Book Review of The Magician's Daughter by H.G. Parry

   

Name of Book: The magician's daughter

Author: H.G. Parry

ISBN: 9780316383707

Publisher: Redhook 

Type of book: 1912, England, destitute house, magic, magicians, lack of magic, Robin Hood type hero, whimsy, survival, fairy tale, Hy-Brasil, familiar, family, 

Year it was published: 2023

Summary:

It is 1912, and for the last seventy years magic has all but disappeared from the world. Yet magic is all Biddy has ever known.

Orphaned in a shipwreck as a baby, Biddy grew up on Hy-Brasil, a legendary island off the coast of Ireland hidden by magic and glimpsed by rare travelers who return with stories of wild black rabbits and a lone magician in a castle. To Biddy, the island is her home, a place of ancient trees and sea-salt air and mysteries, and the magician, Rowan, is her guardian. She loves both, but as her seventeenth birthday approaches, she is stifled by her solitude and frustrated by Rowan’s refusal to let her leave. He himself leaves almost every night, transforming into a raven and flying to the mainland, and never tells her where or why he goes.

One night, Rowan fails to come home from his mysterious travels. When Biddy ventures into his nightmares to rescue him, she learns not only where he goes every night, but the terrible things that happened in the last days of magic that caused Rowan to flee to Hy-Brasil. Rowan has powerful enemies who threaten the safety of the island. Biddy’s determination to protect her home and her guardian takes her away from the safety of Hy-Brasil, to the poorhouses of Whitechapel, a secret castle beneath London streets, the ruins of an ancient civilization, and finally to a desperate chance to restore lost magic. But the closer she comes to answers, the more she comes to question everything she has ever believed about Rowan, her origins, and the cost of bringing magic back into the world.

Characters:

Main characters include Biddy, Rowan and Hutchincroft. Biddy is a sixteen year old girl who has spent her whole life on an island of Hy-Brasil with nothin but Rowan and Hutchincroft for company. She is curious, desires to know more about her world, resourceful and behaves very typically for a sheltered sixteen year old. Rowan is definitely a fascinating mage who often sees himself as a Robin Hood type and who seems both protective yet indulgent of Biddy's nature. For example, he teaches and encourages Biddy to climb trees, but at the same time is very reluctant to let Biddy travel to the real world. He also keeps a number of secrets from Biddy but is also very kindhearted, especially his treatment towards his familiar Hutchincroft. Like Biddy he is extremely curious. Hutchincroft is a rabbit familiar to Rowan and he is very dedicated to Rowan no matter what. At the same time Hutchincroft often agrees with Biddy and often wants to be closer to her. The secondary characters aren't well built as primary but are definitely interesting, in particular Storm and Morgaine. Storm cannot stand Rowan and has deep hatred for him, while Morgaine used to be engaged to Rowan but at the same time she is living in the male world and desires a career above all. 

Theme:

Its not possible to go back, but its possible to move forward

Plot:

The novel is told in third person narrative completely from Biddy's point of view. The story begins on when Rowan, Biddy's guardian as well as father, fails to return and she uses magic to search him out in mainland (she and Rowan and his familiar Hutchincroft live on the mysterious island of Hy-Brasil). From then on the readers begin to learn more about the family dynamic of Biddy, Rowan and Hutchincroft as well as the world they inhabit, which is indeed a beautiful and safe world. Eventually they have to leave the island and Biddy then comes to face to face with things she never knew about Rowan nor about the world. I definitely feel that the strongest elements in the novel were the writing and the characters which one can't help but love. Also, no romantic interest for Biddy I should mention. 

Author Information:
(from goodreads)

H.G. Parry lives in a book-infested flat in Wellington, New Zealand, which she shares with her sister and two overactive rabbits. She holds a PhD in English Literature from Victoria University of Wellington, and teaches English, Film, and Media Studies. Her short fiction has appeared in Intergalactic Medicine Show, Daily Science Fiction, and small press anthologies. The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep is her debut novel.

Opinion:

Beautiful, cozy and highly whimsical, THE MAGICIAN'S DAUGHTER by H.G. Parry is truly a treasure to behold amongst these troubled times where it seems that bad news outnumbers the good. For the readers that loved Olivia Atwater's Regency Faerie Tales, or Megan Bannen's THE UNDERTAKING of HART AND MERCY, then the MAGICIAN'S DAUGHTER will be an excellent addition to the whimsical fantasy collection. However I would like to mention that while Olivia Atwater's trilogy as well as Megan Bannen's novel had dominant romantic element, THE MAGICIAN'S DAUGHTER by H.G. Parry doesn't have that at all. What it does have is warm-heartedness, the focus on finding self and dealing with growing up and changing relationship with a father. Of course it also has warmth and magic in abundance. Oh yes, I loved the characters of Biddy, Rowan and Hutchincroft the rabbit. 

This was given for review

4 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)