Sorcerer to the Crown (Zen Cho)

[cahn]

4/5. This... may be the most charming book ever! I think the most fitting adjective, actually, is effervescent. I just loved this book SO MUCH.

If I were to write a recipe for making this book, it would go something like this: Start with a base of Georgette Heyer, having scraped out all the unthinking racism and replaced it by actually, you know, thinking about it. Add in worldbuilding extracts of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, and a pinch of the same via Harry Potter. Pour in a large dollop of Diana Wynne Jones. Mix well. Fold in some A Little Princess charm (making sure to separate the smugness and classism out beforehand). Glaze the entire thing with humor (I laughed out loud with this book more than I have in quite a long time), and enjoy!

I feel like with an ingredient list like that, it could very well come out as being stodgy or issuefic or dragging or just plain boring -- but no. Cho is like a conjurer, keeping a bunch of dazzling balls in the air at once (well, maybe only, like, four, or five? six? They're so shiny that I get distracted by -- shiny! I mean, what was that again?), and never once does she let them fall. It's just so charming!

I loved all the characters. Poor dear Zacharias, obviously the wonderful Prunella, and I also absolutely loved the minor characters, especially Damerell and Rollo. (But -- I mean -- Mak Genggang! the Sibyl! Aunt Georgina!! I love them all!) Zacharias and his complicated relationship with his parents, I just want to hug them all, AGH.

I will say that the prologue didn't grab me right away, nor did the beginning of the first chapter, and I kept going because I have learned that when skygiants recommends something like this I generally really enjoy it. And this also turned out to be the case here! By the end of the first chapter, I was on board, and by the end of the kindle free sample, I was sort of reflexively hitting the "yes of course I want to buy this" button.

A couple of questions: Currently rot-13'd for spoilers (...I'm not used to reading books actually before other people might!)

Vf gur guvat jvgu Ceharyyn'f snzvyvnef trggvat ure fbhy tbvat gb or nqqerffrq yngre? Orpnhfr gung... fgvyy fbhaqf engure hasbeghangr...

...ubj qvq Mnpunevnf fheivir sbe rira n ahzore bs zbaguf jvgu fbzrbar yvgrenyyl purjvat uvf vafvqrf? Htu!

I would strongly recommend reading at least one Heyer before reading this, both to see what Cho is working with/against and because if you don't like Heyer you may well not like this book either, which is written in the same style. I recommend Cotillion if you only read one Heyer. (If you're planning on reading more than one, I do not recommend Cotillion, as this was my first Heyer and all the other ones were kind of lame in comparison.)

Comments

[thistleingrey]

Interesting about the Cotillion comparison! Our tastes overlap reasonably well, but I had to come back to Cotillion and force my way through it after reading a bunch more Heyer. :))

I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy Crown but am waiting till comfortably away from the current scramble to try it (and Kate Elliott's Court of Fives, and and and).

[cahn]

Huh! That is really surprising to me, not least because, as you say, our tastes overlap reasonably well, and I'd expected this would be one of the places... It occurs to me, though, that what I really liked about Cotillion was that it upended tropes I didn't like (in particular, the Reformed Rake) while using tropes I did (Fake Engagement). Also, I really liked Freddie. And I can see that those might be somewhat personal idiosyncrasies.

[thistleingrey]

Ah, that does make sense. Reformed Rake is not my favorite but I can tolerate it, so its inversion may not engage me as strongly (I think I'd run out of kdramas very quickly otherwise, at least for implicit, socially conservative k-broadcast values of "rake"), and Freddy was very definitely not my favorite. :)

[cahn]

It makes perfect sense that if you didn't find Freddy completely charming, Cotillion would be a lot more of a slog! I happen to really like genial characters with unexpected depths of competence, I think, even if the area of competence is clothing :)

[genarti]

I found Freddy deeply charming, but Cotillion was still in some ways a slog. And in other ways an effervescent delight -- I love genial characters with unexpected competence, especially when they're good-hearted. But my god, the class issues in that book.

I realize that class issues are sort of a glaring problem with Heyer anyway, admittedly, which is why I've only read the two Heyer books I was personally recced as "You probably won't like much Heyer but you should read these ones." The other was Talisman Ring, and I liked it much better!

(Sorcerer to the Crown I have just embarked upon, and like everyone else I've run across I'm enjoying it thoroughly so far.)

[cahn]

Ahahaha, yes, the class issues. OH the class issues. I can see how that would be a problem, although as you say it's likely to be a problem with Heyer in general. (I spent so much time reading Agatha Christie as a small child that I built up a tolerance :) ) I definitely have to go check out Talisman Ring!

[seekingferret]

This just came in the mail! I'm looking forward to reading it once I finish Seveneves.

