Review: Magician's Rivalry by H.L. Burke

This is has been a tough week as my father passed away. One of my escapes is reading and turned to my rather tall To Be Read pile. I had picked up this book a while ago as the author is in the same group as me online.

This is a clever book. We start off with two guys that hate each other. The author cleverly makes us dislike them at the same time by having them do some rather silly things because they are jealous. As the story goes the two men grow a true friendship and are willing to sacrifice their lives for each other by the end.

Even though the people in this book are adults this is a book very appealing to a younger audience. It deals with many themes and ideas that would be relevant to teenagers. Identity and struggling with their own futures. I suppose that is one of the benefits of writing clean fiction is that it can easily be read by a large range of people.

This story is beautifully written and the only thing I could say disappointed me was their trip to Fey. Fey was portrayed as something mysterious but when in Fey they kept getting attacked by, well, demystifying creatures. I would have preferred something that allowed Fey to maintain its mystery.

This book happily passes the Bechdel test though it does take a while to get there. Rill is by far my favourite character. I kind of wished the whole book was about her. She is strong but also the kind of person that puts others before her. As a peace maker she is the one that has to calm the stormy waters that is her family.

This book easily submerged me into another world. So as a way to escape for a while I'd give it full stars.