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The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
What a happy surprise of a book. My life is filled with paper, especially since my mother works in paper sculpture, so I was really hoping this would turn out well. The story pulled me along, and while I was right in figuring that not all the magic focused solely on using folds in paper, I enjoyed the plot. Our heroine Ceony wants to be a metal magician, but due to lack of bodies on the Paper side of things, she’s forced into Paper magic. Her mentor is a strange almost hermit, Emery Thane. They dance around each other a bit, but then an evil lady magician swoops in and literally steals Thane’s heart. What Ceony goes through to save her mentor makes for a very interesting bit of imagery.
We don’t get many details as to how the magic works–yes, by bonding to and folding the paper, but what is it about “magicians” that they can do it and others can’t? It takes a lot of schooling to become a magician, so it’s not inborn talent. Anyway, I read a lot of fantasy and come across a lot of magic systems, and usually they’re explained a little better. I have lots of questions after reading this, though I’m sure quite a few of them will be answered in future works. There is also a bit of a weird love story–it makes sense, but some people will be uncomfortable with its sort-of sudden onset.
I saw this on the Kindle-First program, but being only the guest of an Amazon Prime user, I can’t actually access the books. So I had to wait until it was on Netgalley, and I’m glad I picked it up. Looking forward to the next book in the series!
Received as a free digital galley via Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.