The Black Book of Gyffe by Rupert Owen (2020)
Gyffe, the Fribbling Squit's Black Book makes its appearance just as the defeated Owain Glyndŵr finally gives up the ghost on the Welsh uprising against the English. It's a time when Church and State question the scientific value of the so-called occultists and alchemists. It’s a time when magic and mysticism finds itself asunder. In response, the Order of Magi have summoned an emergency gathering of representatives, within the Tree of Oracles, to troubleshoot the current climate of technological partisanship. Heroic Gyffe, must summon all his magical acuity to combat the treachery and persecution to follow … ‘Wait a moment,’ says Grimoire, ‘do I detect some puffery in your prose?’ ‘Just thought I'd give the blurb a little oomph, that's all,’ Gyffe says, ‘can I keep the heroic bit?’ ‘Only to yourself,’ Grimoire says taking the quill, 'now, where were we? Ah yes ... the bit about the squit ...’ Modest Gyffe must … rely on the sagacity and magical adeptness of his kind master Grimoire to combat the treachery and persecution to follow. Grimoire, the mage, plans to be at the gathering, and he’ll take with him his dear, but at times exasperating, friend Ma Gwrach. Together, they’ll muddle their way through the time-fiddling magical planes of Annwyn. Meanwhile, Gyffe and a scrunch of lesser magic folk must hold the fort and keep the theurgic insurgent of renegade magi at bay. Gyffe’s Black Book is brimming with unfamiliar familiars, bad tempered mythic monsters, proper time travel, technomancy, historical hijinks and the occasional practice of misspelling conjurations. ‘That’ll do,’ says Grimoire resting the quill, ‘if they want to find out more, they can read the, at times sketchy, portrayal of what really happened.’
