Sorcerer to the Crown

Light as a feather, with lots of wit and humour that keep the reader happy. “Sorcerer to the Crown” is very obviously a fantasy pastiche of Regency romances. The characters are exceedingly likable. When they find themselves in danger, you know that things will sort themselves out in a couple of pages (because it would be absolutely shocking if they did not). You will have a lot of fun with this book, I promise - just don’t go in expecting something like “Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell” (don’t trust that blurb!).

Zacharias Wythe did not kill his guardian, mentor, and adopted father Sir Stephen Wythe in order to take his place a Sorcerer Royal, but that rumor still circulates wildly among the Society of Unnatural Philosophers. Many members of the Society are deeply prejudiced against him for his dark skin color, despite (or maybe because of?) his obvious magical talent. Add to that the problem of Britain's flagging magical reserves, and Zacharias is in a challenging position, indeed. Zacharias is determined to travel to England's border with Faerie in hopes of finding a way to restore the flow of magic between the worlds, but he agrees to stop on the way to make a speech at a school for magical gentlewomen. At the school, he encounters Miss show more Prunella Gentleman, a lovely young lady of uncertain position who is determined to make her own way in the world -- and she plans to use Zacharias in order to get to London, so that she may begin her conquest of society.

This book was a delightful fantasy of manners, and not at all what I was expecting from the cover. (For one thing, the cover screams "Chinese," while the content is indubitably "British.") Prunella is a charming and saucy character, which plays perfectly to Zacharias' air of staid responsibility. There were several intriguing and unexpected plot twists. All in all, a very satisfying reading experience. For fantasy fans, highly recommended! show less

Yes, please! to a novel with interesting magic, women and sexism (both institutional and individual), people of color and racism (ditto), imperialistic rhetoric, a leader who doesn't even want the crappy job from which racist shits keep trying to oust him, a strong narrative voice, and some delightful dynamics amongst the various characters. This book is funny and just totally alive. (And as much as I love Prunella and Zacharias, the main characters, I think Damerell and Rollo are maybe my heart here.)

I had reservations about reading a book that sounded so similar to Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, which is one of my favourite books. But I'm really glad I read this. The tone is totally different - this is fun and often fluffy - and I really appreciate that it's a Regency period novel that is extremely critical of British Imperialism. This is yet another great book I heard about from listening to a Book Riot podcast (probably SFF Yeah).

This book ticks so many of my boxes -- Regency England! Magic! Georgette Heyer comparisons! -- that I knew it would be right up my alley. And my high expectations were completely justified: this is definitely one of my favorite books of the year! Zacharias is an immediately sympathetic character, his African descent automatically making him an outsider despite his theoretical position of authority. The other protagonist, Prunella, is equally appealing. She is headstrong and warmhearted, while Zacharias can be cold and reserved, so they make an excellent team. My gold standard for historical fantasy novels is Sorcery and Cecelia by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer, and Sorcerer to the Crown is very much in that tradition. I must show more say that the marketing for this book is terrible; the cover design implies a very different sort of novel, and the quote comparing it to "a cross between Georgette Heyer and Susanna Clarke" is completely inaccurate. It's much more Heyer than Clarke, so if you're expecting something similar to Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, you'll be disappointed. But I loved the book and am thrilled that there will be at least one sequel! show less

If Jane Austen wrote a fantasy novel, it would be much like this. Charming characters, brilliantly written, and just enormous amounts of fun. Also proof that having a "historical" setting doesn't mean you can't center people of color. (Also HELLO interracial romance between two people of color, we don't get enough of you!)

The book does deal with slavery, racism, and the extremely complicated relationships between marginalized people and their privileged benefactors. I appreciated how the book honored these realities while maintaining a light-hearted tone, but I can also understand how that light-heartedness can be problematic. There's an extent to which many of the white characters are given "passes" for their racist behavior: by the show more POC characters, who explicitly have to put up with that shit and find ways to endure it in order to survive a racist society; and by the reader (or at least in this case, me the reader), because there's an understanding that "that's just how it was back then."

No queer representation, which made me kind of sad. Even if it was just a throwaway line about a side character! (Unless it WAS a throwaway line about a side character that I missed because I was reading too fast.)

But altogether, a really really wonderful book that I can see adding to my "books I re-read regularly" pile. show less

Sorcerer to the Crown starts off very promising. Set in an alternate Regency England in which magic is wielded by gentleman sorcerers but largely forbidden to women, Zacharias Wythe, the Sorcerer Royal, must team up with a magical prodigy in order to save England's magic from disappearing. What marks this book out from many others is that Zacharias is a manumitted slave of African descent while the magical prodigy, Prunella Gentleman, is not only a woman but half-Indian. This allows for Cho to engage with issues of sexism, racism, and colonialism which one doesn't often see in novels set in the Regency period, regardless of the fact that colonialism and all its evils were the basis of so much of British wealth at that point.

Yet there show more was something off about the pacing of maybe the final third of the book—I didn't feel like the final confrontation with the antagonists was given the breathing space that it needed. More importantly, it felt increasingly as if Zacharias and Prunella were from two different novels—he from a rather measured and serious fantasy of manners, she from a Heyeresque romantic comedy in which frivolity and banter are more important than consistency in characterisation. I think if Cho had drawn from Jane Austen more than from Georgette Heyer this would have been a stronger novel. As is, I'm not sure I'll seek out the next in the trilogy. show less