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Books Read
Dec. 30th, 2019 06:15 am203. The Paper Magician, Charlie Holmberg
It's a nice fantasy about a young woman who is entering her apprenticeship as a magician in a town not far outside of London in 1904 or so. Magic is expressed through created materials, and is rigidly non-overlapping in some not-well-developed way, so that a paper magician is completely different from a rubber magician, a plastic magician, a glass magician, or a metal magician. (I don't know how much treatment is required to make rubber count.)
It is extremely aggravating that it appears the author didn't think that they needed to do research into what ordinary life then and there in our world was like, so that she could make changes deliberately.
In the fantasy world, people go to "the store" to buy groceries for a few weeks. An icebox has the same properties as a refrigerator. And paper comes in 8.5x11 as a standard size. Bathing is mentioned but not any process for heating water.
It's a nice fantasy about a young woman who is entering her apprenticeship as a magician in a town not far outside of London in 1904 or so. Magic is expressed through created materials, and is rigidly non-overlapping in some not-well-developed way, so that a paper magician is completely different from a rubber magician, a plastic magician, a glass magician, or a metal magician. (I don't know how much treatment is required to make rubber count.)
It is extremely aggravating that it appears the author didn't think that they needed to do research into what ordinary life then and there in our world was like, so that she could make changes deliberately.
In the fantasy world, people go to "the store" to buy groceries for a few weeks. An icebox has the same properties as a refrigerator. And paper comes in 8.5x11 as a standard size. Bathing is mentioned but not any process for heating water.
