Michael Pryor

The Laws of Magic — (2006-2011) Young adult. Publisher: Best friends Aubrey and George begin their magical high jinks in this first book of the Laws of Magic series. At a weekend shooting party at Prince Albert's country estate, Aubrey and George find themselves in a hotbed of intrigue and politics. Together they discover a golem, a magical creature built to perform one task — to kill Prince Albert. Aubrey and George are hailed as heroes for foiling the attempt on the prince's life — but who sent the golem, and why? Aubrey is far too curious to let the authorities handle this one, and he and George start an investigation of their own to get to the bottom of the royal assassination attempt.

Blaze of Glory

Blaze of Glory is the first book in Michael Pryor’s The Laws of Magic series. It’s an engaging YA effort, if not particularly enthralling or captivating, with a solidly interesting main character. As you can tell by my somewhat qualified reaction, it didn’t blow me away, though it was strong enough that I’d take a look at book two.

The series is set in an alternate England (Albion) where the Industrial Revolution took place side by side with a magical revolution. The two are intertwined in the world’s development, though magic is limited in its impact because it relies on individual talent. We appear to be on the brink of World War I as “Holmland” (Germany) and Albion are increasingly at odds (an Albion ship was recently “accidentally” sunk by Holmland).

The main character is Aubrey Fitzwilliam, son of an ex-Prime Minister and former army commander expelled by his own party and now leader of a third party and one who is ringing the warning bell on Holmland. Aubrey’s mother is a star in her own right — an internationally known explorer and naturalist — while his grandmother is a fierce old dame. Aubrey is struggling a bit in military boarding school, save for his magic classes, where he is top of the class.

Aubrey is a mix of a young Sherlock Holmes, Tom Swift (yes, I’m dating myself there), a Hardy Boy (pick one), and Hermione Granger. The Hardy Boys and Tom Swift references are deliberate, as the character and the book overall have a bit of an old-fashioned feel to them, wholly aside from the historical fiction aspect. One reason for this feel is that there’s little “grayness” to the character(s). Aubrey is just a bit too good in what he does. He devises new magic spells and creations on the fly, sometimes in a way that it’s hard to believe haven’t been done before and sometimes in ways that it’s hard to believe a line of businessmen and military contractors wouldn’t be knocking down his door trying to get the goods. It all comes a bit too easily to him. The same is true for his detective skills, his political skills, his spying skills, and so on. At times, one wonders how he’s accumulated so much knowledge and experience without being 30+ years old (as when we learn that he wanders a bad part of town in a disguise where he’s well known to the area’s inhabitants). He’s also simply “good.” We see little petty or flawed in him, save for some arrogance that is presented as mostly endearing.

The same is true of the other characters. His best friend George is the stolid large sidekick with the occasional insight (Watson to Aubrey’s Holmes, George to his Nancy Drew), a heart of gold, always reliable, a good shot, strong-fisted. The female character, Caroline, is a crack shot, master of martial arts, speaker of several languages, and so on. Aubrey’s parents’ stellar positions have already been noted and, when we meet Caroline’s mother, it comes as no surprise that she’s also a paragon.

I can’t call this a major flaw (though I’d say it does place it firmly in the YA more to be enjoyed by younger readers than the YA that can be enjoyed equally by younger and older). Over the course of so many characters and so many situations, though, it does start to wear on the credibility as well as decrease the tension. Part of me thinks Pryor is playing a bit with the genre, part of me is unsure. In either case, it detracts from the reading experience, being either not tongue-in-cheek enough or too monotone and predictable.

The one aspect that makes Aubrey stand out is that he’s “half-dead.” His soul is somewhat separated from his body due to an experiment gone bad, but the potential of this is never fully explored. And since every time he edges closer to tipping into “true death” he merely feels a bit faint, then devises yet another temporary magic fix, his “half-dead” status adds little tension.

The plot really begins when Aubrey and George spoil an assassination attempt on the crown prince. Soon, two highly positioned English magicians are killed and Aubrey investigates. Meanwhile, his father is involved in political machinations that threaten his reputation and position, and the threat of war with Holmland looms over all. The investigations are interesting, complete with a golem, a sort of Hound of the Baskervilles, a dangerous shade protecting a laboratory, and the mysterious Magisterium – the country’s ministry of magic/defense. But there are a few plot contrivances, with characters conveniently in the right place at the right time, that mar the story a little, as does the ease with which Aubrey conjures up (sometimes literally) solutions.

