Mairelon the Magician

Sixteen-year-old Kim has been living on the streets of Regency London, pretending to be a boy while snooping for strangers, ever since the nabbing culls got Mother Tibb and made her dangle from the nubbing cheat. For five pounds from a gentry cove, Kim has a look around a travelling magician's wagon ... and is caught in the act.

Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles and Sorcery & Cecelia books remain some of my favorite young adult fantasy novels so I was totally chuffed to come across Mairelon. Her books tend to be a nice blend of historical fantasy and farce with just enough romance worked in to make me feel warm and fuzzy. To me, they are a bit like literary comfort food.

Mairelon the Magician did not disappoint! The novel moved along at show more a gallop with lots of highly entertaining double-crossing and skulduggery. It was also pretty darn funny and the romantic subtext between Kim and Mairelon was rather sweet.

My only complaint regarding Mairelon the Magician is a small one -- there were just too many secondary characters to keep track of! It didn't help that, sometimes, a character would be referred to by his given name and, other times, by his surname. During the long denouement in the Sons of the New Dawn's clubhouse (when it seemed almost all the characters in the novel came together and nattered about the platter) I had to keep flipping back and forth in the novel trying to figure out who was who. Unfortunately, all that flipping detracted from what I suspect was supposed to be a hilariously farcical ending. show less

A super-fun, fluffy little Regency-plus-magic piece without pretension, and a quick read. I like the characters: Kim, Mairelon, Hunch, and Renée are the most interesting and human, but even the totally flat comic folks work for me. The writing isn't necessarily genius--I had a hard time buying Kim's relentless dialect at the beginning and welcomed the plot point that allowed it to ease up--but it's funny and generally unobtrusive.

The magic here is different from magic in many books, which is neat. It's more a hobby for rich people than a huge element of political/personal power or a substitute for technology.

And the book's deliciously nonsexist to boot. Kim's gender, for instance, just doesn't seem to matter much: her agency doesn't show more hinge on the girl-dressed-as-boy thing.

I do wish there'd been a bit more. This story and its characters could have carried a longer novel, and the nutshelling at the end felt sort of surface-level. show less

I absolutely loved this book! It has the perfect semi-historical London setting, lots of magic and intrugue, and tonnes of plot complexity. We also get a nice dose of British time-period slang, which is always good for a laugh since the Brits have some of the most inventive slang terms. Add in the clever charactertization, and this novel is set squarely in the same genre as Diana Wynne Jones' Chrestomanci series, if for slightly older readers based on the teenaged protagonist Kim. She is definitely an interesting person - as are her new magician companions - so I am very much looking forward to reading more of her adventures.

Summary: Kim is a young woman who disguise herself as a boy to make a living picking pockets and thieving in the streets of Regency London. When she's hired to break into the wagon of a man doing a magic act in the market, she thinks it's easy money - after all, she doesn't have to steal anything, she just has to take a look around. But when she gets into Mairelon's wagon, she discovers that he's not just a street performer... he really can do magic! Rather than get upset at the intrusion, Mairelon offers Kim a job, since he's on a mission to track down some magical artifacts of immense power, and Kim's street-urchin skills might just come in handy.

Review: Patricia C. Wrede has a flair with funny fantasy unlike anyone else I've ever show more read. Rather than the fairy-tale-spoof nature of her Enchanted Forest Chronicles, though, Mairelon the Magician was more in the vein of the Sorcery and Cecelia books she wrote with Caroline Stevermer - essentially a historical fantasy blended with a touch of a farce, although in this case told from the point of view of a young lady from a very different station in life. Kim's an enjoyable character, though, as is Mairelon, both well-built enough to be interesting and sympathetic without endless character development slowing down the plot at all.

The plot is what I think I would call "lively" - definitely fast moving, with enough double-crossing and thievery to keep reader's attention. It's also wildly funny - both in the larger farcical scenes as well as in smaller moments or quick lines of dialogue. My only problem was the sheer number of secondary characters - all of whom seemed to be named Commonname J. Britishdude - so that at times it got confusing who was related to whom, and who was stealing from whom, and who's secret motives were which. A re-read would certainly help sort that out, however. Now I just need to find a copy of the sequel, which is sadly out of print. 4 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Mairelon is not quite as strong as Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles, but if you like Regency fantasy, books with a good blend of wit, farce, and slapstick, or Wrede's writing in general, then I'd definitely give this one a chance. show less

I was keen to try more of Wrede's work after reading the Sorcery and Cecilia series. This one didn't disappoint. While it didn't have the same frivolous joy as S&C, it works well as a more serious fantasy with a touch of humour. In place of high society girls, Wrede offers us a teenage pickpocket, drawn into politics when a lucrative job inevitably proves to have hidden depths. I liked the character of Kim; she may not be especially original, but then what character is? I thought she was well-written and a fun viewpoint character, with enough edge to be interesting and not enough to be annoying. She's competent and surprises her new boss several times, but she definitely knows her limits, and the text supports that.

