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A review by actuallycandy
The Glass Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg
3.0
I would make this a 3 ⭐ read.
This one is a tough one for me. I love the world, the premise and the magic system. But Ceony, the heroine of the story, changed for me. Before diving into my review let's look at the plot itself.
Ceony continues her apprenticeship under Emery Thane as she strives to complete her apprenticeship within the minimum of 2 years. Along the way she has befriended another apprentice Gaffer (glass magician) called Delilah.
Each apprentice of every magical type is to learn about their counterparts. So an excursion to the paper mill is required until a massive explosion occurs. Ceony suspects a foreigner but quickly swipes her suspicion as being racist.
Delilah and Ceony are then dining at a bistro in London when Grath finds her. What does he want? To know how she did it. How did she freeze Lira. At this point we can only suspect that Grath wants to release Lira from Ceonys spell. Right... But this is where things get confusing?
There's also a buggy crash scene... Which in my mind is pointless and adds no value to the plot. Why wouldn't Saraj just finish the job? He after all was ruthless and non-empathetic - Classic signs of a psychopath. But no, the buggy just crashes into a river. Exposing Ceony's greatest fear... Blah blah... Not very interesting.
The story continues as the police, Hughes, Aviosky, Emery, Delilah and Ceony are all basically trying to find Grath and his partner Saraj. But Grath finds them instead through mirrors. Dun dun dun! He is a Gaffer. And so his true intentions are realised. He wants to release his bond to glass to become an Excisioner. This is the point of the story where I thought I knew why he wanted Ceony. I assumed that the purpose of why he kept tracking Ceony was so that her spell could release his bond from glass. A seemingly impossible feat to break a bond from a material, just as it had been impossible for her to freeze an Excisioner. But I was sorely mistaken.
This is where i start to get annoyed. Because when all the magical allies are coming together to defeat the duo Ceony thinks it's a marvellous idea to defeat Grath on her own. The other more experienced magician's have concluded to get rid of Saraj first who posed as a greater threat seeing as Grath was not an Excisioner. But Ceony, the inexperienced Folder has thought she can talk to Grath to what? Sus out his plans? Negotiate? There was no thought into these plans. Which unfortunately led to me to not like our lead character very much. She started making very stupid decisions. This time for no particular reason other than its "her" responsibility. At least in the previous book her rash decision making made sense. She didn't want to fail being a magician, she wanted to save a life of her mentor, she was driven my a sprinkle of love. But here, there was nothing driving the decision. Making her look rather, stupid.
Worse of all she drags Delilah, which of course is just a pawn in the story to teach Ceony about glass spells. Which the character is quickly discarded of with not much backstory. So when the author offed her, I really had no emotion behind it.
All the other scenes where she's stuck in Belgium, the rushed contact scenes with Grath. Pointless...
I'm going to skip to the end scene... The big showdown between Grath and Ceony. Firstly, how silly was it to think that Ceony would be safe in a Gaffers house? One filled with mirrors that Grath could use to track her down? Not that he even needed Ceony anyway. This was the moment I thought he was going to spill his blood and force Ceony to cast her spell. Fell absolutely flat. Instead our villian figured it out all on his own, to disbond from glass! Soooo, what was the point of facing down Ceony? Did he harbour love for Lira and that's why he wanted to seek revenge? Surely it's not so he can force her hand to release Lira. He could have done so countless times. But no it's a simple backwards recital of the bonding spell. And he reveals it to Ceony by draining the life out of Delilah to become an Excisioner. In turn Ceony becomes a Gaffer to kill Grath... How convenient.
Seriously the most interesting part of the book was Emery's POV when he faces down Saraj. I would have loved it if Holmberg incorporated Emery more in the story where his magic made a big impact on what could have been amazing battle scenes. Ceony could have been quick witted with what she knew, Delilah could have countered Graths spells and Emery could have delivered more complicated spells. And surprise, Hugh's and Aviosky spun in last minute to assist when things got grave. But alas this will only happen in my imagination.
Let me talk briefly about the romance. Ceony thinks that the love is one sided. It's obvious that Emery is struggling to keep it professional, after all he is her mentor and she his apprentice. Aviosky attempts a few times to transfer Ceony but she throws a tantrum and says "No!" which is apparently enough for Aviosky to let it be.
Honestly I wouldn't have minded this book being a two POV book. Ceony and Emery. Delilah needed more fleshing out for her character for the reader to actually care about her demise. The villians needed some purpose. Once again I'm left asking, why? What does the Excisioners want exactly? What is there purpose? Just to be evil for the sake of being evil? There is no substance to them.
A quick one to address is the sexism other readers pointed out. Judging by the time period I think it was fitting. As much as people don't want to accept, cooking for men and dressing conservatively was the norm back then. I'm just more annoyed that more time was given to her chores rather than fleshing out a character properly or giving more weight to the plot.
I just wanted more from this book. There was sooo much potential. And because I'm so passionate about the world and magic, I think that's why I'm so critical of this story. Once again with only a mere 200 pages in this book I wonder if Holmberg could have done more if it were longer. Who knows?
I will finish this trilogy. But this book left me with so much wanting... Hopefully the last book can redeem these characters. I desperately want to like Ceony again. I want to see more of Emery and his abilities. And more fleshed out characters!
