An unkindness of magicians / Kat Howard.
Record details
- ISBN: 1481451200 (trade paper ; alk. paper)
- ISBN: 9781481451208 (trade paper ; alk. paper)
- ISBN: 1481451197 (hardcover ; alk. paper)
- ISBN: 9781481451192 (hardcover ; alk. paper)
- ISBN: 9781481451192
- ISBN: 1481451197
- ISBN: 9781481451192
- ISBN: 1481451197
- Physical Description: 354 pages ; 22 cm
- Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: New York, New York : Saga Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc., [2017]
Content descriptions
Summary, etc.: | "In New York City, magic controls everything. But the power of magic is fading. No one knows what is happening, except for Sydney--a new, rare magician with incredible power that has been unmatched in decades, and she may be the only person who is able to stop the darkness that is weakening the magic. But Sydney doesn't want to help the system, she wants to destroy it. Sydney comes from the House of Shadows, which controls the magic with the help of sacrifices from magicians"-- Provided by publisher. |
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Magicians > Fiction. Magic > New York (State) > New York > Fiction. New York (N.Y.) > Fiction. |
Genre: | Fantasy fiction. Thrillers (Fiction) Suspense fiction. |
Available copies
- 6 of 6 copies available at Bibliomation.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 6 total copies.
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bolton High School | FIC HOW (Text) | 34062141575142 | Fiction | Available | - |
Booth & Dimock Library - Coventry | AF HOW (Text) | 33260000258690 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
Lyman Memorial High School | FIC HOW (Text) | 33431139404469 | Fiction | Available | - |
Ridgefield Library | FAN HOWARD UW 1 (Text) | 34010154778632 | Adult Fantasy | Available | - |
Silas Bronson Library - Waterbury | FANT FIC HOWARD, K (Text) | 34005126107100 | Adult Fantasy | Available | - |
Southbury Public Library | TEEN 2. HOWARD (Text) | 34019142574979 | Teen Fiction | Available | - |
Electronic resources
BookList Review
An Unkindness of Magicians
Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
One woman's quest for revenge transforms New York City's hidden, magical community in Howard's second dark fantasy novel. In the Unseen World, power can be made and unmade during the Turning, when each House's champion magicians selected by blood or hired by contract duel for prominence. New Houses may be established, powerful ones may fall, and one House will become ruler. For Sydney, an unknown magician with matchless ability, contracting with a candidate house offers a chance to destroy the House of Shadows, the Unseen World's shameful open secret. However, others want to expand Shadows' parasitic influence or steal its ill-gotten power. Howard's vengeance-fueled urban fantasy is stylish, macabre, and spellbinding, if occasionally overwrought. The bureaucratic machinations behind the magic add an interesting layer to the violent competition. Sydney's overpowered magic is balanced by her sacrifices in exchange; her emotional and physical trauma keep her vulnerable, even while crushing her enemies. Howard rarely checks her story's forward momentum, preferring to whip through scenes that should have greater import, but it's a wild ride to the satisfying finish.--Hutley, Krista Copyright 2017 Booklist
Kirkus Review
An Unkindness of Magicians
Kirkus Reviews
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
A dark tale of revenge and battle magic among New York City's secretive elite.Everyone in the Unseen World gets the message: another Turning has begun, which means all magical Houses must once again compete to become the head of New York's magical world. Old Houses, like House Prospero and House Merlin, the current ruler of the Unseen World, will try to get aheador stay on top. Grey, the disinherited son of House Prospero, expelled for "pushing boundaries" with his magic, will attempt to found his own new House, as will his friend Laurent, who's hired a champion to fight for himan outsider nobody knows. That outsider, Sydney, an unusually powerful magician, has big plans for this Turning. She aims to do nothing less than disrupt the fundamental ways the Unseen World works, exposing its secrets and punishing those responsible for the injustice at its heart. Meanwhile, Harper is desperately trying to get a glimpse inside the Unseen World and avenge her best friend's death. In a Turning, nothing is certain. Anyone could winanyone could die. Sydney is a fascinating character, and her drive for vengeance propels the plot forward. The sickness at the heart of this world is presented in stark and compelling terms, and the many magical battles keep the stakes high, although some of the big moments feel a little rushed. Strong characters and a captivating revenge plot make this a fun, absorbing read for those who like their magic, and their magicians, dark and twisty. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
An Unkindness of Magicians
Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
