A Marvellous Light

I was familiar with all of the Best Series finalists for this year’s Hugos bar one: The Last Binding by Freya Marske. Therefore I decided to give the first book a try. A Marvelous Light could probably be described as being in the subgenre of English Magic fantasies. Like Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, it centers on the fact that some people in England (upper class people, obviously) have preserved magical skills over the ages and now (in this case in Edwardian times rather than Georgian) this is becoming a matter of political importance.

Our hero, Sir Robin Blyth, is an impoverished minor aristocrat who civil service career takes a turn for the weird when he is appointed to a small and secretive department responsible for magical affairs. It turns out that his predecessor in the post, one Reginald Gatling, has disappeared without trace. We readers, as we have more viewpoints than Robin, know that poor Reggie has probably been murdered by magicians.

So much for the plot, but this is not what the book is about. A Marvelous Light is a gay romance, centering on the relationship between Robin and his prickly new boss, Edwin Courcey. I think by now you are used to my opinions on romance, though Marske does handle the tropes better than some I have read. Worse still, from my point of view, the book is verging on erotica. Reader, I have absolutely zero interest in what gay men do in bed together. At least that meant I got the book read more quickly as I was able to skip large chunks.

I wasn’t hugely impressed with the worldbuilding either. For people in a highly important government department with direct access to the Prime Minister, Blyth and Courcey seem remarkably powerless.

So far, so disheartening, and yet I quite enjoyed the book. That’s partly down to the characters, and partly down to the way that Marske portrays the agonies of two gay men in a deeply homophobic society. This is not a “the past was gay because I want it to be” book, it makes a serious attempt to engage with how being closeted messes with your mind.

The other thing I really liked about the book is the departmental secretary who works for Blyth and Courcey. Adelaide Morrissey is, inevitably, far more competent than her bosses. She is also, despite the name, of Indian extraction. I would have liked to see more of her.

Book 2 in the series, A Restless Truth, features Robin Blyth’s headstrong teenage sister, Maud. It is likely to be of more interest to me, even if it is still a romance. I might give it a try.

Title: A Marvellous Light
By: Freya Marske
Publisher: Tor
Purchase links:
Amazon UK
Amazon US
Bookshop.org UK
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