This one is a tough one for me. I love the world, the premise and the magic system. But Ceony, the heroine of the story, changed for me. Before diving into my review let's look at the plot itself.
Ceony continues her apprenticeship under Emery Thane as she strives to complete her apprenticeship within the minimum of 2 years. Along the way she has befriended another apprentice Gaffer (glass magician) called Delilah.
Each apprentice of every magical type is to learn about their counterparts. So an excursion to the paper mill is required until a massive explosion occurs. Ceony suspects a foreigner but quickly swipes her suspicion as being racist.
Delilah and Ceony are then dining at a bistro in London when Grath finds her. What does he want? To know how she did it. How did she freeze Lira. At this point we can only suspect that Grath wants to release Lira from Ceonys spell. Right... But this is where things get confusing?
There's also a buggy crash scene... Which in my mind is pointless and adds no value to the plot. Why wouldn't Saraj just finish the job? He after all was ruthless and non-empathetic - Classic signs of a psychopath. But no, the buggy just crashes into a river. Exposing Ceony's greatest fear... Blah blah... Not very interesting.
The story continues as the police, Hughes, Aviosky, Emery, Delilah and Ceony are all basically trying to find Grath and his partner Saraj. But Grath finds them instead through mirrors. Dun dun dun! He is a Gaffer. And so his true intentions are realised. He wants to release his bond to glass to become an Excisioner. This is the point of the story where I thought I knew why he wanted Ceony. I assumed that the purpose of why he kept tracking Ceony was so that her spell could release his bond from glass. A seemingly impossible feat to break a bond from a material, just as it had been impossible for her to freeze an Excisioner. But I was sorely mistaken.
This is where i start to get annoyed. Because when all the magical allies are coming together to defeat the duo Ceony thinks it's a marvellous idea to defeat Grath on her own. The other more experienced magician's have concluded to get rid of Saraj first who posed as a greater threat seeing as Grath was not an Excisioner. But Ceony, the inexperienced Folder has thought she can talk to Grath to what? Sus out his plans? Negotiate? There was no thought into these plans. Which unfortunately led to me to not like our lead character very much. She started making very stupid decisions. This time for no particular reason other than its "her" responsibility. At least in the previous book her rash decision making made sense. She didn't want to fail being a magician, she wanted to save a life of her mentor, she was driven my a sprinkle of love. But here, there was nothing driving the decision. Making her look rather, stupid.
Worse of all she drags Delilah, which of course is just a pawn in the story to teach Ceony about glass spells. Which the character is quickly discarded of with not much backstory. So when the author offed her, I really had no emotion behind it.
All the other scenes where she's stuck in Belgium, the rushed contact scenes with Grath. Pointless...
I'm going to skip to the end scene... The big showdown between Grath and Ceony. Firstly, how silly was it to think that Ceony would be safe in a Gaffers house? One filled with mirrors that Grath could use to track her down? Not that he even needed Ceony anyway. This was the moment I thought he was going to spill his blood and force Ceony to cast her spell. Fell absolutely flat. Instead our villian figured it out all on his own, to disbond from glass! Soooo, what was the point of facing down Ceony? Did he harbour love for Lira and that's why he wanted to seek revenge? Surely it's not so he can force her hand to release Lira. He could have done so countless times. But no it's a simple backwards recital of the bonding spell. And he reveals it to Ceony by draining the life out of Delilah to become an Excisioner. In turn Ceony becomes a Gaffer to kill Grath... How convenient.
Seriously the most interesting part of the book was Emery's POV when he faces down Saraj. I would have loved it if Holmberg incorporated Emery more in the story where his magic made a big impact on what could have been amazing battle scenes. Ceony could have been quick witted with what she knew, Delilah could have countered Graths spells and Emery could have delivered more complicated spells. And surprise, Hugh's and Aviosky spun in last minute to assist when things got grave. But alas this will only happen in my imagination.
Let me talk briefly about the romance. Ceony thinks that the love is one sided. It's obvious that Emery is struggling to keep it professional, after all he is her mentor and she his apprentice. Aviosky attempts a few times to transfer Ceony but she throws a tantrum and says "No!" which is apparently enough for Aviosky to let it be.
Honestly I wouldn't have minded this book being a two POV book. Ceony and Emery. Delilah needed more fleshing out for her character for the reader to actually care about her demise. The villians needed some purpose. Once again I'm left asking, why? What does the Excisioners want exactly? What is there purpose? Just to be evil for the sake of being evil? There is no substance to them.
A quick one to address is the sexism other readers pointed out. Judging by the time period I think it was fitting. As much as people don't want to accept, cooking for men and dressing conservatively was the norm back then. I'm just more annoyed that more time was given to her chores rather than fleshing out a character properly or giving more weight to the plot.
I just wanted more from this book. There was sooo much potential. And because I'm so passionate about the world and magic, I think that's why I'm so critical of this story. Once again with only a mere 200 pages in this book I wonder if Holmberg could have done more if it were longer. Who knows?
I will finish this trilogy. But this book left me with so much wanting... Hopefully the last book can redeem these characters. I desperately want to like Ceony again. I want to see more of Emery and his abilities. And more fleshed out characters!