Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho is a rather strange book, full of characters I never really understood, liked or believed in, other than the Sorcerer Royal, Zacharias.

Cho creates a world where British magicians and Sorcerers are having their magic drained by nearby Fairy; the head Sorcerer is a former slave, and eventually an Indian woman.

A British novel of magic and manners written by Malaysian born Cho, it never felt quite right to me, and I wasn’t able to escape into it as I’d hoped. Perhaps other readers might find it more enjoyable than I did.