Reminiscent of The Golem and the Jinni, The Glass Magician by Caroline Stevermer is a magical and romantic tale set in New York’s Gilded Age. New York 1905–The Vanderbilts. The Astors. The Morgans. They are the cream of society–and they own the nation on the cusp of a new century. Thalia Cutler doesn’t have any of those family connections. What she does know is stage magic and she dazzles … know is stage magic and she dazzles audiences with an act that takes your breath away.
That is, until one night when a trick goes horribly awry. In surviving she discovers that she can shapeshift, and has the potential to take her place among the rich and powerful.
But first, she’ll have to learn to control that power…before the real monsters descend to feast.
At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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Caroline Stevermer’s A College of Magics and A Scholar of Magics are my favorite magic school fantasies, bar none, so when I got a chance to read an ARC, I grabbed it.
And as always, Stevermer did not disappoint. The Glass Magician is set in an alternate Gilded Age version of New York City, where Miss Thalia Cutler is a professional stage magician, aided by her lifelong family friend known only as Nutall.
Humans come in four races: Sylvestri, the rarest and most magical, Traders, who are shapeshifters and tend to be very wealthy, Solitaires, who are the most like ordinary humans and the most numerous, and Manticores, who unfortunately prey on Traders, sucking up their magic when they are most vulnerable, and killing them.
But these sorts of problems seem far in the background to Thalia as she prepares for a performance. A minor setback prompts Thalia to substitute a trick, but it comes off flawlessly. Or so she thinks until a message comes that her contract has been rescinded, and she is not only forbidden that theater, but cannot practice at all.
She and Nutall know who is behind this piece of treachery: a rival magician who is a bully, a liar, a cheat, and a con man. But scarcely have they set out to prove it when that mage turns up dead in the middle of a performance.
Meanwhile, Thalia receives a request from a wealthy Trader family to train the debutante daughter in magic . . . and so an absorbing, atmospheric, marvelously inventive tale unwinds.
I loved the worldbuilding, the characters, especially the female friendship that develops between the cautious Thalia and Nell, the mercurial Trader daughter who wants to become a magician in spite of her family’s (specifically her older brother’s) disapproval. Stevermer always writes with such attention to interesting detail, which is evident here.
The tale comes to a very satisfactory close, with enough loose ends that I really hope she will be exploring this world further.
I enjoyed this one. The settings–the stage itself, the time period and the lifestyle were done well. Characters that grew and changed. I’ll be on the lookout for a second book!
Sprightly and inventive!
Stevermer has re-imagined New York’s gilded age to perfection… pure fantasy and fascinating, a prickly murder mystery, and a bevy of strong women, both young and old. I’m sure there will be a sequel. Well, I hope there will be a sequel. There had better be a sequel!
Why did this favorite author name the book The Glass Magician? There are several books with similar titles, and the “glass” part barely shows up at the end.
But this book is about turn-of-the-nineteenth-century vaudeville magicians, and that is *my* time and art. (I wrote a thesis on The Vaudeville Criticism of Epes Winthrop Sargent.) So that was fun. So is the world Stevermer sets up, of Solitaires, Traders, and Silvestri. Read it to find out who and what they are, and why they don’t always get along.
I still love Stevermer’s College of Magic books the best, but am happy for this new one.
I loved this book.
A delicious read ― elegant, neat, sprightly, well-defined and likable characters… I absolutely loved it.
https://www.bookbub.com/books/the-glass-magician-the-paper-magician-series-book-2-by-charlie-n-holmberg