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!)

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...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!