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).

[seekingferret]

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

[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.

[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.]

[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.)

[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.

[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.