Alex Shvartsman (Brooklyn, NY) is the author of The Best of All Possible Planets (2026), Kakistocracy (2023), The Middling Affliction (2022), and Eridani's Crown (2019) novels. Over 150 of his stories and his translations from Russian have appeared in Analog, Asimov's Clarkesworld, F&SF, Nature, Reactor, Strange Horizons, and several Year's Best volumes. He won the WSFA Small Press Award for Short Fiction, was a three-time finalist for the Canopus Award for Excellence in Interstellar Fiction and a three-time finalist for the BSFA Award.

His website is http://www.alexshvartsman.com.

Middling Affliction by Alex Shvartsman

Conrad Brent protects the people of Brooklyn from monsters and magical threats. The snarky, wisecracking guardian also has a dangerous secret: he's one in a million – literally.

Magical ability comes to about one in every 30,000 and can manifest at any age. Conrad is rarer than this, however. He's a middling, one of the half-gifted and totally despised. Most of the gifted community feels that middlings should be instantly killed. The few who don't flat out hate them still aren't excited to be around middlings. Meaning Conrad can't tell anyone, not even his best friends, what he really is.

Conrad hides in plain sight by being a part of the volunteer Watch, those magically gifted who protect their cities from dangerous, arcane threats. And, to pay the bills, Conrad moonlights as a private detective and monster hunter for the gifted community. Which helps him keep up his personal fiction – that he's a magical version of Batman. Conrad does both jobs thanks to charms, artifacts, and his wits, along with copious amounts of coffee. But little does he know that events are about to change his life…forever.

CURATOR'S NOTE

This urban fantasy novel about a man who must navigate the world of wizards and monsters with no innate magic of his own while pretending to be a badass wizard is a fun, breezy read, especially if you enjoy pop culture references. – Alex Shvartsman

 

REVIEWS

  • "Shvartsman delivers a laugh-out-loud, snarky adventure, throwing out pop culture references and wry observations with dizzying frequency."

    – Publishers Weekly

  • "The Middling Affliction by Alex Shvartsman is a wonderful opening to the Conradverse Chronicles. This urban fantasy dives right into a deep mystery of Shvartsman's world, and its main character, Conrad Brent, will never be the same. Recommended."

    – Primmlife

  • "The Middling Affliction is a strong entry in the urban fantasy genre, one that I greatly enjoyed the whole way through. It is perfect for anyone looking for more of that type of book."

    – Warp Factor
 

BOOK PREVIEW

Excerpt

MY job that morning was to banish a demon, but I was determined to finish my cup of coffee first.

I sipped my java in front of Demetrios's warehouse in Sunset Park, enjoying the panoramic view of the Manhattan skyline and New York harbor. I stared at the Statue of Liberty, which appeared the size and shade of a toy soldier at this distance. A warm breeze caressed my face. Next to me, Demetrios was shaking like a leaf.

"What in the world are you thinking, Conrad?" Demetrios spoke in his typical rapid-fire fashion. "You're just going to go in there, alone, to face this infernal thing? Without any help or backup from others at the Watch? Without even a priest? This is all kinds of crazy."

"I can handle it," I said, projecting casual confidence. "You did ask for this to be resolved quickly, and it's not like I haven't dealt with an occasional demon before."

In fact, I'd never even seen any demons. I was not in any way whatsoever equipped to deal with a supernatural being of that magnitude. That was the bad news. The good news was, in my two decades with the Watch, I'd never once heard of a demon showing up in Brooklyn. Even if one arrived, it wouldn't be slumming it in Demetrios's warehouse. And if, by some miracle, a major baddie from Down Below decided to take up residence there, Demetrios wouldn't have survived the encounter long enough to come crying for my help. Something else was going on, but if the guy with the thick checkbook expected the job to be extremely dangerous, who was I to dissuade him?

"Quickly, yes," said Demetrios. "You wouldn't believe how far this has put us behind on deliveries. My customers are screaming bloody murder. On top of everything, there's a shipment of Sumatran persimmons that is already beginning to rot. I hope you really know

what you're doing. I don't relish the thought of having to scrape what's left of you off the container walls."

"That's the Demetrios I know and love. Sentimental to the end. Here, hold this." I handed him the empty foam cup and headed for the entrance.