Eigentlich habe ich an der Geschichte nichts auszusetzen, hatte aber mit einem Einzelband gerechnet und war deshalb sehr überrascht, weil es sich im Endeffekt doch um eine Reihe handelt. Weil deswegen viele Fragen offen bleiben und rückblickend alles eher wie eine Einleitung wirkt, ziehe ich doch noch einen Stern ab, um den Folgebänden die Möglichkeit für eine Steigerung zu lassen.

This first book in ‘The House of the Magician’ trilogy was a quick but very enjoyable read. A mix of historical and supernatural elements, the story is told through the eyes of servant girl Lucy who gives the reader a taste of Elizabethan life, from the courtly fashions and customs to simple mundane chores of the serving class.

The book begins when Lucy is forced to flee her home, needing to escape the clutches of her violent, alcoholic father. Now homeless and without a job, she decides to make her way to London but after a fateful meeting, Lucy finds herself as the new maid/nanny in the house of Dr Dee – court magician to Elizabeth I.

The gossip and rumours in the surrounding village claim that Dr Dee can raise spirits and communicate with the dead – however Lucy soon learns that the great Dr Dee’s powers are nothing more than artful trickery. Yet after aiding the doctor in one of his charades by playing the part of a nobleman’s recently deceased daughter, Lucy is soon fraught with sinister dreams. Dreams that all point to one thing – that someone is plotting to murder her grace, the Queen of England…

A quick and light read at only 228 pages, ‘At the house of the magician’ was a sweet and charming novel that gave a fictional insight to the possibilities of what it was like working for Dr John Dee. Also the writing was simple but decorative, with Mary Hooper adding in lots of detailed descriptions of Richmond Palace, as well as Elizabethan style dress and customs.

The characters were interesting, especially the portrayals of the famous historical figures whom were both accurately described and very believable. However the fictional cast were also very well written with plenty of memorable characters such as ‘Tom fool’ (both the man and the monkey) as well as the old cook/house keeper, Mistress Midge. I’m looking forward to hopefully seeing the return of these characters in the sequel ‘By royal command’.

Also I particularly liked the glossary at the end of the book, which also included amongst it Elizabethan recipes and instructions on how to make lavender wands – All of which I thought was a nice after touch to the book.

So overall I thought that the book a delightful read and would recommend to any fans of historical fiction! 3 stars!

An imaginative read, one that is fairly immersive and enjoyable to read. A short read but a good one.

as a change from my usual YA reads, this book is historical fiction with no romantic subplots. supernatural elements are often shown to be a rouse, and the main character is easy to live through without being bland. Lucy has an identity and i like that. I have a running list of vocabulary words from this book that arent in the glossary at the back. Hoper definitely did her research on Eizabethan times.

i dont know if ill read the rest of the series, but i can telyou that i liked At The House of the Magician.

I found this book incredibly boring, with a lot of info-dumping. Sad, because I'd SO looked forward to this series. Now I'm not sure I'll bother with the other two books.

This was actually better than I expected. The characters were solid and the plot was interesting. I didn't have high hopes but it actually surprised me for the better. It's for a younger audience than me, and I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I had read it when I was twelve, but it was still enjoyable.

Lucy escapes her poor village and drunk abusive father in search of work and money to provide her mother with a better way of life. This story follows her in seeking employment and then the adventures and events that surround her when her luck turns, and she finds herself employed by the somewhat mysterious Dr Dee.

At the House of the Magician is an historical fiction with some supernatural aspects revolving around Lucy, the protagonist of the novel. I think that most of the historical aspects seemed believable; set during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the troubles between the monarch and Mary Queen of Scots is briefly discussed and the grandure of the palace and the queens clothes are described in great detail. At the end of the book, after the end of the story itself, the author provides some background to the history and the setting of the novel and I think that this makes it a lot more believable and helps, in hindsight, to establish the way of life of the inhabitants of Elizabethan England.

To me, the plot was quite slow and not much happened until the end of the novel. Although at first this was quite disappointing, I soon found out that there is also a sequel which may have played a part in the reasoning behind giving this story such an abrupt ending.

Lucy, the main character, is quite interesting and the reader gets to learn quite a lot about her background and family, as well as her adventurous side which is explored more as the story develops. Some of the side characters were not very well developed and I found that this led to some of them being insignificant to the story but this may change in the sequel, which I plan to read at some point in the future. I really like the character of Mistress Midge because her bad temper and her attitude added some comedic aspects to the book. I also really liked Tomas, the court fool, as I thought there was aspects of romantic tention between him and the protagonist which I hope will be explored in the second installment of the series.

The writing was very simple and easy to understand. This meant that although, at first, I found the novel difficult to get into, it became a quick read, having only 228 pages. Also, the lettering is quite large on the page which made it a lot quicker. I like that the author included some words that are not used nowadays, but were used when the story is set, as this makes it a lot more believable and I like that a glossary was provided at the back of the book so you could look up the meanings for some of these disused words.

Overall, I was slightly disappointed with this book as I expected a lot more adventure and mystery than there was, but again, this may be addresseed in the sequel. Also, having read the book, I have decided that I do not really liked the cover as I believe that a cover, if it shows a person, should show the protagonist. In this case, Lucy is said to have dark eyes and brown hair, whereas the photograph on the cover is fair-haired and has blue eyes. Considering my opinions of the book overall, I would give this 3 out of 5 stars but am intrigued to see if the second installment of the series develops the storyline better than this one so far.