Book 196: The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg
Book 196: The Paper Magician (Paper Magician Trilogy #1).
Author: Charlie N. Holmberg, 2014.
Genre: Fantasy. Magic. Period Fiction..
Other Details: ebook. 226 pages.
Ceony Twill arrives at the cottage of Magician Emery Thane with a broken heart. Having graduated at the top of her class from the Tagis Praff School for the Magically Inclined, Ceony is assigned an apprenticeship in paper magic despite her dreams of bespelling metal. And once she’s bonded to paper, that will be her only magic…forever. - synopsis from author's website.
I enjoyed the material-based magical system portrayed in the book. The focus is mainly on paper-based magic and my admiration may be based on the fact that I am hopeless at origami. I also found Ceony an appealing lead. However, the novel was let down badly by the setting or rather lack thereof. The novel is littered with modern-day Americanisms and it was something of a mystery to me as to why the author chose to set her tale in early Edwardian England when she shows so little regard for or knowledge of the period. There is no evidence of the British class system and very little sense of etiquette or propriety. She would have been much better off setting the novel in modern day New England as then Ceony could cook penne pasta and wear slacks to her heart's content without it jarring the sense of time and place.
Added to this the author has a very curious sense of geography. At one point in the story Ceony heads towards the English Channel. Then all of a sudden she is gazing out at the sunset making the ocean appear golden ahead of her. Is this a fantasy where the sun sets in the East or just directional confusion? The coastline described also is closer to that of Western Britain than the East. Added to that Ceony a little earlier checks out maps and has one for England and one for Europe. So if the baddie heads to Scotland or Wales they'll be well away Then there is mention of the English flag that again demonstrated her lack of knowledge.
If the setting was not so badly handled this novel would have rated 4 stars from me on Goodreads but I deducted stars for the poor historical setting, the anachronisms, Americanisms, and the spectacular geography fail. Despite these reservations the story was good enough for me to decide to continue with the trilogy even though I will no doubt head-desk at every anachronism and the like if she doesn't pull her socks up.
Cross-posted to 50bookchallenge.