Review: The Glass Magician (The Paper Magician Trilogy #2) – Charlie N Holmberg

the glass magicianThree months after returning Magician Emery Thane’s heart to his body, Ceony Twill is well on her way to becoming a Folder. Unfortunately, not all of Ceony’s thoughts have been focused on paper magic. Though she was promised romance by a fortuity box, Ceony still hasn’t broken the teacher-student barrier with Emery, despite their growing closeness.

When a magician with a penchant for revenge believes that Ceony possesses a secret, he vows to discover it…even if it tears apart the very fabric of their magical world. After a series of attacks target Ceony and catch those she holds most dear in the crossfire, Ceony knows she must find the true limits of her powers…and keep her knowledge from falling into wayward hands.

Rating: 2/5

Urgh, I feel rather bad for saying this, but The Glass Magician would have been a great book in the hands of another author. I mean, the concept is fantastic and original – magical binding to a certain element, and learning how to manipulate their chosen material, but the execution is just entirely bland.

I could overlook this in the first book, hoping that the sequel would be a step-up, but unfortunately the writing style did not become any more jazzed up, for lack of a better phrase.

Ceony also makes some STUPID decisions in this one – thinking she can just go off and tackle some evil dude who even her mentors can’t take on by themselves, and for some reason our barely-trained protege imagines that she has the skills to quickly eradicate le bad man and be back in time for tea. And predictably, it ends with her in tears because OF COURSE she fails at it. DOH.

Finally, her conservatism makes more of an appearance here – she describes short skirts as ‘alarming’, she keeps house for Emery, even though it’s not part of her duties – everything from doing his laundry to bringing him his food and cleaning his dishes, describes her friend wearing makeup as ‘flamboyant’, etc. I dunno, I’m all for women making their own choices, etc, but this all sits a little uncomfortably with me.

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