The concept of magic as a language is solid, much better than the wave-of-a-hand-who-cares-how-it-works so often seen in YA fantasy, but I would have liked to have a more firm idea of how it functions in society. And again, Aubrey’s ease of mastery seems a bit blithe and makes one wonder why it doesn’t have more of an impact in society.

As I said, Blaze of Glory is not particularly captivating, certainly not edge-of-the-seat, and I would have liked less near-perfection in the characters, but it did hold my attention, only lagging a bit at the very end. And the Sherlock Holmes/Tom Swift feel to the main character is engaging. It doesn’t match up with works such as Jonathan Stroud’s Bartimaeus trilogy (set in similar time and place) or Diane Duane’s Wizard books, but it’s a solid work, especially for younger readers. —Bill Capossere

Heart of Gold, Word of Honour, Time of Trial, Moment of Truth

“Charmingly old-fashioned” is how I would describe Michael Pryor’s series The Laws of Magic, which begins with Blaze of Glory (reviewed above) and continues with Heart of Gold, Word of Honour, Time of Trial, and the most recent, due out this summer, Moment of Truth, all of which I’ll review as a group here. The concluding book will be Hour of Need.

The Laws of Magic is set in an alternate England (called Albion) during the Edwardian Age, starting on the cusp of WWI and continuing into the beginning of the war in the final two books. The Industrial Revolution happened beside a parallel magical revolution. The two are deeply intertwined in day-to day-life, though magic is less so since it is limited to those with a natural born talent for it, a talent which can be improved and honed via courses of study, the titular “Laws,” as well as the study of the ancient languages that underlie most spells.

The main character is Aubrey Fitzwilliam, whose father is the Prime Minister and whose mother is a famed explorer/naturalist. Aubrey is one of those with magical talent — a lot of it, as well as a head for the hard science aspect of it, what he calls “Rational Magic.” His best friend and constant companion, George, is devoid of any magical aptitude himself but is full of other surprising talents. The girl he meets in book one and then develops a relationship with, and who thus joins him in all his adventures, is Caroline, who is more than capable in a host of ways (she’s a martial arts expert) despite having no magic. The “big bad” of the series is a completely amoral magician, Dr. Tremaine, who is pushing the world toward world war for the singular reason that he needs a lot of blood sacrifices to cast a spell of immortality on himself.

My review of Blaze of Glory called it a solid if not compelling book that piqued my interest enough to want to continue. I’m glad I did, for while the later books do have some of the same flaws as that first book, in general the series gradually improves and deepens as it goes on, while the world turns grimmer and Aubrey grows older.

Heart of Gold deals with trying to recover an object central to the existence of Gallia (France) and with a “soul-stealer” who is turning people into zombies. In Word of Honour, the three friends head off to university and end up mixed up in sabotaged submersibles, a bank theft, and international finance. Time of Trial takes the group to hostile Holmland (Germany) where they must deal with ghosts, golems, and the seeming inevitability of war. And war has in fact come by the time we reach Moment of Truth, and the three friends waste no time in enlisting, becoming part of an elite espionage group whose first task sends them to a border area between Gallia and Holmland where a mysterious factory connected to Dr. Tremaine has suddenly started producing... something. Each book resolves the book’s specific threat while moving forward the series’ arc: world war and Tremaine’s attempts to become immortal.

I mentioned at the outset that I found the books to be “charmingly old-fashioned.” What I mean by that is they remind me a lot of YA books from the '60s (before they were called YA) such as The Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, Nancy Drew, etc. (and yes, I realize these had an earlier incarnation but I’m going with what I know here folks — I’m not that old). The characters are all good, they’re all good at what they do and they show surprising skills as needed, there are a lot of convenient coincidences, and one never has a doubt that the heroes (and they are fully heroes — no antiheroes here) will prevail. There is also a sweetness and innocence to the bonds between the characters, both as friends and in romances, that hearkens back to those books. These are not jaded teens; they are not awash in “pop” culture, they don’t ogle each other sexually, they don’t curse or drink, etc. Set in a contemporary world, we’d probably roll our eyes (whether that’s a good thing or not is debatable), but it’s certainly a perfect tone for this world, whose innocence just might come crashing down thanks to modern warfare. I have to say, it’s a bit refreshing and, as I said, charming. I thoroughly enjoyed that aspect.

