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A review by actuallycandy
The Plastic Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg
4.0
This book is a 3.5 star read for me. But I rated it 4 purely for the enjoyment factor and my love for the main heroine Alvie Brechenmacher.
Alvie is an American magicians apprentice that has scored an apprenticeship in Englad in polymaking. Alvie is logical, methodical, intelligent, resourceful and an out of the box thinker. Fortunately she has scored the world-renowned magician Marion Praff as her mentor who is just as determined in innovation as she is.
However, along the way she runs into Bennet Cooper, a side character in the original The Paper Magician trilogy. Admittedly, the way Bennet is portrayed in the final installment of The Paper Magician series honestly made me question his likeability in this book. Thankfully, Bennet's character is somewhat redeemed in this installment and I think was a good fit for Alvie. Unfortunately, this is mostly because Bennet himself has no substance. His character is always described as thoughtful and unconfident and that is about it. What a shame considering the type of person Alvie is, who is extremely interesting herself. Which also made me wonder whether she even needed a romance, I felt Alvie as a character could of held the novel on her own.
Besides the apprenticeship and the sprinkle of romance there is scheming afoot. Admittedly, I felt very anxious towards the end. But as always with Holmberg's writing the big finale with the villain is often short lived with very little time to flesh out and appreciate. Everything is too neat and ties up to quickly and conveniently for there to be suspense for long. There is a lot of untied ends as well, like what about the new spell Alvie may have discovered? Prosecution of the villain (its only implied) The relationship status between Alvie and Bennet?
Alas, this has brought this world to an end for me. It was a ride, but I am glad it is over. I still recommend this installment though, probably the most enjoyable in The Paper Magician series.
Alvie is an American magicians apprentice that has scored an apprenticeship in Englad in polymaking. Alvie is logical, methodical, intelligent, resourceful and an out of the box thinker. Fortunately she has scored the world-renowned magician Marion Praff as her mentor who is just as determined in innovation as she is.
However, along the way she runs into Bennet Cooper, a side character in the original The Paper Magician trilogy. Admittedly, the way Bennet is portrayed in the final installment of The Paper Magician series honestly made me question his likeability in this book. Thankfully, Bennet's character is somewhat redeemed in this installment and I think was a good fit for Alvie. Unfortunately, this is mostly because Bennet himself has no substance. His character is always described as thoughtful and unconfident and that is about it. What a shame considering the type of person Alvie is, who is extremely interesting herself. Which also made me wonder whether she even needed a romance, I felt Alvie as a character could of held the novel on her own.
Besides the apprenticeship and the sprinkle of romance there is scheming afoot. Admittedly, I felt very anxious towards the end. But as always with Holmberg's writing the big finale with the villain is often short lived with very little time to flesh out and appreciate. Everything is too neat and ties up to quickly and conveniently for there to be suspense for long. There is a lot of untied ends as well, like what about the new spell Alvie may have discovered? Prosecution of the villain (its only implied) The relationship status between Alvie and Bennet?
Alas, this has brought this world to an end for me. It was a ride, but I am glad it is over. I still recommend this installment though, probably the most enjoyable in The Paper Magician series.