Tor Teen's #OwnYourMagic Phone Wallpapers

Tor Teen made a wonderful announcement on Instagram yesterday that they have released wallpaper's inspired from their six new fantasies for the Own Your Magic celebrations. Click here to visit tor teen website and download the amazing wallpapers. I personally downloaded these four:

I had previously reviewed 'A Song Below Water' back in April and I absolutely adored that book Click here to read my review of 'A Song Below Water'.

I also downloaded wallpapers of 'The Princess Will Save You' and 'The Extraordinaries' because they are next up in my TBR.

Review: The Angel of the Crows

Name -The Angel of the Crows

Pages -448

Author -Katherine Addison

Publisher -Macmillan/Tor-Forge

Genre -Historical Fantasy, Mystery

Rating -3.5/5

ISBN -9780765387394

Source -NetGalley

Review no. -39

Synopsis -

This is not the story you think it is. These are not the characters you think they are. This is not the book you are expecting.

In an alternate 1880s London, angels inhabit every public building, and vampires and werewolves walk the streets with human beings in a well-regulated truce. A fantastic utopia, except for a few things: Angels can Fall, and that Fall is like a nuclear bomb in both the physical and metaphysical worlds. And human beings remain human, with all their kindness and greed and passions and murderous intent.

Jack the Ripper stalks the streets of this London too. But this London has an Angel. The Angel of the Crows.

Review -

The Angel of the Crows is a wingfic (fan fiction which imagines one character with wings) of Sherlock Holmes with a supernatural twist where Sherlock (Crow) is an angel and Dr. Watson (Dr. Doyle) is a hell-hound.

Crow is an angel with only a piece of his habitat in his pocket because if angels loose their habitat entirely, they fall. And this fall is like when a dead bird falls off a tree. Instead, it is more like a nuclear bomb.

One such fall of an angel while tending to soldiers in Afghan, injures Dr. Doyle's leg and changes him into a hellhound. So, Dr. J. H. Doyle has no other option than to go back to London and live on his measly pension.

Unlike most of the historical fantasy novels, the language is lucid and easy to understand. The whole story is said through Dr. Doyle's perspective. The novel is divided into nine parts, each of which is based upon a new mystery/case. And some of these cases are pretty well-known, like 'The Hound of Baskerville', 'The Sign of the Four' etc. I love the way that the Whitechapel Murders and Jack the Ripper mystery were added to the story. I also admire the friendship bond between Crow and Dr. Doyle.

One of the major reason for giving this book a 3/5 is that the stories are just too predictable and familiar because storylines are exactly similar the original Sherlock Holmes except for the supernatural twists and Jack the Ripper part. I last read Sherlock Holmes two year ago but I was still able to predict at least seventy per cent of the mysteries. None of the names are changed except for Crow (Sherlock) and Dr. Doyle (Dr. Watson). I also felt that the whole system of the angels was very confusing and blurry.

Overall, the novel is engaging, entertaining and a wonderful retelling of Sherlock Holmes. I strongly recommend this book to all the Sherlock fans because although the novel is heavily based on it, the author has done justice by adding supernatural elements and plot twists here and there.

I thank NetGalley and Macmillan/Tor-Forge for giving me this wonderful opportunity to review this book. Also, this book has added 'The Goblin Emperor' (Katherine Addison's previous book) to my ever-growing list of TBR.

Review: A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians

Name -A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians

Pages -544

Author -H. G. Parry

Publisher -Orbit Books

Genre -Historical Fantasy, Politics

Rating -4/5

ISBN -9780356514703

Source -NetGalley

Review no. -38

Synopsis -

It is the Age of Enlightenment -- of new and magical political movements, from the necromancer Robespierre calling for revolution in France to the weather mage Toussaint L'Ouverture leading the slaves of Haiti in their fight for freedom, to the bold new Prime Minister William Pitt weighing the legalization of magic amongst commoners in Britain and abolition throughout its colonies overseas.

But amidst all of the upheaval of the enlightened world, there is an unknown force inciting all of human civilisation into violent conflict. And it will require the combined efforts of revolutionaries, magicians, and abolitionists to unmask this hidden enemy before the whole world falls to chaos.

Review-

Set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, or to be precise, the Age of Enlightenment (1979-1994), 'A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians' is a sweeping, epic tale dripping with politics, history, magic, pain and darkness.

It is set in an alternate history where magic exists but is very strictly controlled, where people are allowed to use magic only for their self defense. Slavery exists and the slaves are spellbound, which means they are compelled to do any job that their masters want and their bodies move automatically to the orders given to them.

 

One such slave is Fina, who was plucked from her home and family and thrown into the horror of slavery. Many things were snatched from her but her strong magic wasn't one of those things because her magic was just too powerful to do so. So, one ordinary night, when she hears a voice inside her head to rise to the rebellion, she sets on a journey to achieve freedom for all the slaves, using her powers.  

France is in the middle of a revolution to achievement their motto of Liberté, égalité, fraternité. But as the revolution continues, it unveils a France that people had only seen in their worst nightmares.

In England, Prime Minister William Pitt is trying his best to legalize magic among commoners and abolish slave trade. But the situation in France and Saint Dominigue makes it not only harder, but almost impossible to pass these laws in the House of Commoners.

What I really liked about this book was that this book is a perfect blend of history and magic, that is, the book included real-life characters and instances but still magic was a very important element to the plot. Also, I highly appreciate the level of research that the author had done before writing this novel which is highly evident in the novel. The setting of the novel alternates between London, France and the Carribean islands. The words were crafted in such a manner that the reader would be able to feel for each and every character.

What I didn't like about this book is that it is really long (544 pages) and some parts felt downright boring and stretched on. I really wish it was edited to be shortened as it took me eons to finally finish reading this book. Also, there instances where I had no idea what was going on.

I recommend this book to history geeks (being a geek is a good thing) and politics lovers.

I thank Orbit books and NetGalley for giving me this wonderful opportunity.