A GOLDEN FURY

A debut historical fantasy mines unexpected territory.

Fair-skinned, dark-haired English teen Theosebeia Hope is a scientist and a scholar. At the side of her single mother, who has leaped from patron to patron in late-18th-century France, Thea has learned languages (including Arabic) and alchemy in their single-minded pursuit of the Philosopher’s Stone, the legendary substance said to cure all ills. Talk of revolution recurs, especially from firebrand and love interest Will, but seems more like set dressing than fully realized historical milieu, an impression encouraged by anachronistic references and behavior. The plot careens from France to England, from madness to murder to imprisonment and more madness, as Thea seeks to finish the work her mother began (and work out their complex but almost never on-page relationship) before she too succumbs to the Alchemist’s Curse. The madness and the science are, of course, magical in nature, as the reader knows alchemy to be and as Thea gradually realizes. Despite the original premise and avoidance of many tropes (the romance, in particular, follows an interesting and unexpected course), Cohoe never quite pulls together her ideas or fully develops her intriguing characters, although she seems to be aiming for a discourse on magic, revolution, and science à la Frances Hardinge’s much more effective The Lie Tree (2016).

A pleasant, if lightweight, diversion.