Cold Magic

After catching up on book 13 of the Wheel of Time series, I wasn't sure when I would get my next fantasy fix.  Thankfully, a friend gave me a book for my birthday that solved that conundrum.  Cold Magic by Kate Elliot is a fantasy novel set in an alternate Europe at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution.  At this time there are two ideological poles that define the people in this world: those of the old tradition who have devoted themselves to magic, and those of the new trends of technology and progress that are rising with the dawn of the machine age.  These two sides are diametrically opposed to each other, as the magic users (particularly the cold magic users) desire to maintain their authority and exalted status above the plebians, who are getting frustrated with their lot in life and beginning to sound the horn for revolution.  In the background, adding a third pole to the tension is the spirit world, which maintains its own order over the universe, keeping a watch on the world of men so that they do not step out of their bounds.

The plot revolves around a heroine, nicknamed Cat, a young lady who is an orphan living with her aunt and uncle while she attends the local university.  One day her life is turned upside down when a cold mage shows up on their doorstep and demands her hand in marriage in response to a magically bonding contract her family had been forced to sign.  What happens though when the truth is revealed that the mage has been given the wrong bride, and in fact the life and identity that Cat had been living all along was a lie?

The setting of this book was a bit disorienting at times.  I'm not used to fantasy being set on an alternative historical Earth.  The author weaves together portions from our real history (like the founding of Carthage) into her fantasy world, both using familiar names from history and renaming those familiar names into something that becomes a lot more foreign to my ears (e.g. renaming the Phoenicians as Kena'ani, which is probably historically what they called themselves, but not what I know them as).  The mixture results in a truly original world, but for anyone who knows even a little of history the result can be disorienting because it becomes difficult to identify where real history turns off, and the fiction begins.

Despite all of this, the book was a charming read.  It is written in the first person and you become really drawn into the person who Cat is: a feisty, curious, proud and independent young lady who, well, is kind of like a cat.  One of the most random and charming things about the book were the occasional comments the narrator would put in pointing out her cat-like attributes.  A supporting character in the story is her cousin, Beatrice, nicknamed "Bee", and I just love the thought of two of the main characters going by "Cat" and "Bee."

Another thing I loved about this story was the sense of mystery that pervaded the entire thing.  As the narrative unfolds you are learning and puzzling about things alongside the main character, and at times find yourself being as shocked as she is with some of the revelations.  Nothing is really as it seems at first in this story, and the mystery only grows bigger as the plot goes on.  As this is the first book in a trilogy, of which the other two books have not been written yet, not all the questions have been answered by the end of the book.  And yet despite this, I found that the author really answered the most important questions, and I was able to leave the book feeling satisfied with the resolution, although of course wanting to read more.