When Sir Stephen Wythe, England's Sorcerer Royal, dies in mysterious circumstances, his adopted black son Zacharias takes up the Sorcerer's staff amid malicious mutterings that he murdered his guardian for the position. While Unnatural Philosophers and Thaumaturges abound in England, only those magic-users with fairy familiars may call themselves sorcerers - and there are precious few of those left in England, where magic has been dwindling for some time. But where Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is a severe, atmospheric marshaling of scholarship both fantastical and historical - a book about books, riddled with footnotes and nested stories - Sorcerer to the Crown is a relentlessly charming, character-driven romance in which women and people of color take center stage. There are several ways in which Zen Cho's Sorcerer to the Crown invites comparison with Susanna Clarke's best-selling, BBC-adapted Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell: It features squabbling English magicians, a Regency setting and a mysterious decline in English magic attributed at least in part to difficult relations with capricious fairies. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Sorcerer to the Crown Author Zen Cho
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