Magic’s Perdition
Family drama packed (maybe too much) with magic and mystery
Magic’s Perdition is set in what feels like a magical pre turn of the century world. Magic exists and has been integrated into society and government. There are rules and organization about it. The main character, Adeline, is a former government official in the magical department. She is forced to leave the government due to differences in opinion and moves to a more rural area. There, at the beginning of the novel, she encounters a being of a race known as the sylphen. The sylphen are magical beings who can take many different shapes.
The sylphen Adeline meets initially appears as a tortured young boy named Isaachar. Isaachar is actually a dragon sylphen who was locked away and tortured for a very long time. Adeline rescues him and then there is an about two decade time skip.
After which, it basically turns into a family drama. Adeline is the mother so to speak and Isaachar the teenaged son. The story is basically a coming of age story with a magical murder mystery. That aspect is where the novel is the strongest — pure family dynamics in a not-at-all typical family. It’s cute.
The magical aspect is also very well thought out. I really liked how magic interacted with mechanics and robots. The description of programming robots was very accurate to real life programming which was kind of humorous.
The only drawback for me was that dragged on a bit in this sort of 2nd-3rd act period where all of the battles and ‘important’ plot points happen. It was winding and maybe could have been streamlined a bit.
Overall, Magic’s Perdition was a very quaint story. I’m not sure if I’d read anymore of this story thread, it ended nicely and left enough room for imagination. It also had that warm and fuzzy feeling where everything is sort of happy at the end. Adding more might detract from that. But, regardless, I recommend it as a light family-drama with lots of magic and mechanics (literally!).