The pace at which Aubrey and Caroline’s “relationship” develops is another plus. And I put that in quotes because they don’t really have one as we’d usually think of it by the end of Moment of Truth, though it appears to be just beginning by the end. I am so tired of the shorthand relationship recipe we get all the time in seemingly all our media (books, TV, films): take two complete strangers, throw them together into a stressful situation for 5 to 45 hours, add some cross-banter early where they express clear dislike for each, stir well, than add some cross-banter where the express clear attraction for each other, then voila: love! This is a romance that actually takes the time for romancing — and by that I mean not flowers and dinners but two people actually learning about each other. It was a nice change.

The first few books have some pacing issues; each could have lost 50 to 80 pages or so, but the last two are much more efficient. They’re not necessarily leaner in terms of page count, but they don’t really lag at any point. The humor grows throughout the series and there were several times I was laughing out loud in Moment of Truth.

Aubrey still tends to be perhaps a bit too good at magic. We’re told he struggles to come up with ideas now and then, or that an attempt left him weary, but we don’t feel any of that is very true and we always know he’ll come up with a new spell that’s perfect for the job. What I do like about it, though, is that is isn’t simply inborn talent. He’s able to come up with perfect new spells because he studies magic and thinks about it constantly — its foundations, where it can be improved, how different “fields” can be meshed, how various Laws can be put together. He isn’t good because he’s a natural magician; he’s good because he’s smart and curious.

The side characters are mostly shallow, and Tremaine is an abstract kind of villain. In other books these would be flaws, but here they seem to fit the old-fashioned tone of the series, romance (according to the old definition, not “romantic”) or adventure stories.

Some people may find The Laws of Magic too old-fashioned; some may find the coincidences or the lack of in-depth characterization too off-putting, or the predicable nature of the plots bothersome. I can absolutely see that. But to be honest, that all mostly slid by me; I just enjoyed the series. It isn’t “great,” it isn’t particularly moving or thought-provoking, but there’s something to be said for “enjoyable” as a trait in fiction. I think especially for its YA audience, this meets that standard, especially from the third book on. I look forward to seeing how it wraps up. Recommended. —Bill Capossere

Hour of Need

Hour of Need is the concluding book in Michael Pryor’s LAWS OF MAGIC series and it brings a good series to a fitting and satisfying close. I won’t bother recapping the general premise as you’ll want to have read the prior (or should that be Pryor?) books first; you can check out the setting, etc., in my earlier reviews. Suffice to say the series is set in an alternate Edwardian time period that has been moving toward and then finally arriving at their version of World War I involving both technology and magic.

All the major characters return for Hour of Need: Aubrey, whom I’ve described as a mix of Sherlock Holmes, Tom Swift, and Hermione Granger; his best friend George, reliably strong and warm-hearted; Caroline, his crack shot, martial artist maybe-finally-girlfriend-this-book; and Sophie, coming into her own magically in this book as well as moving more seriously into her relationship with George. As one might expect in the conclusion, the villain — Dr. Tremaine — is here as well, and yes, he and Aubrey do have a final confrontation.

Hour of Need is darker than the earlier books in the sense that while the first few were heading into the war and the last one has the group fighting at the fringes, here we see the actual front and it has all the horror of the non-alternate-universe WWI. The trenches, wire fencing, and shell-shocked soldiers are all here, raising the stakes and providing strong, affecting imagery.

The grim nature and darker imagery in the middle section strengthen the book, as does the continued development of the relationship among the characters and the movement toward an awareness of the horror of war no matter which side one is on (that isn’t to say Pryor offers up any moral relativism here; he simply doesn’t shy away from the sometimes monstrous things being done).

Hour of Need’s flaws will be familiar to readers of the series. Though problems are presented as difficult, it still feels that things come a bit too easily or quickly to Aubrey and that’s true as well for Sophia, whose magic skills are moving perhaps a bit too fast — though Pryor still does an excellent job in the presentation of the magic itself as a kind of science in its intellectual rigor. Tremaine remains a bit too abstract, the confrontation is a bit perfunctory, and this book, like others in the series, could have lost 50-75 pages or so.

But overall, as mentioned, Hour of Need is a fitting and satisfactory conclusion. I’ve called the series “charmingly old-fashioned” and it remains so to the end. Too old-fashioned for some, I’ve no doubt, but personally I found this old-fashioned quality to be one of the series’ greatest strengths and a bit of a relief amidst all the “gritty” or dystopic YA fiction. Having read LAWS OF MAGIC start to finish, I can happily recommend it. —Bill Capossere