[cahn]

Oh, I'll be so interested to see what you think! (I feel like this doesn't line up at all with the kinds of books you often talk about on DW, so this will be an interesting data point.)

[luzula]

If you're planning on reading more than one, I do not recommend Cotillion, as this was my first Heyer and all the other ones were kind of lame in comparison.

Yes. So much this, at least judging from the two I've read besides Cotillion.

Hmm, I should probably put Sorcerer to the Crown on my to-read list.

[cahn]

Oh, yay, I'm not the only one :)

I think you would like SttC! It's very, very charming. Um, I may have said that several times already. But it is!

[morbane]

When I asked my mother for a recommendation for a first Heyer, she gave me Arabella, which I enjoyed very much - light and silly and full of nice people.

[I strongly anti-recommend April Lady. The title sounded oddly charming, and then it was nonstop dig-a-deeper-hole and financial anxiety, with little reward at the end, or at least that's how I felt.]

[cahn]

I don't think I've read that one! Thanks! *puts on list*

[skygiants]

I have to admit, I AM CONCERNED for the state of Zacharias' innards!

(There is at least one Heyer that lives up to Cotillion in my mind, which is The Talisman Ring and which is a pure delight. That may be it, though.)

[cahn]

I KNOW, RIGHT? I may have spent entirely too much time trying to figure out ways in which the least damage was possible.

...for years now I have apparently thought Talisman Ring was a book by Bujold and not by Heyer. But it is in fact The Spirit Ring! (The sad thing is, we actually own this book, so it's not like I couldn't go find this out pretty easily.) I am putting this on my list, then!

[sophia_sol]

YEAHHHH! This was such an enjoyable book.

I would say on the subject of Heyer that I think Cotillion is stronger when read after other Heyers or other regency romances - because she's specifically sending up a trope, and it's a million times more satisfying to read about Kitty ending up with who she ends up with when in any other romance she would have ended up with the more traditionally "romantic" option.

[cahn]

Yesssss. While I hadn't read any other Heyers, I'd read enough romance novels in general that I was familiar with the Reformed Rake trope (and didn't like it much).

Of course, the fact that Heyer actually uses the Reformed Rake trope straight in some of her other books made those books rather less interesting to me, after reading Cotillion!

[philomytha]

Okay, I need to read this book. (My Kindle is SO BAD for my instant-desire-for-books problem...) Heyer, JSMN, DWJ, HP and A Little Princess, that's a combination of five things I absolutely adore.

I'm probably about due another Heyer reading binge, too. They're my 'no brain, need entertainment' drug of choice. Trying to choose my favourite makes my head hurt, but I guess if you really pinned me down I'd say The Unknown Ajax because I find Hugo's acting and the caper plot fantastic (but The Foundling! But Devil's Cub and These Old Shades! But Arabella and Frederica! But A Civil Contract! I love them all really). Cotillion is great too, and Venetia is another one that deconstructs the tropes, with the unreformed rake (and tell me you see the similarities between the end of that book and Cordelia showing up on Barrayar at the end of SoH). But I don't really read Heyer for deconstructing tropes, I read her for tropes done with style and delightful characters.

[cahn]

Oh man, I really think you would love this book. It's also very easy lovable comfort reading :)

I don't think I've read any of those Heyers! It's very possible that the ones I picked up after Cotillion (I can't remember precisely which one, they were just the ones the library happened to have) were not Heyer's best. So clearly I need to give this another go, thanks for the recs :)

And yes to kindle being terrible for instant-desire-for-books! The free sample bit is particularly insidious, for me (although I guess it also works the other way, in that I've definitely been discouraged from books before).

[philomytha]

Heyer does go up and down a bit. If you like the tropes subverted, then Venetia is the one I'd particularly recommend as it does a little dance on top of the reformed rake trope. The Foundling is a sweet story of a very sheltered and shy young duke going off incognito to have adventures. Frederica I love mostly for the family and their wonderful mishaps and adventures - the romance is fun, but not as much fun as little Felix discovering the Industrial Revolution. The Devil's Cub is the full-on Reformed Rake story, but I love it because it is 100% committed to the trope and also because the heroine shoots the hero quite early on in the book :-).

[cahn]

I have a special love for subverted tropes, so I'm definitely going to look up Venetia! But I also really like the other things you mentioned, so these all sound like fun :)

Speaking of the heroine shooting the hero (or at least drawing a gun), have you read the manga / watched the anime Fullmetal Alchemist (FMA:Brotherhood)? I think it would be directly relevant to your interests! There may be scanlations available online, or I think at least part of the anime is available through Netflix... It starts slow and a little weird, but after that builds up a lot. (It's more like Bujold than like Heyer in terms of tone.)