History is filled with rich narrative ore, vibrant and real, as fantastic as any fiction. Science fiction and fantasy writers have long employed historical events and personalities as backdrops for their stories, even their main focus. Though a great many recent science fiction collections have focused on alternative histories, other possibilities exist, such as writing within history.

Rather than extrapolate events and put a different spin on them, writing within history links its story to real events, but speculates on motives, connections, the “real” reasons as imagined by the author. Lisa Goldstein’s latest fantasy novel employs this latter technique with deft skill yet a restrained imagination.

Goldstein does not let her historical characters overshadow her own fiction creations, an act both limiting and encouraging. The Elizabethan period contains so many interesting facts and characters, a myriad of themes could develop and flourish.

Yet this work is her invention, not imagined biographies. Marlowe, Nash, and others enliven her work, and give it time and place, but her authorial powers show great range in the non-historical people.

Goldstein’s story of exiled faerie folk coming to London in the early 1590s in search of their King demands almost more historical input than what she has given. This book has so much potential. I would have liked to have seen more background threads and links. No reference is made to Spenser’s great work, The Faerie Queen, nor does Shakespeare figure much, beyond veiled references and a foreshadowing of his Midsummer Night’s Dream, a short stop from the faerie world of Goldstein and her Robin Goodfellow. Raleigh’s purported School of Night is ignored, and the Spanish Armada is a wisp of reality fascinating in its potential.

Goldstein shifts from historical character to her own fictional creations with great skill, allowing each to complement the other. Nashe’s and Marlowe’s contacts with the booksellers, faeries, and the court humanize these historical figures, while Marlowe’s fascinating yet short life receives detailed work. Lacking historical points of reference, we have to approach the non-historical people in the book on their own terms. A few, such as the main character, and her faerie helper, gain stature close to that of actual people, evoking powerful images.

I read Strange Devices in one sitting, impressed with the believable characters, skillful rendition of London, and the expressions of individuality infused throughout the novel.