While the main show more characters seem fairly well-articulated, Wrede scatters an array of minor characters who come across simply but clearly. Despite having little attention from the text, I felt they were all portrayed with some affection. Even some of the buffoons got moments of validation here and there, while the villains are neither cartoonish, nor extravagantly ambiguous. I admit, though, at times it was a big confusing keeping track of them all and their motivations. I also felt that the main antagonist was surprisingly opaque - we don't seem to get much insight into their character or motivations, leaving them feeling rather one-dimensional to me. Dare I say, cribbed from a Georgette Heyer novel? Perhaps the next story will reveal more.

The story itself is relatively simple, but becomes pleasingly convoluted through the involvement of multiple parties with conflicting interests in the missing relics, in each other, or in large amounts of money. These come together beautifully in the last scene, which descends almost into outright farce, in a good way - those who have read S&C will recognise this sort of drawing-together of plotlines. On the downside, a couple of twists (in particular, Dan Lavenham's identity) are so blatantly telegraphed that it's simply implausible that the characters didn't notice - it's not like it's a very unlikely twist.

In terms of writing, the story flowed well; the pacing felt good, the prose smooth and the dialogue pretty solid. Nothing got in the way of my reading, which is what I look for in a story like this that's about events and interactions. There were two moments that jarred me: Wrede is trying to ape Regency British English here, and that means paying close attention to vocabulary. I'm pretty sure the nobility didn't, at that point, say "gotten" - I've never encountered it in either authentic period works or well-regarded historical novels. I'm also confident that "Cool!" is not an appropriate exclamation, not even for a housemaid.

As a street rat trying to earn a living, in a relatively realistic setting with a number of underworld characters, the topic of prostitution is bound to come up. Kim is convincingly repulsed by the prospect (having a good idea of what life in a slum brothel would be like), enough to have maintained her male disguise as late as possible. Though one or two villains would gladly get her under their thumbs and pimp her out, it is always a distant and pragmatic threat; this isn't a book where the heroine is always under the shadow of sexual abuse. I was never genuinely alarmed about it, and that's the way I'd like things to stay.

Also (SPOILERS!), I appreciated the light touch on Mairelon and Kim's relationship. It's an obvious temptation to set up the two main characters as love interests, but Wrede carefully constructs a professional and friendly relationship, full of curiosity and cameraderie. There are certainly a couple of hints, but given the characters who make these remarks, it could all come to nothing in the rest of the series. I don't honestly think it will, mind, but I appreciate the possibility. Moreover, the solid platonic basis of their connection will make for a more plausible romance if that is the intention. show less

Love it. Mairelon is utterly un-pin-down-able - he has distraction down to a fine art. Kim is great, with a fascinating backstory (though we don't get much more than an outline in this book) and an oddly practical (or maybe not so odd) outlook on things. And Hunch makes a wonderful foil for the two of them, as they all three build the structure of their relationship. Mairelon's mission is neat, Kim's interference and then assistance is perfect. I'm always on the verge of laughing almost throughout, as Mairelon wiggles around to get his way; then the scene on the Druids' lodge tips the story _almost_ into straight comedy. But through all the funny bits and slapstick, there's important matters being dealt with - Freddy, to some extent, show more Renee, Andrew, and of course the Saltash set. And finally Kim. The only weak note is the question of Laverham's blood - after Kim's thoughts on seeing St. Clair, you'd think it would be obvious. Whatever. Happy ending that makes an excellent beginning. It's too late at night to start the next book! Really! Hard to wait, though...
I've read it at least three or four times, and I expect I will read it many more times. show less

This book is definitely not as bad as the cover suggests. Even though I like Wrede's work, I was a bit skeptical about this novel, because the cover gave me the impression that it would be taking place in the Wild West, and that the main character would have a sketchy mustache. Fortunately, both suspicions proved false - the book is set in Regency London (or thereabouts), and it follows the adventures of Kim, a girl (dressed as a boy) who lives on the streets and used to earn her living as a thief. When someone hires her to break into Mairelon's wagon and report back on its contents, she sees no harm in it, until she discovers that Mairelon is a real magician. Soon she finds herself tagging along on Mairelon's adventure. He's looking show more for a set of objects that contain magical properties - he was accused of stealing them himself five years ago, and now he wants to solve the mystery and clear his name. Unfortunately, he's not the only one after these objects, and the adventure becomes more and more dangerous with each fact they uncover. I thought this was a very well-done story. There's a lot of action and humor, and the period detail is satisfying. Kim's slang is a bit cumbersome at times, and there are a lot of secondary characters whom it's sometimes hard to keep straight. Other than that, I enjoyed this book a lot. show less