In “Muse,” the seventh son of a seventh son discovers his ability to make his stories come true just a little too late, when the malevolent muse he has created in his head steps out of his head and into real life, where she soon begins wreaking havoc. Meanwhile, a young woman destined to be a healer wishes to be destined for something a little more exciting–until her wish comes true.

“Muse” has a lot of fun fairy tale elements that readers of fantasy are sure to recognize. It’s set in a vaguely Gaelic world, with incursions by the Fair Folk and magical visits to fairy mounds, not to mention the seventh son of a seventh son and so on. It is deliberately built on the concept of story tropes, and uses them in its own construction, but with enough of a twist to keep it unique. I quite enjoyed the idea and thought that the execution was competent and likely to appeal to fans of modern fantasy who like Gaelic-themed world building.

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