A worthwhile jaunt for readers interested in a mix of magic, mankind, and the sinister ploys of the devil.
Debut authors Schenck-de Michele and Marquez’s urban fantasy novel about Lucifer’s daughter and a peculiar shop.
Lucinda’s Pawnshop & Antiquary is no ordinary secondhand store, much in the way Lucinda Trompe is no ordinary proprietor: “Half mortal, half immortal, she had been sired by Lucifer on a human mother—THE human mother. The woman the Torah called ‘Eve.’ ” Gifted with the ability to change form and manipulate regular mortals, Lucinda spends much of her time selling specific items to the latter. These items work as “soul magnets,” which in their own special ways work to do the bidding of Lucifer. After all, “Lucinda’s father was hell-bent (she loved that expression) on bringing mankind not to its knees, but to its grave.” With an elaborate plan that involves a group of young witches, Morgan le Fay’s Book of Shadows, a cursed pocket watch, and unrest in the Middle East, humanity seems to be in trouble. It’s trouble that Lucinda initially aids, though her infatuation with a beautiful man named Dominic Amado, and has the potential to disrupt even Lucifer’s well-laid plans. Lucinda is of course half human, a reality that occasionally allows her to subvert her father’s intentions. Hatching an intricate plot, the story progresses from different angles at a cracking pace. While the concept of Lucifer’s daughter falling in love with a modern man as she works at a magical secondhand store could have easily become awash with urban fantasy clichés, the story maintains an original feel. Touching on historical figures such as Averroes and Francis Galton, the real is woven seamlessly with the fantastical, such as when a young witch conjures a water horse—“She flung it at the first wave of men, twisting it until it looked less like a horse and more like a horrific, gleaming tornado with a wide, open vortex.” Though a passage involving a dutiful young soldier and his feuding parents seems forced, the overall story proves itself to be both genuinely surprising and, if one can imagine the devil’s daughter falling in love, touching.
A worthwhile jaunt for readers interested in a mix of magic, mankind, and the sinister ploys of the devil.Pub Date: July 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-1939457363
Page Count: 300
Publisher: Bird Street Books
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A promising page-turner from a poised newcomer who’s well worth keeping tabs on.
This doorstopper epic fantasy and trilogy opener was originally self-published in 2014.
The details that give this ingeniously plotted yarn its backbone emerge gradually—and are not always entirely clear. Twenty years ago, a war swept away and annihilated the tyrannical Augurs when their formidable magic inexplicably faltered. Their servants, the Gifted, whose lesser magic derives from Essence (Islington has an irritating habit of capitalizing things), were forcibly constrained to obey the Four Tenets, meaning they can no longer use their magic to cause harm even in self-defense. At a school-cum-sanctuary-cum-prison for the Gifted, three 16-year-old friends, Davian, Wirr, and Asha, face their final tests. Though an excellent student, Davian cannot use Essence and faces a cruel exile. He decides to abscond. Wirr believes Davian’s an Augur whose higher-order magic blocks his ability to channel Essence, and he insists on joining him. Ilseth Tenvar, a seemingly sympathetic Elder, gives Davian a mysterious magic box to guide his progress. The next morning Asha wakes to a nightmare of her own. On the road Davian encounters the strange, scarred Gifted Taeris Sarr, who three years ago saved his life (Davian doesn’t remember the incident) and supposedly was executed for his pains. In the far north an ancient evil stirs, while in a related development, Caeden wakes in a forest to find himself covered in blood and with no memory of anything. So, in time-honored fashion, nobody is what they seem to be, everybody has a secret agenda, and the key players all lack pivotal memories. And while there’s nothing much new here, Islington’s natural storytelling ability provides incessant plot twists and maintains a relentless pace. The characters have well-rounded personalities and don’t make decisions or errors merely to advance the plot, even if they all sound and act the same youngish age.
A promising page-turner from a poised newcomer who’s well worth keeping tabs on.Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-316-27409-8
Page Count: 704
Publisher: Orbit
Review Posted Online: Oct. 4, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Generous in its vision and fun to read. Likely to be a big book—and, soon, a big movie, with all the franchise trimmings.
Self-assured, entertaining debut novel that blends genres and crosses continents in quest of magic.
The world’s not big enough for two wizards, as Tolkien taught us—even if that world is the shiny, modern one of the late 19th century, with its streetcars and electric lights and newfangled horseless carriages. Yet, as first-time novelist Morgenstern imagines it, two wizards there are, if likely possessed of more legerdemain than true conjuring powers, and these two are jealous of their turf. It stands to reason, the laws of the universe working thus, that their children would meet and, rather than continue the feud into a new generation, would instead fall in love. Call it Romeo and Juliet for the Gilded Age, save that Morgenstern has her eye on a different Shakespearean text, The Tempest; says a fellow called Prospero to young magician Celia of the name her mother gave her, “She should have named you Miranda...I suppose she was not clever enough to think of it.” Celia is clever, however, a born magician, and eventually a big hit at the Circus of Dreams, which operates, naturally, only at night and has a slightly sinister air about it. But what would you expect of a yarn one of whose chief setting-things-into-action characters is known as “the man in the grey suit”? Morgenstern treads into Harry Potter territory, but though the chief audience for both Rowling and this tale will probably comprise of teenage girls, there are only superficial genre similarities. True, Celia’s magical powers grow, and the ordinary presto-change-o stuff gains potency—and, happily, surrealistic value. Finally, though, all the magic has deadly consequence, and it is then that the tale begins to take on the contours of a dark thriller, all told in a confident voice that is often quite poetic, as when the man in the grey suit tells us, “There’s magic in that. It’s in the listener, and for each and every ear it will be different, and it will affect them in ways they can never predict.”
Generous in its vision and fun to read. Likely to be a big book—and, soon, a big movie, with all the franchise trimmings.Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-385-53463-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
