Review – An Unkindness of Magicians by Kat Howard (4.5/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy/Dark Fantasy
Length: 384 pages
Publisher: Gallery / Saga Press
Release Date: June 5, 2018
ISBN-13: 978-1481451208
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Borrowed from Library
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
“In New York City, magic controls everything. But the power of magic is fading. No one knows what is happening, except for Sydney—a new, rare magician with incredible power that has been unmatched in decades, and she may be the only person who is able to stop the darkness that is weakening the magic. But Sydney doesn’t want to help the system, she wants to destroy it.”
Series Info/Source: This is the first book in An Unkindness of Magicians duology. I borrowed this book from the library.
Story (5/5): I really enjoyed this story a lot. Basically New York City is the center for the world of the Unseen and this year a Turning will be taking place. A Turning means that the Houses of Magicians will compete to see which house will lead the Unseen until the next Turning. Enter Sydney, an unknown magician who belongs to the mysterious House of Shadows. She is trying to win her freedom from that House and will do anything to get it. Along the way Sydney finds out magic is failing and struggles to solve that mystery as she struggles to work her way through defeating New York City’s finest magicians.
Characters (4/5): I really loved a lot of the characters in here. Sydney is an excellent character but so are all of the other characters. I will say that there are a lot of characters introduced very quickly, so I had to do some paging back and forth to remember who was who (initially I kept getting Ian and Grey mixed up…which is odd because they end up being very different characters in the end). Aside from the issues of introducing too many characters too quickly, I thought the characterization was amazing.
Setting (4/5): I enjoyed the setting of New York City and how the world of the Unseen was woven into the modern day world. I am not a huge fan of New York City in general but the city setting worked well for this book. I will say that the world outside of New York City was not well developed. I was curious if the world of the Unseen exists everywhere? Is it just head-quarteered in New York City? Hopefully the world will be expanded upon some in the second book.
Writing Style (5/5): I adored Howard’s writing style. I love how she focused on different characters and threaded their individual stories together to make a cohesive whole. It was very well done. Howard’s writing is beautiful and descriptive but easy to relate to. The characters here are engaging and I whipped right through this book. I loved the idea of the House of Shadows and how we get appearances from famous magicians in the form of the Houses of Merlin and Prospero.
My Summary (4.5/5): Overall I really loved this and would recommend to those who enjoy reading about traditional magic woven into a modern day setting. This is beautifully written and I enjoyed the ideas here and the characters. I definitely plan on picking up the sequel, “A Slight of Shadows” and plan on checking out the other books Kat Howard has written.
