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The Mislaid Magician by Wrede & Stevermer
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The Mislaid MagicianOr Ten Years After By Patricia C. Wrede Release Date:
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From railroads and ley lines, to a mute girl and a peculiarly enchanted dog, and topped off with spell-casting children and unexpected visitors, cousins Cecy and Kate, along with their husbands, James and Thomas, certainly have their hands full. Letters chronicle their investigations as Cecy and James investigate a missing magician, while Kate and Thomas stay at their home to watch over both families’ broods of children.
Continuing the adventures of Cecy and Kate (whose adventures can be found in Sorcery and Cecelia, and The Grand Tour) this book makes a charming sequel. When I first heard there was a new book, I was a bit worried as The Grand Tour didn’t feel like it needed a continuation to me, and indeed, it didn’t. A good sequel adds on to the original story, drawing on earlier events, but still creating a complete adventure. Unlike some books which tend to be injured by more tales (my eyes are immediately drawn to all the Princess Diaries books past number three that are sitting on my shelf), this only adds to the already complex and fascinating world and characters that Wrede and Stevermer have created.
In all fairness, I must warn that this book should not be read before reading Sorcery and Cecelia and The Grand Tour . While this book could probably be muddled through without reading the prior books, the details and returning characters will be missed if one does not have the correct context. As a result, I reread The Grand Tour before reading this one, and I will refer to that book in relation to this one. Also, in rereading I noticed something I would have passed over before, but at the end of The Grand Tour , they are discussing what they will be like in ten years. Which, coincidently, is when The Mislaid Magician takes place.
Back to the letter format of the first book, Wrede and Stevermer have crafted another excellent story. Much like the first book, this one has two seemingly unrelated sets of events that weave together through magical mayhem and odd discoveries. This time though, James and Thomas are also exchanging letters. Many of the characters introduced in the first two books find their ways back in the current events. The Grand Tour had taken a different story style, as the two couples were traveling together and had no need of letters to each other. Instead, the story was told through Kate’s journal and Cecy’s official recounting for their British contacts. Personally, I think I liked the more intimate style of Kate’s journal in the last book, but the letter game is also a great deal of fun, since as a writer I can see where the two authors picked up and dropped off hints to each other. Writing a book to begin with is a large maze of details and subplots, and working with another writer’s imagination has to be difficult, but also a great deal of fun.
Since I mentioned the cover of the first book, I do think that the cover to both the second and this third book are much better. While they are nearly the same, the change is that the girls are drawn as more of a photo image than the stylized art of the first cover. Now if only they would release the first book with some new art.
Another interesting thing I noticed about this book is the fact that it does something not very common in the genre. The characters are far older than young adults–Kate and Cecy are in fact twenty-eight in this book. Off the top of my head, I can think of no other young adult books with central characters of that age. Usually the convention is to have the narrator characters be about the same age as the intended reader. This really was only able to be pulled off though by the fact that it is a sequel book to two other books when the characters are actually in their teens.
Action 5 – The need for fisticuffs and magic just seems to follow the characters to whatever part of England they might currently be inhabiting.
Romance 3 ½ – Sadly there is almost no romance in this book. The characters are still happily married after ten years, and certainly still show love for each other, but it is not a very significant element in the book. Familial love and duty, though, play a bigger role in this book, while The Grand Tour would have been given a full five.
Characters 4 – This is a hard rating to give objectively, because the characters build from book to book. I do still think there is a bit of confusion with two first person narrators, though now we have the addition of James and Thomas. While, yes, one can keep track of who is who by what events are happening, the two characters tend to blend into one another. Even after three books, I occasionally have to check and remind myself which cousin is which and who is married to whom, though that was more difficult in The Grand Tour where both characters were on the same adventure.
Overall 4 ½ – From start to finish, this book kept me enthralled in the story. With the use of time period language, one can get lost in the world of 1828 England.
Extras: The Parliament plays a central role in the scandals of the book, so let’s start with some information about what the Parliament is and does. A governing body that passes laws, raises taxes, and examines and challenges the work of the government. It is made up of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. If you ever get the chance, visit the Parliament building in London, as it is a gorgeous work of architecture. It is also the home of Big Ben.A peer of the realm is one who is a Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, or Baron. How one address such people, social ranking, and other such things were of great importance to those of London Society. Refresh your knowledge of these titles and their rankings here in a research paper , or take a look at the official British Monarchy website.
Ley lines are magical and geographic lines that are thought be naturally spread throughout the world and their existence is much debated. In terms of New Age philosophies, these spots radiate magic energy and can be used in spells. Whether or not the ancients had similar beliefs, many of the major ancient monuments and temples are aligned on these ley lines. There is no real proof if they exist or not, as one can find proof in anything, but when I was in England, I visited a supposedly powerful ley line running through Glastonbury Abbey (a place of great spiritual importance to begin with). At that moment, I did feel a touch of something, well, magical. Away from the atmosphere of Glastonbury and back at home in America , I can come up with a hundred different reasons why I felt something, all of which attribute nothing to magic. Still, at that moment, I could have believed that anything was possible.
And finally in this week’s history lesson, we have a biography of the Duke of Wellington , a historical person who has been mentioned throughout the three books.
If you are looking for another book mixing London Society and magic, you might check out A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. I have heard many people recommend this book, though I have never found time to read my copy.
Two more Society books are Nicola and the Viscount and Victoria and the Rogue, both by Meg Cabot. These books are very much teenage romance novels, and personally I found them very entertaining from a “badfic” standpoint (meaning that I kept waiting to see what horribly cliché and cheesy thing would happen next). These books are very much a “I’ve had a bad day and I want to get lost from my problems” types of books, and I would recommend checking them out from the library instead of buying them. Still, I gobbled both of them up as soon as I got them home from the store and enjoyed every moment, even if I might not read them again.
And of course, read my previous review of Sorcery and Cecelia for more historical information.
Age 13+, still mostly because of language and that the reader should read the other two books first. In the second book, it is quite obvious that the characters are having sex. Of course they are married, and on their wedding trip, so it should be expected. If your child has had the bird and the bees talk, then they should be fine. Even then, the language is more like “And we distracted ourselves for the rest of the night in quite an enjoyable fashion.” Nothing specific and direct, but most readers will pick up on what is going on. Plus the time period language makes me doubt that most readers under the age of thirteen will really want to muddle through it. Once they’ve had to read a few historical books in English class, the language of the book will no longer phase them.
This sounds pretty good. I hope my library gets it in soon!
I hope so too ^_^ It was a great book. Have you read Crown Duel? Thats a good one to read while you’re waiting, if you haven’t.