This book is basically Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel, but
with less pages, and more agency for its female characters.
It is a story based in a ‘fantasy of manners’ Regency Britain where magic is dying, but is told from
the perspective of marginalised people: Zacharias, a freed slave, and Prunella,
a biracial woman of Indian descent. The focus is on the institutional racism
and sexism that prevents both from being taken seriously as magicians, and they
take two very different approaches to that problem. Zacharias is like, ‘I will be
chill and act sensibly and intelligently and one day they will accept me’, and
Prunella is basically like ‘FIGHT ME!’ (ง’̀-‘́)ง
If you like reading about historical ideologies surrounding
gender and race, but also love MAGIC, this is the book for you.
2 POC protagonists, and a POC author
An angry, reckless female character who just
does not give a shit about anything
Some serious postcolonialist chat
Cool magic and interesting worldbuilding
Faeries! Always love some faeries chilling in
England and fucking shit up
Another entrant into the Regency era fantasy
genre, but from the perspective of marginalised people in that society, rather than your standard white
male gentleman magician
Luke “I wish I had thought this through a little more” Fon Fabre and Tear “I wish I had asked him what he was planning to use that knife for” Grants for iemongel U3U
i'll apple your turnover 