I really like the history and the world building of this
book, how it draws heavily on English history, the Stuart era and especially
all he controversy surrounding the War of the Roses (there is actually a
historical society that protests the treatment of King Richard in the
historical record since the Tudors did a killer hit job on the man’s rep to
increase their legitimacy). This draws out the whole debate extremely well and
makes the world building very rich
It folds in more from both the civil war, the
protectorate and the restoration of the monarchy – it’s all fascinating
The main barrier to me enjoying this book is its pacing.
We have the beginning which is fascinating and interesting as we’re introduced
to Miranda and briefly see her life before she meets up with Richard – it works
as we’re reminded of the historical context (and this is definitely well
researched) and the difficulties Miranda faces. It really nicely sets the tone,
theme and events of the book and the politics at hand.
Then we have the middle which sadly splodges along.
Miranda is with Richard. He’s trying to learn how to use magic but not really
achieving anything. Richard and his fellow Gifted worry about bad things that
are happening that are bad and how it worries them but they’re not really doing
a whole lot to stop them. Miranda continues to fail how to learn magic. Richard
worries. They have odd meetings where it’s clear they’re into each other while
at the same time they can’t be together for Reasons. Miranda has a dream. It’s
vague. And we’re introduced to Richard’s friends, there’s a party, bad guy is
bad. Splodge splodge splodge. It would have been interesting if we’d had
skirmishes, development of Miranda’s magical skill or her character or… well…
anything. But splodge splodge splodge.
It doesn’t help that in an early part of the book we have
the villainous antagonist happily describe to us a) what he’s doing, b) his
motivations, c) how he’s doing it, d) how someone can stop him, e) why he
particularly has a grudge against Richard and f) why Miranda is a threat. Since
the rest of the book kind of rests on the protagonists discovering these
answers it kind of deflated any tension.
Richard’s only real actions against said bad man was to
occasionally go to the council of the Gifted for the following repeated
exchange:
Richard: He’s a
bad man! Put him on trial
Council: Do you have proof?
Richard: no, but he’s totally bad
Council: errr… that’s not really enough
Richard: We can use magic to force him to confess when
he’s on trial!
Council: but we can’t put someone on trial just because
you accuse him. Especially since you’re known to hate him…
Richard: But he’s a bad man!
