#Review - The Magician's Daughter by HG Parry

The Magician's Daughter
HG Parry
Orbit, 2 March 2023
Available as: PB, 374pp, audio, e
Source: Advance copy
ISBN(PB): 9780356520315

I'm grateful to the publisher for an advance copy of The Magician's Daughter to consider for review.

The Magician's Daughter is a wonderful read, at the same time a carefully constructed and convincing depiction of magic at work in the modern (early 20th century) world, a perfectly drawn account of a young woman growing as she learns truths about herself and her guardian, and a joyfully exuberant celebration of life.

Bridget ("Biddy") is sixteen years old and has been brought up on an isolated island, Hy-Brasil, which is wreathed in magic and hidden from the mundane world. Her guardian, Rowan, who rescued her from the sea as a baby, is a mercurial, frustrating person, who keeps his secrets close. It's a narrow life, but one that Biddy enjoys and (despite growing curiosity about the mainland) wishes never to end.

Of course it does, and she's forced, very quickly, to take the initiative when Rowan disappears on one of  his nighttime trips. That rapidly leads her into danger and squalor as she travels to London and learns more about the outside world, and about her own history. 

I felt that Parry judged things very nicely here. There are hints that Biddy is growing up, becoming curious about herself and also frustrated with life on the island - but she hasn't, yet, come to any conclusions about all that. When change comes, it's forced on her, so her growing - what - concern? Scepticism? - about her life continues to evolve even as she takes on new perils, visits new places and lives a different life. I loved that sense of balance, just as I loved the balanced degree of peril in the book. 

Yes, it turns our that Rowan has been struggling against powerful and arrogant men who have their own ideas about how the magical world should be ordered, and there are some frankly depicted scenes of violence and cruelty, but at the same time, this isn't a book where the fate of the world is at stake and as much suffering is being inflicted by the Dickensian conditions in an orphanage, for example, as by the antagonist magicians. Contrast that, perhaps, with certain magical sagas where poverty and vast inequality are just taken as the way things are.

There is also a distinct sense of moral ambiguity here. The book shows how good intentions can go awry, and how hoarded power may be seen as a reasonable policy which all the same, is itself an abuse. That puts Biddy in a dilemma when, for the first time, she understands that Rowan has kept the truth form her and, worse, has even lied. The moral lines are far from clear, and not having mingled with people in the wider world, it's not clear who she can trust - but it is clear that the consequences of a misjudgement could be terrible for her and for Rowan.

This is a story that draws the reader in, increasingly as the climax nears, Parry telling with great verve her account of conflict, deception and - possibly - redemption. It's both great fun and has a strong moral core and it kept me reading till midnight so I could finish it.

Strongly recommended.

For more information about The Magician's Daughter, see the publisher's website here.