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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
Just plain fucking good fun. You know things will work out because these are happy ending books but it's so lovely and fun and satisfying. Love the world building.
Really fun! I predicted the twist really early, but I enjoyed getting there nonetheless.
Like its prequel ‘Sorcerer to the Crown’, this is more like 3.5 stars. It’s a fun read full of colourful magic and adventures to fairy realms, plus the Regency balls and snide social competition to be expected from its setting. A lot of the fantasy worldbuilding is there already, and the main characters of the previous novel – the now-married English sorcerers Prunella and Zacharias, and the delightful Malay witch Mak Genggang – are minor characters here.
Instead the focus is on Muni, a young amnesiac who, with her beautiful, arrogant sister Sakti, is taken in by Mak Genggang, and then sent to England, where two years after taking her staff as Sorceress Royal, Prunella has established a school for magiciennes. Muni means to find out how to lift the curse on her and her sister that has seen Sakti stolen away to Fairy. Muni is a pragmatic and sensitive heroine, and she finds a kindred spirit in Henrietta, Prunella’s mild-mannered but determined best friend and now teacher of magic.
I found the book very cosy, and more at home in its Regency pastiche language and setting – perhaps it seemed less self-conscious because English society is being viewed from an outsider’s perspective? The scenes set in Janda Baik were evocative, as was the language of djinn and naga, and the poetic forms the Asian witches use to cast spells (as opposed to the English ‘scientific’ approach to thaumaturgy).
There are some nice themes about sisterhood and self-sacrifice, and I realised why Muni and Henrietta felt more compelling as characters than Prunella – Prunella was always a very self-satisfied character who never seemed vulnerable or uncertain, whereas both Muni and Henrietta are used to being treated as second bananas. It was rewarding to see them emerge into their powers and their agency. The postcolonial themes that I enjoyed most about ‘Sorcerer to the Crown’ are here too in the decentring of Englishness in a Regency story; and there’s also a very soft-pedalled queer narrative.
The sexual reticence I noticed and found odd in the first book is also here. (“For a time there was no need for conversation.”) There’s no passion or limerence: everyone seems to be at the stage where they just rub along companionably, which makes it hard to perceive sexual tension and attraction in the story. The language of erotic attachment isn’t clearly distinguished here from sisterhood, collegiality, arranged marriage, friendship or the bond of familiars. The book’s romantic resolution seemed to come from nowhere and was wrapped up too perfunctorily to satisfy a sentimental reader.
Instead the focus is on Muni, a young amnesiac who, with her beautiful, arrogant sister Sakti, is taken in by Mak Genggang, and then sent to England, where two years after taking her staff as Sorceress Royal, Prunella has established a school for magiciennes. Muni means to find out how to lift the curse on her and her sister that has seen Sakti stolen away to Fairy. Muni is a pragmatic and sensitive heroine, and she finds a kindred spirit in Henrietta, Prunella’s mild-mannered but determined best friend and now teacher of magic.
I found the book very cosy, and more at home in its Regency pastiche language and setting – perhaps it seemed less self-conscious because English society is being viewed from an outsider’s perspective? The scenes set in Janda Baik were evocative, as was the language of djinn and naga, and the poetic forms the Asian witches use to cast spells (as opposed to the English ‘scientific’ approach to thaumaturgy).
There are some nice themes about sisterhood and self-sacrifice, and I realised why Muni and Henrietta felt more compelling as characters than Prunella – Prunella was always a very self-satisfied character who never seemed vulnerable or uncertain, whereas both Muni and Henrietta are used to being treated as second bananas. It was rewarding to see them emerge into their powers and their agency. The postcolonial themes that I enjoyed most about ‘Sorcerer to the Crown’ are here too in the decentring of Englishness in a Regency story; and there’s also a very soft-pedalled queer narrative.
The sexual reticence I noticed and found odd in the first book is also here. (“For a time there was no need for conversation.”) There’s no passion or limerence: everyone seems to be at the stage where they just rub along companionably, which makes it hard to perceive sexual tension and attraction in the story. The language of erotic attachment isn’t clearly distinguished here from sisterhood, collegiality, arranged marriage, friendship or the bond of familiars. The book’s romantic resolution seemed to come from nowhere and was wrapped up too perfunctorily to satisfy a sentimental reader.
I liked this more than the first book because I like characters like Muna more than characters like Prunella. In fact, Prunella continued to annoy me in this volume. I wish Muna's romantic feelings had been given a bit more page time. Everything felt very coded until it suddenly was out in the open in the last scene, and I wish there had been more openness throughout, at least in Muna's own narration. That said, I did enjoy the book.
i loved this even more than the first one! wonderful worldbuilding and storytelling, compassionate characters, plot twists and turns...! so fun.
The True Queen is a sequel to Cho’s Sorcerer to the Crown but different in about three ways: 1) Muna is our main POV character, with numerous other shifts throughout the book whereas Zacharias and Prunella made the bulk of the focus in SttC; 2) Cho put down the thesaurus here so I don’t have to reach for the dictionary as much or at all; 3) an exponential increase in monster loving that the audience (read: me) appreciate.
Muna is a very sweet character and she contrasts very nicely with her sister, Sakti, who is much more abrasive comparatively, but their dedication and love for each other still comes across the page.
Muna and Henrietta’s romance is very cute and I did awww at a lot of their moments. While their romance has the same level of focus as Zacharias’ and Prunella’s from Sorcerer to the Crown, a bit of it is undercut due to Henrietta not really being a POV character here for the most part. Her attraction to Muna does come across very obviously (to everyone but Muna because she is a fool!), but you don’t get those mutual ‘oh she’s attractive!’ moments like you did in the last book. I think it’s a bit of an odd choice here especially since we have 6 other POV shifts.
Past characters from SttC do show up, as we’ve already know about Henrietta and Prunella, but what I wasn’t expecting was more expansion on Rollo and Damerell and enjoyed what we got from them. This might be the only magician and familiar deal that won’t end in abject horror. Maybe quite the opposite really
Muna is a very sweet character and she contrasts very nicely with her sister, Sakti, who is much more abrasive comparatively, but their dedication and love for each other still comes across the page.
Muna and Henrietta’s romance is very cute and I did awww at a lot of their moments. While their romance has the same level of focus as Zacharias’ and Prunella’s from Sorcerer to the Crown, a bit of it is undercut due to Henrietta not really being a POV character here for the most part. Her attraction to Muna does come across very obviously (to everyone but Muna because she is a fool!), but you don’t get those mutual ‘oh she’s attractive!’ moments like you did in the last book. I think it’s a bit of an odd choice here especially since we have 6 other POV shifts.
Past characters from SttC do show up, as we’ve already know about Henrietta and Prunella, but what I wasn’t expecting was more expansion on Rollo and Damerell and enjoyed what we got from them. This might be the only magician and familiar deal that won’t end in abject horror. Maybe quite the opposite really
Delightful. Sorcerer to the Crown left me wanting more of the world, especially of the world outside of England. I appreciated The True Queen delivering on this, as well as the increased presence of female characters. Enjoyed the romantic undercurrent and the adventure aspect.
I didn't connect with Muna as much as I did with Prunella in the first book, but I bet her POV would resonate with my friends who spend all their time facepalming at me and talking me out of leaping off high places. Zen Cho's prose is delightful as always, she did some cool things with integrating Malaysian culture into the story, and I'm happy with the queer romance, which I refuse to treat as the big spoilery reveal the book sort of implies it to be (not to queer readers, but I bet some straight people didn't see it coming). The actual plotty big reveal was too obvious too early, but whatever. Fun, sweet, witty, and a little bit grisly--solid YA, recommended.