quite old stories by Seanan McGuire, notionally published in three books: Velveteen vs The Junior Super Patriots, Velveteen vs The Multiverse, and Velveteen vs The Seasons. I say "notionally published" because most of these books are no longer available as books. You can still find the stories online however. If you click on the links for the books in the previous sentence, they will take you to my reviews of the books on Goodreads, and in each review there is a list of links to free online copies of the chapters. They are a lot of fun.

Velveteen, AKA Velma Martinez, is a superhero whose superpower is the ability to animate dolls, stuffed animals, etc, and make them do her bidding. Used imaginatively this is a pretty awesome superpower that has allowed Velveteen to win most of her battles. The last story of Velveteen vs The Seasons was published online 14-Feb-2017. Thus Velveteen has been on hiatus for over six years.

McGuire introduces Velveteen vs Gainful Employment as follows:

It's been a while...
...but Velma "Velveteen" Martinez is back in action, hitting the city streets and planning to save the superheroic world through whatever means necessary.
Because of the long gap between installments, I'm re-posting "vs. Doctor Darwin" alongside the new "vs. Gainful Employment," to help get people vaguely back up to speed. Welcome to volume four!

There are thus two stories posted as the October reward, Velveteen vs Dr Darwin and Velveteen vs Gainful Employment. I am puzzled by Velveteen vs Dr Darwin. McGuire's verb "re-posting" implies that we have seen Velveteen vs Dr Darwin before. I'm pretty sure that I personally have not. It raises the question of how many Velveteen stories unknown to me might be out there. However, the events of Velveteen vs Dr Darwin immediately follow those of Velveteen vs Recovery, the final chapter of Velveteen vs The Seasons, so I am cautiously optimistic that I now have the full set.

Velveteen is a great character. I previously described her thus "As you might suspect from the fact that the stories are all named "Velveteen vs [something]", Velma is a typical McGuirian malcontent, always banging her head against some wall, occasionally with somewhat positive results." I am very glad to see her return. I am, however, a little disappointed with these two stories, because nothing much happens in them. In the first she is abducted by Dr Darwin, a low-level supervillain who does something to her that she and we don't really understand. In the second, Velveteen vs Gainful Employment, she visits a city office and argues with two civil servants. There is a lot of foreshadowing -- one hopes McGuire has good stuff up her sleeve. But we'll have to wait for it, apparently.

Velveteen vs Gainful Employment on Patreon

Comments

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