The First Bright Thing
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
If you knew how dark tomorrow would be, what would you do with today?
"This is the magic circus book that I have been looking for all my life."―Seanan McGuire, New York Times bestselling author of Every Heart A Doorway
Ringmaster — Rin, to those who know her best — can jump to different moments in time as easily as her wife, Odette, soars from bar to bar on the trapeze. And the circus they lead is a rare home and safe haven for magical misfits and outcasts, known as Sparks.
With the world still reeling from World War I, Rin and her troupe — the Circus of the Fantasticals — travel the midwest, offering a single night of enchantment and respite to all who step into their Big Top.
But threats come at Rin from all sides. The future holds an impending war that the Sparks can see barrelling toward their show and everyone in it. And Rin's past creeps closer every day, a malevolent shadow she can’t fully escape.
It takes the form of another circus, with tents as black as midnight and a ringmaster who rules over his troupe with a dangerous power. Rin's circus has something he wants, and he won't stop until it's his.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The scars of the past make themselves known in Dawson's debut, an uplifting historical time-travel fantasy. In an alternate-1920s America, Sparks, people gifted with unique powers, are shunned and feared by wider society. Rin, also known as Ringmaster, travels the American Midwest with her Spark circus, teleporting from city to city and decade to decade, while also fleeing from her husband, the Circus King, who used his own dangerous Spark to keep Rin chained in a coercive relationship. As Rin and the Circus King circle each other and the threat of WWII looms, Rin and her chosen family learn that, though some evils are too great for one person to vanquish alone, there is unexpected power in small gestures of courage. Dawson's exploration of survival and healing forms the story's emotional core but an abundance of wholesome and occasionally saccharine platitudes ("When we hurt ourselves, we hurt those around us"; "True courage comes when there is nothing we can do to stop the darkness, but we still hold the torch for those who must walk the hardest paths") undermines the narrative's power. Still, fans of gentle, uplifting speculative fiction will find much to enjoy in this heartfelt celebration of difference.
