Cold Magic (Kate Elliot)

Cold Magic
(The Spiritwalker trilogy, Book 1)
Kate Elliot
Orbit
Fiction, Fantasy
**+ (Bad/Okay)

DESCRIPTION: Catherine, a girl on the brink of womanhood, lives on the edge of a changing world. Machinery and science are slowly dominating the old ways of gods and magic. The voiceless masses grow restless under the yoke of numerous princes and the powerful mage Houses. Cat and her cousin Beatrice even attend an academy like boys do, learning of new contraptions such as floating airships that will revolutionize the world as they know it. Even children of the much-maligned Kena'ani (erroneously branded Phoenicians by the lying tongues of Roman scholars), widely considered unscrupulous spies and double-dealers, might find their fortunes raised.
But worlds do not change easily, nor do the old ways yield easily to the new... especially when there is much more than ignorance and superstition behind their power.
Cat is wakened to this truth most unexpectedly when a cold mage - a much-resented breed of magic worker, in whose presence flames extinguish - turns up on the doorstep. By claim of magic contracts of which she knows nothing, the arrogant man rips her from everything she has known, everything she had thought she might become. Even as she despairs, she learns that far greater forces are at work. In a world where magic and science cannot coexist, where war seems inevitable, Cat must learn fast if she is to land on her feet... and choose a side.

REVIEW: Alternate worlds like this one - a re-imagined Industrial Revolution-era Earth, where Celtic princes rise in the wake of a shrinking Roman empire, where feathered-reptile "trolls" from across the ocean introduce dangerous, radical ideas to the populace, where northern mages use their powers as much to enforce their own tyranny as to protect the public - can be a treat to visit. I enjoy a well-thought-out new world to explore. That doesn't mean, unfortunately, that I will accept page after page after page of endless worldbuilding, tracing histories and lineages and ethnic migrations and so forth, set against a smothering backdrop of geography lessons, in lieu of a story. The author even repeats several stories and history lessons multiple times. In between lectures, I had to endure a heroine I didn't particularly enjoy and a slew of largely heartless (or seemingly heartless) and manipulative supporting characters on a journey that moved in agonizing fits and starts, careening from plot-stopping "story time" to breathless escapes from enemy clutches. Strong whiffs of politics grew into a choking stench by the end of the book, which - being the first book in a stated trilogy - didn't resolve too much. Instead of eagerly awaiting the second installment, I merely felt a sense of relief that I'd finally finished the thing.
I give Kate Elliot marks for depth of research in planning her alternate Earth. Unfortunately, the tidal waves of research drowned the story, and her characters' unlikable and annoying traits overwhelmed their commendable ones. Needless to say, I won't be following this trilogy any further.