A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H.G. Parry

Thank you to Orbit Books and Angela Man for giving me this book in exchange for my honest opinion. A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians is available now.

I was interested in this book from the get-go. An alternate version of historical events? Yes, please! A book this ambitious sounds hard to pull off, but author H.G. Parry did it brilliantly. I was caught up in the politics, magic, and historical basis of it. The characters were written dynamically and the story flowed incredibly well.

I saw hints of early Anne’s Rice’s descriptiveness in the prose (high praise from me). The in-depth descriptions, explanations, and the slightly slower build all worked very well. The time taken by the author to really develop the story and setting made the payoff even better. The tension of the storyline built up to a roaring crescendo and I was transfixed.

I have a feeling that this will be one of those books that you either love or hate, nothing in between. I think some books can only evoke strong emotions like that. I fall firmly in the “love” category. Historical fantasy is such an interesting subgenre because of that real-life base that the author springboards off of. Parry obviously put a ton of effort into getting the historical aspects right and it made a huge difference.

I really can’t say that I liked any particular characters (it feels weird saying something like that about characters based on actual people), but I found every single one of them fascinating. H.G. Parry took me right into their heads and gave motivations and showed their reasons for their actions. Whether I agreed with a certain character or not, they were all engrossing.

Seeing as it’s based loosely on the French Revolution, don’t expect a lighthearted story. A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians is enthralling, however, and this is an excellent addition to the historical fantasy subgenre.