When Muna washes up on a beach after a terrible storm, she can only remember two things: Sakti is her twin sister, and they have both been cursed. But if you're yearning to dive back into politics and propriety, you might be a little disappointed.Ī Delightful Return to Cho's fantasy Regency If you miss the late, great DWJ, this would be a great choice. Finally it dawned on me that the narrator, Jenny Sterlin, also read the Wizard Howl books! That doubtless accounts for part of the remblance, but the fact remains that I never considered it with book 1. It was much less grounded in real human society, much more free-wheeling and fantastical (and some of the characters a little more arch and ridiculous). While listening to it, I kept being struck by how much it felt like a Diana Wynne Jones novel-Castles in the Air, one of the books in the Wizard Howl series, came particularly to mind. The second book focuses on a different set of characters. Race, class, gender and politics were as central to the story as sorcery. It had humor, action and magic, but all was anchored in a portrait of the strictures of 19th-century British society. The first book in this series, Sorcerer to the Crown, was very much a fantasy of manners. While it can feel as if the full promise of family complications is swallowed by more pressing plot concerns, there are still plenty of enjoyable set pieces, and reading the clever deployment of weaponized manners never gets old in Cho's charming prose, The True Queen weaves a very pleasant spell indeed.Part Sorcerer to the Crown, part Diana Wynne Jones However, the novel's heart is less concerned with bloodthirsty fairy contracts than it is in young ladies creating magical simulacrums just to get out of paying polite visits, and what that means for the family reputation. Cho occasionally pulls back from the full impact of the magical stakes, which can rob some of the grander moments of gravitas. Prunella's confident carelessness, which the first book tended to blithely skim over, takes on a sharper edge through Muna's eyes.
Makes smart use of the world that Sorcerer introduced it isn't necessary to read Sorcerer to follow the state of English magic, and The True Queen's shift in perspective offers more than just Easter eggs to the returning reader.
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