An Unkindness of Magicians

By: Kat Howard

Narrated by: Madeleine Maby

There is a dark secret that is hiding at the heart of New York City and diminishing the city's magicians' power in this fantasy thriller by acclaimed author Kat Howard.

In New York City, magic controls everything. But the power of magic is fading. No one knows what is happening except for Sydney - a new, rare magician with incredible power that has been unmatched in decades, and she may be the only person who is able to stop the darkness that is weakening the magic. But Sydney doesn't want to help the system; she wants to destroy it.

Sydney comes from the House of Shadows, which controls the magic with the help of sacrifices from magicians.

©2017 Kat Howard (P)2017 Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Cool concepts, poor execution

This felt like the author had a dozen or so awesome ideas for scenes. She wrote them and realized she needed more book to go around it. A few times, I didn't even realize a climatic event was happening because the scene had no build-up. The magic system really needed some more definition. Soft magic systems are great until things are happening with no apparent rhyme or reason to just move the story along or to make cool scenes. Despite that, I did love the tone of the book and the dark uses of the magic system

Reread at least 6 times

This book has always been a comfort read for me. When I in a reading slump I read or listen to this book to get back into it. I love the magic system, I love the characters, I love the ending. Maybe I’m biased because I first read it when I was 15 and have read it at least once every year since then.

Tried too hard

This book tried too hard to be a good story. I wanted to like it more but there was too much crammed in to feel for the characters

amazing

I loved this book. I can also see why Neil Gaiman enjoyed it. the book has a wonderful magic system and is very immersive.

Unique and qwirky

This unique take on magic started off so well, but lagged in the middle. Thankfully, the ending was also great. Hoping for a sequel!

more of a screenplay than a book

lots of characters and a good story that get let down by the length of the book. The characters are interesting, but one dimensional. And the story has a lot of build up that lead to several moments that feel a tough they should be epic moments that turn out to be "blink and you miss it" moments. there were several instances where I had to rewind because it was a finger snao and the moment was over. give this book and a good budget to a film studio that knows what they're doing, and I'm all in.

Great Concepts, Unfulfilling Ride

When it comes to set up and world building the first few chapters drew me in. The book's opening narative gave me a promise of intrigue and danger. But as things went on the story became stale, unexplained, and even predicable. The story has no tention or stakes given the Main character (MC) is so overpowered and prepared. Im reluctant to call her a Marry-Sue, but the way the story playes out I had to wonder if she is, given all the power she has and perfect support system she has. The Villians while introduced as killers or players to watch never succeed in, or do anything consequential. They're just plot devices to facilitate inconveniences for the MC. At no point does the MC worry that she can be truly harmed. The Magic System is very soft, with no explanation other than where it comes from and that its painfull. Duels with magic last only about 2 pharagraphs and are highly lack luster. Things just happen. And everyone except extras and one obvious person seems to be sitting fully wraped in plot armor. However the book really tries to avoid contrivances. The story was gripping enough to keep me going, untill I realized nothing of what the setup promised was going to be given to me but by this point the book was winding down. The characters where solid though with real motivations, and history. But they all felt useless and never had right amount of screen time for all the things happening. Once I finished I realzed how underdeveloped all the A B & C plots where. I wouldnt recommend this book but i wouldnt say to avoid it either. Strong starting chapters, but the rest was underwhelming

Fantastic story

I found the story to be very interesting and it kept me compelled to continue listening. The narrator did a fantastic job and gave the book life

Glad I took the chance

I'm glad I wanna hit and took the chance and got this book. It was absolutely wonderful. The story was thorough and enthralling and will narrated. I'm really hoping that the author decides to do a sequel there has to be more that can happen because this world she created was so complex and interesting.

narration meh

The story was pretty good. I only wished the voices between characters were a bit easier to tell apart.