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imds's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence, Violence, Body horror, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Trafficking, Xenophobia, Child abuse, Confinement, Murder, Abandonment, Death, Torture, Stalking, and Blood
Moderate: Death of parent
stories's review
challenging
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Wow. Dad recommended this book and he was right. Certainly designed to be read more at once than episodically, with a large, cast of complex relationships. A satisfying mixture of political intrigue, morality and magical wonders in a battle-to-the-death equivalent of this magical world’s election cycle.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Gore, and Death
Moderate: Child abuse, Murder, Self harm, Abandonment, Classism, Violence, and Physical abuse
Minor: Racism
tamara_joy's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Physical abuse
Minor: Blood and Child abuse
graculus's review against another edition
5.0
I'd read a lot of short fiction by this author but never managed to get hold of her first novel, so when this one was on sale I grabbed a copy and finally got round to reading it this week.
The basic premise is that it's set in a world like our own but where magic exists alongside us, so you have 'mundanes' as well who are unaware of magic's existence. Every so often there's something called the Turning, which is all about which House of the magical world gets to be in charge and make all the rules, with challenges issued and then fought by that House's champion, as well as the opportunity for people to found new Houses if they're powerful enough.
The main character is Sydney, who has recently escaped from the House of Shadows, a place which is the source of much of the magic that others rely on - in short, their magic comes from the suffering of others, Sydney being one of them until recently. It reminded me a little of Ursula K LeGuin's short story, 'The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas' in that it seems like most magic users either don't know, or choose to ignore, this fact. Sydney is powerful and takes up the role of champion for one of the would-be Houses, in this case one led by someone from outside the magical world, with a view to exposing the truth about magic to everyone.
Alongside this, there's also a power struggle going on for two of the existing Houses, one with a psychopathic former heir who's been disinherited and is going around killing people for their magic, the other with a man who has lost all of his power over time but is pretending this isn't the case. In the end, the truth comes out, all of it and the author does a very nice job of making us care about many of the people involved and tying off all the loose ends of plot. In short, I enjoyed An Unkindness of Magicians very much and definitely want to get my hands on other novel-length work by Kat Howard.
The basic premise is that it's set in a world like our own but where magic exists alongside us, so you have 'mundanes' as well who are unaware of magic's existence. Every so often there's something called the Turning, which is all about which House of the magical world gets to be in charge and make all the rules, with challenges issued and then fought by that House's champion, as well as the opportunity for people to found new Houses if they're powerful enough.
The main character is Sydney, who has recently escaped from the House of Shadows, a place which is the source of much of the magic that others rely on - in short, their magic comes from the suffering of others, Sydney being one of them until recently. It reminded me a little of Ursula K LeGuin's short story, 'The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas' in that it seems like most magic users either don't know, or choose to ignore, this fact. Sydney is powerful and takes up the role of champion for one of the would-be Houses, in this case one led by someone from outside the magical world, with a view to exposing the truth about magic to everyone.
Alongside this, there's also a power struggle going on for two of the existing Houses, one with a psychopathic former heir who's been disinherited and is going around killing people for their magic, the other with a man who has lost all of his power over time but is pretending this isn't the case. In the end, the truth comes out, all of it and the author does a very nice job of making us care about many of the people involved and tying off all the loose ends of plot. In short, I enjoyed An Unkindness of Magicians very much and definitely want to get my hands on other novel-length work by Kat Howard.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror and Physical abuse
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