The Magician's Daughter
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
"That most rare and precious thing: a brand-new classic, both wholly original and wonderfully nostalgic." —Alix E. Harrow, New York Times bestselling author
In the early 1900s, a young woman is caught between two worlds in H. G. Parry’s cozy tale of magic, miracles, and an adventure of a lifetime.
Off the coast of Ireland sits a legendary island hidden by magic. A place of ruins and ancient trees, sea salt air, and fairy lore, Hy-Brasil is the only home Biddy has ever known. Washed up on its shore as a baby, Biddy lives a quiet life with her guardian, the mercurial magician Rowan. A life she finds increasingly stifling.
One night, Rowan fails to return from his mysterious travels. To find him, Biddy must venture into the outside world for the first time. But Rowan has powerful enemies—forces who have hoarded the world’s magic and have set their sights on the magician’s many secrets.
Biddy may be the key to stopping them. Yet the closer she gets to answers, the more she questions everything she’s ever believed about Rowan, her past, and the nature of magic itself.
Praise for The Magician's Daughter
"Brilliantly imagined. Parry blends mythic elements with wit and heart." —Lucy Holland
“A charming romp of an old-school coming of age fantasy about family and magic that will take your heart for a wild ride." ―NPR
For more from H. G. Parry, check out:
The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep
The Shadow Histories
A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians
A Radical Act of Free Magic
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Parry (A Radical Act of Free Magic) continues her hot streak of well-researched historical fantasy with this mix of bildungsroman and love letter to the 19th-century English canon. Sixteen-year-old Bridget "Biddy" Adler has lived her entire life on the hidden, enchanted island of Hy-Brasil with her adoptive father, the Irish woodmage Rowan O'Connell, and his rabbit familiar, Hutchincroft. Then the British Council of Mages comes after Rowan for stealing magic at a time when the magic-granting schisms have all closed, and the Council wants all magic conserved. Biddy departs the isle for 19th-century London, aiming to set a trap for the Council members—only to be captured by them herself, and told that everything she knows about herself and Rowan is a lie. The novel inexplicably treats Rowan's former fiancée, Morgaine, much more harshly than other, more culpable members of the corrupt Council, creating a weird imbalance in the portrayal of the villains, but the magic system—which posits magic as a nonrenewable resource—works wonderfully as a metaphor for capitalism after 19th-century industrialization. Parry's fans will not be disappointed.
Customer Reviews
Lovely young adult story
Reminds me of Lloyd Alexander’s The Book of Three but with female protagonist.