I love David Liss, and this book is really fun, especially as an audiobook! (Great reader, by the way). I like the idea of magic having been a much stronger force in the past, and I really enjoyed the engagement with British folklore. And hooray strong female lead character! Still, I find his more this-worldly books a bit more engaging, as I'm more inclined to believe in greedy people distorting historical events for personal gain than I am in living-dead revelants and demons murdering Prime Ministersand poets. Still, a fun way to drive to Indiana Beach Amusement Park! I absolutely loved this! It was just what I needed - the sort of book that keeps me up and night and distracts me from my day to day stuff. I have loved every David Liss book I've read and this one was a treat because it's about magic and alchemy and I didn't even realize that when I picked it up.Lucy has a predestined life and is in a powerful position of being a key player in balancing the magical beings who stand for the past and the modern industrial revolution. With spells and curses, Lord Byron, William Blake, secret orders of men guarding secrets and Luddites who want to smash the machines of modernism - Lucy is brought into a maelstrom of clashing power that only she can balance with the magical pages of a secret book of alchemy.Awesome awesome awesome.Other reviews didn't seem to favor this and there are a lot of comparisons to Austen and other things which I totally miss - which is interesting. For me - this stands on it's own -- and if anything - reminds me a bit of Deborah Harkness and the Discovery of Witches...
Do You like book The Twelfth Enchantment (2011)?
Silly, but absorbing. Great fun when sick and needing something distracting!
—janssensvandamme
Decent read, although not nearly as good as his earlier stories
—Hadian
