Review: "The Magician's Daughter" by H. G. Parry

Quick Summary

Type: Novel

Genre: Fantasy, historical fiction, mythology

Back Cover: "It is 1912, and for the last seventy years magic has all but disappeared from the world. Yet magic is all Biddy has ever known.

Orphaned as a baby, Biddy grew up on Hy-Brasil, a legendary island off the coast of Ireland hidden by magic and glimpsed by rare travelers who return with stories of wild black rabbits and a lone magician in a castle. To Biddy, the island is her home, a place of ancient trees and sea-salt air and mysteries, and the magician, Rowan, is her guardian. She loves both, but as her seventeenth birthday approaches, she is stifled by her solitude and frustrated by Rowan's refusal to let her leave.

One night, Rowan fails to come home from his mysterious travels. To rescue him, Biddy ventures into his nightmares and learns not only where he goes every night, but that Rowan has powerful enemies. Determination to protect her home and her guardian, Biddy's journey will take her away from the safety of her childhood, to the poorhouses of Whitechapel, a secret castle beneath London streets, the ruins of an ancient civilization, and finally to a desperate chance to restore lost magic. But the closer she comes to answers, the more she comes to question everything she has ever believed about Rowan, her own origins, and the cost of bringing magic back into the world."

Read Time: 3 days

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review

The first chapter of this book felt very rushed, although I couldn't quite place why it felt that way. Following the first chapter, however, the pacing settled and the story got much more interesting. All in all, because the pacing settled and the story was so compelling, the book was quite easy to read.

I did have some problems with it. My biggest problem was that for a book set in the early 1900s, with characters born in the early 1800s, the way the characters spoke felt quite modern. That took me out of the story a little, but again, the story was compelling enough to keep me in it.

Some of the happenings in the book were a little predictable. For example, it felt obvious to me from very early on that Morgaine, a character who betrayed Rowan, would end up being an ally to Biddy. To that point, the oscillating between 'Morgaine is an ally' and 'Morgaine is the enemy' was repetitive and felt a little forced.

I also saw the 'Biddy sacrifices herself for magic' twist coming from a mile away (pretty much from the moment the idea of bringing magic back into the world was introduced). That being said, I definitely did not see the 'he already knew' twist coming (in a good way).

So while there were some issues with this book, I overall really did enjoy this book. The shortcomings were overwhelmed by the overall story.