A New York Times bestseller “Splendid.” –Kirkus Reviews “Vivid and compelling.” –BCCB “A smart and feisty female protagonist in whom readers will delight.” –Booklist “Will keep you guessing until the very last page.” –Cinda Williams Chima, New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Gangs of New York meets Six of Crows in this captivating new series about a girl who must travel back in …
Gangs of New York meets Six of Crows in this captivating new series about a girl who must travel back in time to find a mysterious book that could save her future.
Stop the Magician.
Steal the book.
Save the future.
In modern day New York, magic is all but extinct. The remaining few who have an affinity for magic–the Mageus–live in the shadows, hiding who they are. Any Mageus who enters Manhattan becomes trapped by the Brink, a dark energy barrier that confines them to the island. Crossing it means losing their power–and often their lives.
Esta is a talented thief, and she’s been raised to steal magical artifacts from the sinister Order that created the Brink. With her innate ability to manipulate time, Esta can pilfer from the past, collecting these artifacts before the Order even realizes she’s there. And all of Esta’s training has been for one final job: traveling back to 1902 to steal an ancient book containing the secrets of the Order–and the Brink–before the Magician can destroy it and doom the Mageus to a hopeless future.
But Old New York is a dangerous world ruled by ruthless gangs and secret societies, a world where the very air crackles with magic. Nothing is as it seems, including the Magician himself. And for Esta to save her future, she may have to betray everyone in the past.more
I want to start off by saying that this book took me awhile nit because I wasn’t getting into. I didn’t want it to end. I really got into this book and the characters and the different times. I like books that do a little of time travel. I can’t believe that I haven’t read this book sooner. I highly recommend this book. I cant wait to get into book 2. Too see what happens with Esta and Harte.
First book in the Last Magician series by Lisa Maxwell, The last magician takes place in a modern New York were magic is mostly extinct. Some people still have afinity for magic but need to hide in shadows. They are call Mageus. If they enter Manhattan they become trap in the city. A dark energy barrier called the Brink, confines them to the island and lose their powers if not killing them.
Esta is a really good thief and have the ability to manipulate time. She will need to go back in time and steel something from the Order, those who create the Brink, before they realize it. The object she need to steal, a Book, in old New York of 1902, before someone called The Magician destroy it and doom all the Mageus.
Old New York is a really dangerous place. To save her future Esta will need to be really careful since nothing is at is seems.
I have really loved it and cannot wait to read the second book in the serie.
This book was well written especially for the complex plot line. However I wish the romance was a little better developed.
I love the implications of traveling in time. The world rules were consistent and interesting while the characters were unique. The only problem is the 2nd book isn’t out yet.
I had so much fun reading this book. Ever since I saw the cover months ago I knew that this would be a book that I would totally enjoy. And the cover didn’t fail me. The book was fast pace, held my interest and was just a burst of surprises. I loved the combination of magic, time travel, and groups of characters that go on a heist. If you like movies like Now You See Movie, The Prestige or The Illusionist along with books like Six of Crows than this is a book to check out. This book has magical illusions like the movies but the darkness of Six of Crows. Along with the fact that the book takes places in a grime city.
The book also had awesome characters two. I especially enjoyed the leading female protagonist who was both talented and funny at the same time. I also liked the fact that even if she has special abilities that she isn’t super dependent on them. Esta is pure smart and actually is good with just her smarts, and talents. Alongside that, she also adds comic relief throughout the book.
Lastly, the book also gives your a magical world alongside time travel which both has its own rules and limitations. I like that the author did that and added the element of alchemy and made this world feel realistic if it was in 1908.
Overall I enjoyed this book and can’t wait to see another installment. I really enjoyed the magic and the heist. As well as the characters that kept my interest going.
I received this book through a LitJoy Crate subscription.
This book was really interesting- I’ve never read one quite like it. There’s time travel, historical New York, modern New York, but with a huge twist- it’s New York in a world full of magic. And the magic users (Mageus) are fighting for their lives. Immigrants come to New York full of hope for a better life, the Mageus come hoping that the New World will accept them and provide shelter from the prejudice of their native lands. Instead, they find themselves trapped on one small portion of Manhattan, unable to pass The Brink- an invisible barrier that, if touched by a Mageus, will rip their magic out of them, leaving them either dead or a shell of themselves. Magic users have to hid who they are, if they can. They’re unable to advance in the world despite the promises of American Freedom.
If that sounds like a metaphor for some very real historical prejudices against various peoples, that’s because it is.
Esta is the main character, and, with the help of a magical artifact, she can travel through time. Her mission: to stop the Magician from destroying the Ars Arcana, a book of magic that supposedly would give a Mageus the ability to destroy the Brink, to achieve freedom. But it’s in the hands of the Order, a club of the super-powerful, super-wealthy, non-magical that work hard to maintain the status quo and make sure the Mageus never leave Manhattan. The Order use alchemy, and unnatural magic, in order to suppress the Mageus. Esta travels back in time to stop the Magician and bring the Ars Arcana back to the future where her boss/foster father can use it to free all the Mageus.
Esta’s presence changes things though, and she struggles to accomplish her mission without jeopardizing the future she came from. It doesn’t help that the Magician, a handsome man named Harte, isn’t quite what she was expecting. And soon the family she makes in the past begins to mean as much as her family in the future.
She will have to betray one of them.
Esta is a great character- I liked her a lot. She was complex, fallible, but she wasn’t stupid. She was able to think and plan and work her way around problems. Harte was also complex, but a little easier to understand than Esta, probably because he didn’t have the additional complication of being from the future. But their motivations, while similar, keeps them at cross purposes a lot of the time, even though their chemistry is palpable. All the other characters were vibrant and real, and the world of the Mageus was frightening and terrible, while still so very human. The plot twists were great, and I did not see the big one coming. The book ends on a sort of cliffhanger, there’s apparently already a sequel in the works, and I will definitely pick it up to see what comes next.
The reason the book doesn’t get more stars…I’m not sure. At the end of the day, I liked this book, but it didn’t really wow me. I’ve seen all the various components of it in other books before, even if the combination of them all was new. The characters were strong and well-written, but I think the plot with the time travel was a bit confusing and got me a little lost sometimes. I think some of it could’ve been made clearer. The final plot twist was amazing, though, and helped to clarify a lot of my confusion over things, but part of that confusion was the time travel not necessarily making sense, and the author not acknowledging that there was something there that didn’t quite make sense. If it had been acknowledged, I would’ve known that there was a reason things didn’t all add up, but it wasn’t, and so I was just wondering if the author wasn’t quite familiar enough with Doctor Who to make a good time travel story. Again, though, I liked the book even if it didn’t bowl me over, and I’ll definitely read the sequel. I want to see more of Esta at the very least, and I want the Mageus to be free and the Order to be taken down. I’m curious to see how the chips will fall.
There is a lot going on here… time travel, magical “affinities,” good guys, bad guys, bad guys you thought were good guys… The way the story started, I thought there would be a lot more time jumping, more action from the characters introduced in the first few chapters. This isn’t a complaint, necessarily, but the beginning of the book feels very different from the rest of the story. Don’t go into this thinking you are going to hear about all the “pilfering from the past” Esta does. That would be an awesome story on its own!
What we do get is an engrossing story about life in the early 1900’s. I like that Maxwell discusses how segregated the gangs of New York were at that time, based on where people emigrated from, down to what village they left. Esta drops in and manipulates her way into a heist that could change the future for those that still have magic left in them. The cast of character is large, but Maxwell makes it work. I didn’t lose interest in the story once, and MAY have stayed up too late a night or two to finish the book! Check this out, it’s definitely worth it!!