The Magicians and Mrs. Quent
Galen Beckett, . . Bantam Spectra, $23 (498pp) ISBN 978-0-553-58982-5
Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë and H.P. Lovecraft collide in Beckett's periodically entertaining debut. Young Ivy Lockwell, the unmarried daughter of a family stricken with poverty after her magician father went mad, travels from her home in Invarel, a mirror of Austen-era London, to become a governess at the country estate of Heathcrest, a Bronte-analogue complete with mysterious Rochester stand-in, Mr. Quent. As a woman, she is forbidden to perform magic and consoles herself with the study of magical history, discovering an ancient story still working its will on the world. Treading a fine line between homage and unoriginality, Invarel occasionally sparkles with descriptions of illusionist shows and quasi-fascist government activity, but Heathcrest is lifted part and parcel from
Reviewed on: 06/02/2008
Genre: Fiction
Open Ebook - 483 pages - 978-0-553-90540-3
Paperback - 512 pages - 978-0-553-59255-9