During the tournament known as the Turning, the magically talented members of the Unseen World vie for rule of their community. The Unseen World is centered in New York, and powerful House Merlin has dominated for generations, based mostly on a spell it claims permits magicians to use magic at little cost to themselves. There is a cost, but the spell allows this flaw to be passed along to the House of Shadows, whose members come from sacrificed children given up by the powerful families. Sydney, a determined heroine fighting to end a despicable system that oppresses children in order to ease the lives of the elite, is one of only two magicians to ever leave the House of Shadows, and she has entered the Turning as a duelist for an upstart house. Her real goal is to bring down the Unseen World. VERDICT Howard, whose debut, Roses and Rot, had more than a touch of the gothic, returns strong with another fantasy with a dark center. The magical duels ratchet up the tension as readers can't be sure Sydney will even survive to achieve her revolution.-MM © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publishers Weekly Review
An Unkindness of Magicians
Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Howard's sophomore novel (after Roses and Rot) is zippy at the expense of character development. Sydney is a magician in an alternate modern-day New York who's hired to represent House Beauchamps in the Turning, a magical competition that determines the hierarchy of houses in the magical community called the Unseen World. Magic isn't an ability magicians have unlimited access to, but rather a resource that can be bottled and transferred from magician to magician. As a child, Sydney was a captive of the House of Shadows, who siphoned some of her magic to strengthen the abilities of other magicians, but she won her partial freedom after challenging the house. Now, with each magical duel she wins, her abilities grow and the reservoir of stolen magic shrinks. The houses in power plan to eliminate her if she survives the Turning. The plot is very rushed, and readers will find Sydney difficult to connect with; any obstacles or sources of tension are no match for her magic. The other characters treat events that should be devastating without prolonged concern, thus discouraging the reader from getting emotionally involved. When Howard slows down, both the characters and the Unseen World flourish in her gorgeous prose, but these moments are too few. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
New York Times Review
An Unkindness of Magicians
New York Times
November 12, 2017
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company
war has plagued the kingdom of Belleger for so long that its soldiers have given up on peace. This war is all the more brutal thanks to magical weapons of mass destruction called Decimates, which incinerate soldiers by the dozen or inflict deadly pestilences in the middle of battle. Seeking the rumored Seventh Decimate - which can ostensibly quell the other six, and may turn the war's tide - the heir to the throne embarks on a grueling quest to reach a legendary sorcerers' library. There are no subtleties in seventh decimate (Berkley, $27), by the acclaimed fantasy veteran Stephen R. Donaldson. The Decimates decimate. Key characters have blatantly descriptive names like Abbator or Rummage or, for the leader of the exotic brown-skinned desert dwellers the prince encounters, Set. The library is a literal ivory tower full of scholarly magic-users. Yet amid all this blatant symbolism, it's difficult to discern a theme or focus. There is potential here for a meditation on how privation feeds bigotry. As Prince Bifalt travels, he repeatedly rails at nonBellegerins for doing what his people cannot, like learning multiple languages, or for wasting time with frivolities like dance and study. In many ways he is the stereotypical American abroad, confronted with his own insularity: "Faced with so much diversity, so much lying outside his experience, he felt an unexpected impulse to draw back. Instinctively, he wanted to retreat to his pallet and sleep until the world shrank to more comprehensible dimensions." There's no basis for Bifalt's resentment, though; none of these outsiders are responsible for his country's endless war. He, as prince, is more capable than anyone of ending the conflict. He is simply wrong, and blaming others for his wrongness. Since this is the start of a projected trilogy, however, maybe it's too soon to tell where Donaldson is going. Let's hope future volumes define the arc. In the covert Unseen World of Kat Howard's new novel, AN UNKINDNESS OF MAGICIANS (Saga, $25.99), readers Can find an intriguing microcosm of New York's wealthy elite, plus magic. The book's high society magicians belong to houses, like private clubs, whose open secret is that their power comes from exploitation. Each gives a living sacrifice to Shadows, a torture chamber that drains victims of magic and allows member houses to wield power without consequence. The draining is usually fatal, but one powerful survivor has recently emerged, determined to avenge her fellow victims and dismantle the corrupt system. Amid the crucible of a kind of magical Final Four, the formidable Sydney makes her move. A revenge tale, a charismatic outsider and a powerful metaphor for all the ways the unfortunate are made to serve the tables and fashions of