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I Particularly Love Writing a Series
Berkeley Arcane, the fifth installment of the Braided Dimensions series, is an adult portal fantasy that blends alternate history, time travel, and near-future science fiction into a layered conflict involving medieval magic. What is the most challenging aspect of writing a series?
There are many reasons I particularly love writing a series. The challenging aspects are following through on promising threads begun in previous books, keeping timelines straight, and remembering names that emerge over the series. I tackle the latter by keeping a very long chart of place names, character names, and phrases from other languages.
Berkeley itself feels like an important character in the story. Why did you choose it as a central setting?
The city of Berkeley is important to me. Both my children were born there and I have lived and worked on its streets and byways.
Do you see technology and magic as opposites, parallels, or something more complicated?
When I first delved into computers with an Ed Tech Masters at San Francisco state, I felt like a magician producing multimedia. I named my first PowerMac “Puissant” meaning powerful. I think there can be magic in anything.
Can we look forward to a sixth installment in the Braided Dimensions series? Where will it take readers?
I have already started my “list” of beginning ideas for Book 6. As Book 5 came to a close, I could see many possible plot lines, some that readers might not be at all happy to be left incomplete. One is the idea that Rousseau feels something strong for Onyx. He’s been told that their memories of powers have been removed or destroyed. Yet we know from previous books in the series, that Ian’s memories were restored. The same goes for Thorgisl. Is he really out of the picture? Ylva punished him by taking his powers. Is Esch, the power stone of Arkoss, really safe from him? And of course, will Kay be able to settle into a professor’s life, focus on writing her books and teaching her classes while other worlds call?
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Berkeley Arcane
Berkeley Arcane, by Marie Judson, is an adult portal fantasy that blends epic fantasy, alternate history, time travel, and a sharp thread of near-future science fiction. The story begins in Berkeley, where Rousseau is pulled into trouble by Onyx, a mysterious woman whose brother Sol may be trapped outside ordinary time. At the same time, Kay discovers a strange old cottage that does not belong where it is. From there, the novel opens into a layered conflict involving medieval magic, AI, mind powers, portals, old betrayals, and a future where technology has pushed human identity into uneasy territory.
What I liked most is how grounded the strange things feel. Judson doesn’t treat magic as glitter sprinkled over the plot. It has weight. It has rules, history, and consequences. A café, an eBike, a Trader Joe’s, a university classroom, and a Berkeley co-op all sit beside ancient Norway, Cornwall, dragons, sylphs, and mind-speak without the book winking too hard at the contrast. That choice gives the story an authentic feel. I believed these people had been carrying impossible things for a long time, sometimes with grace and sometimes with total exhaustion. Honestly, that exhaustion made them feel more real.
The book is also busy. There are many characters, timelines, and a lot of past history pressing against the present. As a reader, I sometimes had to slow down and reorient myself. But I didn’t mind that as much as I expected to, because the emotional through-line is clear: people are trying to protect one another while deciding what kinds of power should exist in the world. That idea really resonated with me. Judson’s most interesting choice is bringing AI into a fantasy framework without making it feel like a gimmick. The book asks whether technology can imitate magic, whether it should, and what happens when people gain abilities without a culture or ethics strong enough to guide them. That’s a big question, but the novel keeps bringing it back to family, memory, friendship, and responsibility.
I recommend Berkeley Arcane to readers who already enjoy character-rich fantasy with complicated histories, especially those who like portal fantasy, alternate history, Celtic and Nordic influences, and stories where ancient magic collides with modern technology. New readers may want to start earlier in the Braided Dimensions series, because this fifth book carries emotional and plot history from the previous novels. But for readers who enjoy being dropped into a dense, strange, and heartfelt world and slowly finding their footing, this is a thoughtful and imaginative novel.
Pages: 197
