A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians

History, a story of beforehand, yesteryears, the personalities, events and so forth........

Magic for the mundane, muggles, uninitiated, something to be afraid of, for the wielders of this magnificent energy, cantrips, symbols a joy to behold and held unto.........

A combination of both surely would have been a natural 5, Yes and ...............no.......

The story opens years before the French Revolution, where westerners think was the time of critical thinking and burgeoning concepts of freedom from everything(for the slaves moreso), the narrative was simply superb, you can feel the urgency, the pain, suffering of the people that were slowly being introduced, this being an account of an important world event(I had to google the historical figures), I was back to my classroom, simply turning page by page, not to mention, the fleeting descriptions of mages, the abilities.......the mystery of vampire mages(this one further deepened my appreciation of this book), ohhhhhh......did I mention the debates, the words(the single most powerful tool EVER), I was thinking, another all nighter(which are fewer now as my lifeclock starts malfunctioning, must be the age creeping in slowly but surely), one of them moments wherein going to the john, drinking water(sometimes I truly forget about it), I was so obsessed with what was happening, and then..............everything slowed..........my page turning became lesser and lesser, the narrative was still there, the persons are still interesting, they even started showing their true abilities.....but I suddenly found myself just plodding along, not the same zeal, or the why has become a huh(???), then it started again......Necromancers!!!!! Shadowmancers!!!! A vampire mage hiding in the parliamentary......and again.......you stumble to a halt, what once an engaging discourse(the debates), turned into so much word flinging that made the narrative stumble and then completely threw my reading enjoyment, I literally had to force myself to finish the last few chapters, also as I abovementioned, reading on this particular groups of personages, it somehow dampened my curiosity(the magic was still there, but still in glimpses, in phrases...), if not for the way she words each sentences, I would have been bored, really and utterly bored.......

I sincerely wished that the story travelled a different path, is that not the reason why we tell a story as opposed to re-reading an alternate history...........

I am still with Ms. Parry on this one, I believe her storytelling ability, I just hope we do not get a retelling of history again(exciting as it sounds, that is why it is called history, we are supposed to learn from their mistakes)

Ohhhhhh.....there will be a second book......YES!!!!!!