the privileged - or maybe not. Howard never delves into the obvious parallels between her Unseen World and our own; mostly, the story gives Sydney a chance to show off how amazing she is. This is interesting, to a point, but it's also a bit glib and underdeveloped in terms of theme and world-building alike. For example: The novel's lone black character is utterly naive about the Unseen World's secrets, putting him in the unlikely position of needing to have power and privilege explained to him. Likewise, the elite of the Unseen World are oddly staid for New York society members. There are no boorish mob-connected real estate moguls here, no garish heiresses carefully arranging to be caught nude for Instagram. The magicians' most amazing magic is in avoiding interest from the paparazzi. Even in the context of fantasy, a modern novel addressing privilege and exploitation needs to go hard or go home. Sadly, Howard pulls her punches. The result is a New York that doesn't feel quite like New York, and a revolutionary whose quest for revenge feels toothless. However, readers who just want to see a powerful woman own a society of snooty magicians will love it. Andy Weir's first novel, "The Martian," told the story of the astronaut Mark Watney, stranded on Mars to fend for himself with grit, ingenuity and engineering know-how: Robinson Crusoe in space. Originally self-published, it was scooped up by a big house and eventually turned into a blockbuster movie starring Matt Damon. How to follow up that kind of success? Weir's second novel, Artemis (Crown, $27), takes place in the first city built on the moon, an industrial and tourist haven that gives the book its title. Weir plausibly depicts near-future colonization technology, and showcases the opportunists and laborers who eke out a living in this expensive, precarious habitat. It's like a whole city of Mark Watneys. The problem is that it's a whole city of Mark Watneys. Characters constantly crack wise, but this doesn't quite disguise their shallowness, or the leaden dialogue and repetitive narration. The protagonist is Jazz Bashara, a young Saudi woman, Muslim but secular, who's lived on the moon since she was 6. She talks and acts like a Middle American white man - with occasional stereotypical exceptions, as when she must pretend to be a prostitute. Then she talks and acts like a Middle American white man pretending to be a prostitute. Jazz is brilliant, as she constantly informs the reader, and as secondary characters inform her, and as her antagonists point out. Unfortunately she's also poor, so she has become a smuggler who pulls the odd illegal job for Artemis's elite. When a local business mogul hires her to sabotage a rival corporation, it's her chance to escape poverty. Alas, since the rival turns out to be a front for the Brazilian mafia, things don't go as planned. This is a heist narrative at heart - but it lacks the core elements of modern heist narratives: no team of charming specialists, no surprise plot twists. That may be fine for "hard" science fiction fans who prioritize idea over execution, or who simply crave well-researched technical speculation presented as fiction. Otherwise, this is a 300page film pitch that, like its predecessor, will probably be more appealing after it goes to Hollywood. Everything old is Neo in Axie Oh's latest science fiction epic for young adults, rebel Seoul (Tu Books, $19.95). Amid a global war, the world has reordered itself into militaristic city-states like Neo Beijing, Neo Tokyo and the American Neo States. But teenagers will still be teenagers, and high school will still be grim - no less so when the exams include giant robots and your teachers might kill you if you fail. Billed as a cross between Guillermo del Toro's movie "Pacific Rim" and Korean action dramas, the story is rather more the latter; unlike in "Pacific Rim," those giant robots (here called God Machines) are just the ironic backdrop to a quintessentially antiwar story. Lee Jaewon, a not-quite-orphan from the slums of Neo Seoul, has scammed his way into a prestigious high school, hoping for an easier life. Unfortunately, he also happens to be the best fighter at a school where generals routinely observe war simulations. Through a convoluted series of events, Jaewon is recruited for a project to produce genetically engineered super-soldiers. Of course they're teenage girls. Of course Jaewon is smitten with one, who can rip the arm off a God Machine without effort. Anyone who's watched enough ?-dramas will see where the story's going. This isn't necessarily bad, since the strength of a good ?-drama lies in its characterization. With a secret past as the son of a failed rebel, Jaewon must choose whether to accept society's corruption or follow in his father's footsteps. The conclusion is foregone, but it works thanks to Oh's eloquent writing, delivered in a stark, understated style that suits the dystopian tone. Any lesser prose and the story might have edged into satire. As it is? It's moody, explodey fun. ? N. K. jemisin won the Hugo Award for best novel in 2016, and again in 2017, for the first two parts of the Broken Earth trilogy, which concluded last month. Her column on Sciencefiction and fantasy appears six times ayear.