Great fun on its own and a series to watch for.
A newly minted cloth mage is pulled into a terrifying government conspiracy in this lively historical fantasy debut set in 1950s Britain.
Paul Gallagher is a lovable, if perhaps slightly smug, recent graduate of the University College London program for cloth mages. Cloth magic involves using fabric and spells to craft clothing with magical properties ranging from allowing the wearer to walk on water to granting them anonymity to simply showing off at parties. Paul, his friend Thomas, and a few other working-class students are among the first common people to be allowed to become professional cloth mages. Paul, whose natural charm has been boosted with a little illegal magic that was practiced on him as a child, is so confident of himself and his talent as a mage that he aspires to be the very first cloth mage to serve as the King’s Court Magician. But in his quest to achieve this goal, Paul is soon tangled up with creepy government official Capt. Hector Hollister, who has sinister reasons for befriending him. Plus there’s the American gossip columnist Verity Turnbolt, who wants Paul’s help uncovering some awful deeds committed by the father of one of his wealthy classmates. When those threads start to come together, Paul might begin to wonder whether a lofty government position is worth having. Fay does her due diligence in building her alternate history, with plenty of detail around how magic functions and how various world governments use and abuse it. The first quarter of the novel is a bit overwritten, especially when it comes to expository dialogue, but when Fay gets some momentum going, her personable characters and twisting plot start to shine. The last few chapters do exceptionally well at both providing a propulsive ending to this first book in the series and setting up suspense for following installments.
Great fun on its own and a series to watch for.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5420-3203-2
Page Count: 384
Publisher: 47North
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021
Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.
In 16th-century Madrid, a crypto-Jew with a talent for casting spells tries to steer clear of the Inquisition.
Luzia Cotado, a scullion and an orphan, has secrets to keep: “It was a game she and her mother had played, saying one thing and thinking another, the bits and pieces of Hebrew handed down like chipped plates.” Also handed down are “refranes”—proverbs—in “not quite Spanish, just as Luzia was not quite Spanish.” When Luzia sings the refranes, they take on power. “Aboltar cazal, aboltar mazal” (“A change of scene, a change of fortune”) can mend a torn gown or turn burnt bread into a perfect loaf; “Quien no risica, no rosica” (“Whoever doesn’t laugh, doesn’t bloom”) can summon a riot of foliage in the depths of winter. The Inquisition hangs over the story like Chekhov’s famous gun on the wall. When Luzia’s employer catches her using magic, the ambitions of both mistress and servant catapult her into fame and danger. A new, even more ambitious patron instructs his supernatural servant, Guillén Santángel, to train Luzia for a magical contest. Santángel, not Luzia, is the familiar of the title; he has been tricked into trading his freedom and luck to his master’s family in exchange for something he no longer craves but can’t give up. The novel comes up against an issue common in fantasy fiction: Why don’t the characters just use their magic to solve all their problems? Bardugo has clearly given it some thought, but her solutions aren’t quite convincing, especially toward the end of the book. These small faults would be harder to forgive if she weren’t such a beautiful writer. Part fairy tale, part political thriller, part romance, the novel unfolds like a winter tree bursting into unnatural bloom in response to one of Luzia’s refranes, as she and Santángel learn about power, trust, betrayal, and love.
Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781250884251
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
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