In his Introduction written for this collection, wildly popular author of fiction for kids, teens, tweens and young adults, Rick Riordan, welcomes readers to what he terms the “Multiverse Mansion.” Building upon this concept he then goes on to paint a portrait of what’s to come by asking to readers consider it as both a multiverse and a mansion (which is itself kind of a strange request) in which the characters inhabiting the worlds created by writers publishing under the umbrella “Rick Riordan Presents” gather for new adventures. It is only as he goes on to explain how the concept works that the strangeness of comparing it to a multiplicity of universes (which by definition are not restricted or constrained) and a mansion which, well, is so restricted and contained.
When one thinks of a multiverse—such as the most obvious at the time of publication, the Marvel movies multiverse—one naturally thinks of individuals from those separate universes crossing into and out of the other universes and interacting both with those who call it home and those who are also visiting. The whole point of the multiverse is that it is not at all like a mansion where each universe is a room behind a locked door.
What Riordan is selling here is the idea of a multiverse of writers all working individually who have come together to cross paths with each other in this collection, but the concept is clearly intended to produce the thought, hope or expectation that familiar characters existing the world of one writer will interact with those of another. For instance, will Carlos Hernandez’s Sal and Gabi cross over their universe to interact with Kwame Mbalia’s Tristan Strong? The closest the collection ever comes to realizing this particular promise of a multiverse is a blink-and-miss cameo appearance by Mbalia’s Gum Baby in the story featuring Sal and Gabi, “Calamity Juice.” Apart from that singularly weird moment, there is no true multiverse at work in this mansion.
What there is instead is a mansion welcoming writers from Riordan’s imprint who are given the chance to explore their own universe from an odd angle or through the shifted focus of attention. “The Gum Baby Files” by Mbalia is the starkest example of this. The title character is usually forced to play second fiddle to the titular star of the series in which she appears, Tristan Strong. This story, which exists in in the Tristan Strong universe, flips the tables so that Tristan is reduced to the equivalent of a walk-on while Gum Baby becomes the start of the show. It is as strategy that is kinda sorta followed by the other writers in the book, but not nearly to the same degree. Mbalia’s contribution is really the iconic example of what seems to have been the goal in crafting this collection, but it is the only that completely commits to the bit. As for Riordan, he takes the opposite route by contributing a story featuring not just an all-new character, but working within an all new mythos: Irish history.
While it would be taking things too far to suggest the final result was eventually titled The Cursed Carnival and Other Calamities because that perfectly describes how what seemed to be designed based on one idea turned out as the realization of a completely different idea, it would not be at all surprising to discover this was true. The collection contains stories guaranteed to please its target demographic, but in no way does it really qualify as Riordan multiverse that is promised. It fulfils the promise of a mansion occupied by different writers publishing under the Riordan imprint and that will do for now. But now that it has whetted an appetite for a genuine collection of stories in which characters from different writers genuinely interact with each other, how long that satisfaction lasts is anybody’s guess.
