Sorcerer to the Crown

By: Zen Cho

Narrated by: Jenny Sterlin

Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's Summary

The Royal Society of Unnatural Philosophers has long been tasked with maintaining magic within His Majesty's lands. But lately, the once proper institute has fallen into disgrace. Zacharias Wythe ventures to the border of Fairyland to discover why England's magical stocks are drying up.

When his adventure brings him in contact with a woman with immense power, he sets on a path which will alter the nature of sorcery.

©2015 Zen Cho (P)2015 Recorded Books Inc

Critic Reviews

"Full of delights and surprises. Zen Cho unpins the edges of the canvas and throws them wide." (Naomi Novik, New York Times best-selling author of Temeraire)

"Inventive, dangerous, brilliant, unsettling, and adorable, all at the same time." (Courtney Milan)

Hilarious + well-developed characters. Great plot!

Love love love this one. The heroine is feisty, ambitious, ruthless but also loyal and honourable. She's also hilarious.

The entire story is witty and compelling. It took a while for the story to move but it was because setting up characters and relationships was done so well.

This reads like an Austen novel but with magic and faeries and dragons. Also with such a global perspective.

The performance is so good as well.

Engaging, with strong characters

I simply adored the story! The narrator really brought it to life, her voices for each of the characters were unique, I could listen to her all day. The story itself was amazing, intelligent and forthright. The depiction of the racism suffered by the lead characters was open and honest, but overall there was no bitterness. And finally, there's nothing I love so well in a story as good English - the author has my admiration, I would love to read more from her.

Light, airy, yet thoroughly satisfying.

With court intrigue, a tradition of English magic and the influence of Faerie, comparisons to Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell are inevitable, but despite the similarities in setting, Sorcerer to the Crown is a different sort of story. Where Strange & Norrell had setting in depth but not, perhaps, so much plot, Sorcerer to the Crown invests only as much as is necessary into its setting and instead crafts a more satisfying story. The characters are less complex and morally ambiguous, but they are a most cheering bunch, and you will rather find yourself invested in them. Events come to a most satisfactory conclusion, and it will be all but impossible to keep the grin off your face as events come to a head--and particularly in the denouement.

Engaging characters, intriguing plot, and beautiful language well suited to the audio format, and excellently read in this recording.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

So promising but ultimately disappoints

The summary for this book had me hooked. The plot sounded great. (I thoroughly enjoyed Johnathan Strange and Mr Norrell, and expected a similar read...)

Sorcerer to the Crown however, is slow. The dialogue is, at points, needlessly lengthy and comes across like ‘Pride and Prejudice’. No reading (or listening!) between the lines necessary here; everything is spelled out in a wordy jumble.

By the end, I felt satisfied with the story, but I think it would have been much more successful if more time had been spent developing the characters rather than on elaborate dialogue.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Maybe a bit too much?

I liked the story and would recommend it to some of my friends, but I do think everything was thrown at this; racism, sexism, double dealing, politics, headstrong underdog....

The core story was good - the racist and sexist element didn't improve the story significantly, in my view.

5 of 8 people found this review helpful

enchanting

An excellent narration of an imaginative and highly enjoyable tale. I look forward to the next book

Intriguing but annoying

This book has concepts i love - thaumaturgy, flying clouds, dragons, faeries and thunder monsters but its such an irritating read at the same time. I felt sorry for and then annoyed with zacharias - what was he thinking putting up with that woman?