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jacey2) 1/2/11
Galen Beckett: The Magicians & Mrs Quent
The three Lockwell sisters, Ivy, Rose and Lily, form an attachment for Rakish Mr. Rafferdy and his impoverished friend Eldyn Garritt. Mr. Lockwell, once a magician, is quite mad and spends all of his time in the attic library of his house while Ivy holds everything together, wishing she knew more of magic, but accepting that as a woman she can never be a magician and cure her father. There's a slow build up of a burgeoning relationship between Ivy and Rafferdy (her social superior in a Regencyesque society) which leads down a blind alley of unfulfilled reader expectations. When Mrs Lockwood dies suddenly, the house is entailed away to a stuffy and overbearing cousin, so Ivy determines to re-open their derelict old house in a disreputable part of town, but for this she needs money. When an invitation arrives from an old acquaintance of her father's, Mr. Quent, she accepts the offer to be a governess for his ward and travels out of town, sending her wages home as her sisters and father are now living on the cousin's charity.
In the meantime Rafferdy and Garritt, both with differing magical talents (as yet unrecognised), have problems of their own. Rafferdy is pushed into learning magic despite his dislike for his tutor, and it turns out that he has a real talent for it. Garritt loses his money to a pair of con-men and the need to take care of his sister leads him to form an association with a notorious highwayman and – as it turns out – revolutionary. Once in, he can't get out until he crosses the highwayman and finds new lodgings where he hopes he and his sister will be safe.
Ivy – forgetting Rafferdy's affections very easily – has adventures which show that she has some talents in the witching direction. Things are stirring in the countryside and there are strange and dangerous magical risings. Ivy falls for her stolid but dependable employer, the somewhat unexciting Mr. Quent, and accepts his offer of marriage, discovering that he's an agent of the King charged with monitoring the risings.
A faux-Regency-with-magic book set in Altania closely based on English society. A little slow at first because of alternating chapters between three protagonists, one of whom is much less engaging and less central to the plot than the other two. It becomes quite engaging once we reach the middle section (in the country) which suddenly switches from third to first person from Ivy's viewpoint (on the pretext of keeping a journal for her father). The last section – back in Town - switches back to third person and three character viewpoints alternating again.
Though the society is very 'Regency' the setting has an unusual magic scheme and Altania is a strange place where days and nights (lumenals and umbrals) are weirdly irregular and their lengths can only be predicted by checking an almanac on a daily basis. Polite society surfs the underbelly of stews, taverns, highwaymen, dissenters and disreputable illusionists, while reputable gentlemen magicians remain disengaged from the real world and show dangerously bad errors of judgement. There's a strange planetary conjunction coming which will allow the darkness to take over and only cryptic clues left by Ivy's mad dad can help Ivy and Rafferdy to defeat the magicians who would let the 'ashen' through, and undo the bindings that Ivy's father gave his sanity to make.
Though the ending is satisfying in itself there are enough loose ends to lead into another book. My only hope is that Mr. Quent himself becomes a more fleshed out, less reserved character in the next book. Despite that one lack, this is nicely written. If you like the Regency period, magic and underlying strangeness, I recommend you give it a try.
Galen Beckett: The Magicians & Mrs Quent
The three Lockwell sisters, Ivy, Rose and Lily, form an attachment for Rakish Mr. Rafferdy and his impoverished friend Eldyn Garritt. Mr. Lockwell, once a magician, is quite mad and spends all of his time in the attic library of his house while Ivy holds everything together, wishing she knew more of magic, but accepting that as a woman she can never be a magician and cure her father. There's a slow build up of a burgeoning relationship between Ivy and Rafferdy (her social superior in a Regencyesque society) which leads down a blind alley of unfulfilled reader expectations. When Mrs Lockwood dies suddenly, the house is entailed away to a stuffy and overbearing cousin, so Ivy determines to re-open their derelict old house in a disreputable part of town, but for this she needs money. When an invitation arrives from an old acquaintance of her father's, Mr. Quent, she accepts the offer to be a governess for his ward and travels out of town, sending her wages home as her sisters and father are now living on the cousin's charity.
In the meantime Rafferdy and Garritt, both with differing magical talents (as yet unrecognised), have problems of their own. Rafferdy is pushed into learning magic despite his dislike for his tutor, and it turns out that he has a real talent for it. Garritt loses his money to a pair of con-men and the need to take care of his sister leads him to form an association with a notorious highwayman and – as it turns out – revolutionary. Once in, he can't get out until he crosses the highwayman and finds new lodgings where he hopes he and his sister will be safe.
Ivy – forgetting Rafferdy's affections very easily – has adventures which show that she has some talents in the witching direction. Things are stirring in the countryside and there are strange and dangerous magical risings. Ivy falls for her stolid but dependable employer, the somewhat unexciting Mr. Quent, and accepts his offer of marriage, discovering that he's an agent of the King charged with monitoring the risings.
A faux-Regency-with-magic book set in Altania closely based on English society. A little slow at first because of alternating chapters between three protagonists, one of whom is much less engaging and less central to the plot than the other two. It becomes quite engaging once we reach the middle section (in the country) which suddenly switches from third to first person from Ivy's viewpoint (on the pretext of keeping a journal for her father). The last section – back in Town - switches back to third person and three character viewpoints alternating again.
Though the society is very 'Regency' the setting has an unusual magic scheme and Altania is a strange place where days and nights (lumenals and umbrals) are weirdly irregular and their lengths can only be predicted by checking an almanac on a daily basis. Polite society surfs the underbelly of stews, taverns, highwaymen, dissenters and disreputable illusionists, while reputable gentlemen magicians remain disengaged from the real world and show dangerously bad errors of judgement. There's a strange planetary conjunction coming which will allow the darkness to take over and only cryptic clues left by Ivy's mad dad can help Ivy and Rafferdy to defeat the magicians who would let the 'ashen' through, and undo the bindings that Ivy's father gave his sanity to make.
Though the ending is satisfying in itself there are enough loose ends to lead into another book. My only hope is that Mr. Quent himself becomes a more fleshed out, less reserved character in the next book. Despite that one lack, this is nicely written. If you like the Regency period, magic and underlying strangeness, I recommend you give it a try.
