by James Treadwell
Published July 3rd 2012
by Atria/Emily Bestler Books
ARC from Netgalley
Summary from Goodreads:
A drowning, a magician’s curse, and a centuries-old secret.
1537. A man hurries through city streets in a gathering snowstorm, clutching a box in one hand. He is Johann Faust, the greatest magician of his age. The box he carries contains a mirror safeguarding a portion of his soul and a small ring containing all the magic in the world. Together, they comprise something unimaginably dangerous.
London, the present day. Fifteen-year-old Gavin Stokes is boarding a train to the countryside to live with his aunt. His school and his parents can’t cope with him and the things he sees, things they tell him don’t really exist. At Pendurra, Gavin finds people who are like him, who see things too. They all make the same strange claim: magic exists, it’s leaking back into our world, and it’s bringing something terrible with it.
First in an astonishingly imaginative fantasy trilogy, Advent describes how magic was lost to humanity, and how a fifteen-year-old boy discovers that its return is his inheritance. It begins in a world recognizably our own, and ends an extraordinarily long way from where it started—somewhere much bigger, stranger, and richer.
Thoughts:
There's two interwoven story in the book. One is set in present day London telling the story of Gavin who was sent off to live with his aunt because his parents had enough of him and his imaginary friend who no one can see.
The other story which is set in the past is about a powerful magus who wished to keep all the magic in the world to himself. Things get weirder when Gavin arrived at Pendurra and his aunt apparently vanished into thin air. Add to the fact that his mysterious imaginary friend 'Miss Grey' is also there with him and that there's so many curious things happening to him all at the same time, I must say that the book is quite creepy at times.
It's hard for me not to compare the book to A Discovery of Witches. Both had very slow pace, meandering storyline and nothing gets resolved in the end. So as much as I really want to like this book, I just really don't have the patience to slogged through pages of events that add more to my confusion. The writing is indeed exquisite but I just wished that there's more excitement in the story.
Verdict: 3 stars.
In my Debut Author & Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge
Available on: Amazon
I really like the cover of this book... but not as much as I love your blog design! Whimsical and fun!
ReplyDeleteThank you for stopping by my giveaway hop and, yes, Duplicity is also on Smashwords. Love Smash!
ADVENT sounds like it should be very interesting. I'll add it to my reading list. I don't mind slow, but I do like a resolution.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen this one before and I'm definitely curious. Although the comparison to A Discovery of Witches does nothing for me. Books that end in more questions instead of bothering to answer some of them drive me nuts! You still need some kind of resolution at the end of the book, even if it is part of a trilogy! If there is some resolution, a slow pace won't necessarily kill it for me---especially if it has good writing and world-building.
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