Regency romance/fantasy/mystery | Magician's Ward

It takes balls to make a street thief into a lady | Magician's Ward | Patricia C. Wrede

books:


	• Magician's Ward Patricia C. Wrede Tor Books, 1997 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 61 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Magicians, Mysteries, & Mischief

Patricia Wrede has written a number of excellent sci-fi/fantasy series (including the outstanding Dragon Chronicles of the Enchanted Forest) and in her new fantasy/mystery series - set in Regency England - she once again doesn't fail her fans. Magician's Ward tells of the adventures and misadventures of the aloof and often stoic magician, Mairelon, and his cocky impulsive ward (also his apprentice wizard-in-training) Kim and their battle with a mysterious, and very elusive, evil wizard Mannering. Ok, so for fantasy lovers this appears to be pretty standard fare but wait . . .

Wrede tosses her readers a few fascinating curve balls:
1. Kim is not only an orphan but a pretty darn successful pickpocket who misses her former line of work just a tad;
2. Mairelon and his family seem bent on turning Kim into a polished lady of polite society;
3. Kim is astounded to find she is most certainly falling in love with Mairelon;
4. Kim is also astonished to find she is being romantically pursued by a Lord of the realm AND she is befuddled by the fact she is attracted to a Russian prince;
5. Meanwhile Mairelon - one of the most respected wizards of the time - has lost all his magical power and getting those powers back looks, at the very best, iffy;
6. Mrs. Lowe, a grumpy fusspot who disdains magic of any kind, has charge of Kim and the two constantly clash: right up till Kim finds herself face-to-face with evil personified, Mannering;
7. And what of a former acquaintance of Kim's, your pay-by-the-spell nighborhood wizard, who has suddenly become a drooling lump of insanity?

Yep, Wrede's novel is a fast/paced, plot/rich, eccentric/character/filled, terrific read that is perfect for a cold winter night's entertainment.

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Regency romance/fantasy/mystery

This is the sequel to Mairelon the Magician. A couple of years after Mairelon (known in society as Richard Merrill) discovers Kim and takes her on as his apprentice, they're living in London with his prim and proper aunt.

When Kim discovers someone breaking into Mairelon's house, attempting to steal a particular book, it leads them into a mystery involving the disappearance of people with minor magical talent, hidden treasure, and ultimately the theft of Mairelon's power, leaving novice Kim to handle the magical part of their investigations.

In the meanwhile, Mairelon's mother and his disapproving aunt are busy introducing a reluctant Kim to Society. When she begins to be courted by young men, she realizes it's Mairelon she's really in love with.

One of the other reviewers called this "J. K. Rowling meets Georgette Heyer," and that's a very apt description. The Magician's Ward is just as much a Regency romance as it is a Regency-set fantasy-mystery.

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It takes balls to make a street thief into a lady

"The Magician's Ward" is set in a fantasy Regency England featuring Richard Merrill, a.k.a. Mairelon the Magician, who turns out to be a toff, and his ward Kim, the former street thief. Genre-wise, it is a regency romance with an overlay of fantasy. Those who prefer their fantasy straight up might be bored with all of the romance bits: Aunt Agatha's attempts to introduce her 'niece' to Polite Society and find her a husband; all of the long, dull trips to the modiste; the requisite carriage ride through Hyde Park; the coming-out ball; the visit to the opera and various upper-crust house parties. Blah blah. Regency romance aficionados could write these parts in their sleep.

The less structured part of the novel involves magic. A burglar dressed like a gentleman attempts to steal a book from the Mairelon's library. Kim visits one of her former friends, a used clothes merchant, and learns that a moneylender of their acquaintance is scarpering up all of London's street magicians for his own nefarious purposes. Somehow, the moneylender coordinates an attack on one of the street witches, then Mairelon, himself. Both are stripped of their magic, and one eventually goes crazy.

Kim must somehow rescue her guardian and restore his magic while attending to the details of her coming-out ball, and all of the other fripperies and fribbles that Regency society demands of her.

This book is an improvement over its predecessor, "Mairelon the Magician" (1991), but Hutch is still chewing on his damn mustache, and most of the characters, with the exception of Kim and Mairelon are 'borrowed' whole-cloth from a million other regencies

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Great Book

I loved this book, I especially liked seeing the other side of Kim, it shows Ms. Wredes talent for really understanding what readers want to see.

A great followup...

After reading Ms. Wrede's first novel in this duet, I couldn't wait to get my hands on Magician's Ward. It was quite satisfying and I thoroughly enjoyed it. If anything, it was better than the first. The characters stay true to their personalities, and the plot twists in unpredicted ways. The obvious changes in Kim's perception of Mairelon are funny and made me hide many a smiles. I'd recommend this book to anyone, especially if they've read the first [Mairelon the Magician].

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One year after Richard Merrill promised to make young Kim a lady and a magician in MAIRELON THE MAGICIAN, Kim is discovering that magic can be harder than it looks--and being a lady in Regency London is even harder. When disaster strikes, Kim must negotiate the hazards of London society, and she finds that her abilities as a magician and a lady are a matter of life and death .