Review: Unusual fantasy set in an alternate industrial age
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 7, 2012
A fantasy written in an alternate world where the British Empire never fell nor declined and won all its colonial wars, courtesy its magician corps ruled by the Royal master magician - a mage who can wield all the magical talents. Britain has become a harsh, feudal society where you are dirt if you are neither an aristocrat nor a rich businessman, with the latter allowed to become the former with the purchase of a peerage. The common citizen has no rights, no voice. But there is a revolution at work behind the scenes and one orchestrated by no less than another powerful magician.The current Royal magician Master Thomas is getting long in the tooth and with no suitable male heir in sight, the desperate establishment is forced to give an employment offer to the only other known wielder of all talents - Lady Gwen Crichton. Raised in a conservative family, Gwen was never expected to develop her magic and now she must train hard to live up to being the Royal apprentice.With the possible exception of Gwen who is mostly carried atop events as they occur, there are no like-able heroes in this book. The revolution has noble aims, but when it comes to body count, it matches the establishment neck to neck. Till the very end, Gwen herself does not know which side must she take in this war.