Brother's Ruin (Industrial Magic, #1)

by Emma Newman

The year is 1850 and Great Britain is flourishing, thanks to the Royal Society of the Esoteric Arts. When a new mage is discovered, Royal Society elites descend like buzzards to snatch up a new apprentice. Talented mages are bought from their families at a tremendous price, while weak mages are snapped up for a pittance. For a lower middle class family like the Gunns, the loss of a son can be disastrous, so when seemingly magical incidents begin cropping up at home, they fear for their Archie's life and their own livelihoods. But Archie Gunn isn't a talented mage. His sister Charlotte is, and to prevent her brother from being imprisoned for false reporting she combines her powers with his to make him seem a better prospect. However, maintaining the charade will mean masquerading as Archie's assistant, and delaying or destroying her own plans for marriage. When she discovers a nefarious plot by the sinister Doctor Ledbetter, Charlotte must use all her cunning and guile to protect her family, her secret and her city.

• ISBN10: 0765393956
• ISBN13: 9780765393951
• Publish Date: 14 March 2017
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Tor.com
• Format: eBook
• Language: English

Reviews

[pamela]

This novella felt more like the first third of a novel. Emma Newman has written an interesting world set in past London where magic exists and those with latentlatent magical ability are forced to work for Queen and country.

There were some dark and chilling moments with interesting characters who I'd like to get to know in future installments, but despite being incredibly well written there was just something about it that just couldn't make me love it.

The whole idea of magic in this world was a little lacking. It existed to do perfectly normal things that we already have machines to do. The magus seem to have little purpose other than operating machinery or making clocks run on time. So what the hell is the big deal?

My second issue was with the 'romance'. It was painfully generic and saccharine. Charlotte loves George because he's good. A big deal is made of her wanting to marry him. But the narrative doesn't really make me believe she even likes George! Then of course we have the appearance of the handsome magus Hopkins who naturally takes everyone's breath away and we then get to hear about how beautiful he is every time he graces the page. It was sloppy.

I enjoyed the read. It had a decent plot, was generally well written, and had some real atmosphere. I'm not sure if the plan is to release these in serial though? The story wasn't self-contained. I'd rather just read a finished book, because this just left me unsatisfied.