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A review by dawn_marie
A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H.G. Parry
1.0
DNF. I tried. I really, really tried to like [b:A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians|51862863|A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians (The Shadow Histories #1)|H.G. Parry|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1573507362l/51862863._SX50_SY75_.jpg|72275237] by [a:H.G. Parry|18633573|H.G. Parry|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1558877137p2/18633573.jpg]. I stopped reading at around 200 pages. It is a shame because the premise of the novel - historic events told with a magical bent - is interesting.
After a promising start, the novel just never went anywhere. The plot was nonexistent and the pacing was excruciatingly plodding. The story jumped from event to event to event (sometimes with time jumps of several months) in England, France, and Jamaica over a 20+ year span starting in late 1700s. I did like the fact that Ms. Parry used real events (age of enlightenment in England, revolution in France, slave uprisings in Jamaica) and infused them with a magical undercurrent - that was interesting. Sadly that was the only interesting thing about the novel.
The characters were lacking - often being duplicates of each other. The only thing that made a character (somewhat) interesting was the type of magic he/she wielded. The conversations between Pitt and Wilberforce, including witty banter and self deprecating remarks, sounded exactly like the conversations between Rosespierre and Desmoulins. At least they had the opportunity to speak with others, poor Fina rarely did.
While reading I kept waiting for something to happen - or at the very least to have the three storylines intersect - but it never did.
After a promising start, the novel just never went anywhere. The plot was nonexistent and the pacing was excruciatingly plodding. The story jumped from event to event to event (sometimes with time jumps of several months) in England, France, and Jamaica over a 20+ year span starting in late 1700s. I did like the fact that Ms. Parry used real events (age of enlightenment in England, revolution in France, slave uprisings in Jamaica) and infused them with a magical undercurrent - that was interesting. Sadly that was the only interesting thing about the novel.
The characters were lacking - often being duplicates of each other. The only thing that made a character (somewhat) interesting was the type of magic he/she wielded. The conversations between Pitt and Wilberforce, including witty banter and self deprecating remarks, sounded exactly like the conversations between Rosespierre and Desmoulins. At least they had the opportunity to speak with others, poor Fina rarely did.
While reading I kept waiting for something to happen - or at the very least to have the three storylines intersect - but it never did.