Erik Buchanan

Wow. Just wow. Thought this was some self-published, low-fi, colour-by-numbers romp but it's better. So much better.

The author can really write, authentic and realistic with believable dialogue, motivations and character action ramifications.

Set in a Three Musketeers-like milieu (albeit initially rural), Small Magics is like Seb de Castell's Greatcoats series without all the OTT Gary Stu 'greatness'. This story has a slow-burning fuse -*Spoiler alert: The MC doesn't cast his first spell until threequarters of the way through the book. - and the first half is slow-going, bucolic episodic ala Huckleberry Finn.

The MC Thomas Flarety is a scrawny half-starved scholar, with a rapier - if not the wit to go with it.
His sidekicks are local yokel lummox George the Blacksmith and his late-blooming sister Eileen AKA Alex.
Yes, romance is in the air but doesn't taint it too much because the characters are so well drawn and consistent.The threesome have a series of Tom Sawyer bonding adventures before they finally hit the city the shit hits the fan but not before we meet Flarety's fantastic flat-mates Lord Henry and Friar Benjamin.

Remarkably for a book where not a lot happens, the tension is palpable throughout - through excellent expository technique and charactersation.

The style is thankfully not Dim Dark or Steam Junk. Nor tis it High Fantasy or Epic. It's not really a fantasy at all, more like a Noir thriller crossed with swashbuckling Whodunnit.

Small Magics may seem small potatoes but stick with it, it's worth it - Eric Buchanan dug deep and laid a really strong foundation for a promising series.… (más)