Sorcerer to the Crown

Fun, fairly quick read. The dialog between Zacharias, Prunella and Damerell were probably the best parts of the book, with Damerell stealing any scene he was in. Zacharias is immensely likable. But as a whole I felt like too much was left unexplained.

The use and acquisition of familiars was both vague and horrifying. Zacharias describes their hatching from eggs as having the mind of an infant, for some unexplained reason a person from fairy deciding to reincarnate themselves in the mortal realm. Are they pets? Slaves? Friends? Are the sorcerers their slaves in turn? Apparently it's ok to marry one, as in the case of Midsomer and Lorelei, but they don't have any of them same rights and privileges of a human person, considering that Prunella feeds one of hers to another with no consequence but a few shed tears. This was murky and not adequately explained, I was honestly left wondering why anyone would want a familiar at all. For a moderate boost in power?

The main plot is about England running out of magic but it doesn't seem to impair the magic users in any way- the book is full of examples of Prunella and Zacharias casting spells with no difficulty.

It is apparently verboten for ladies to practice magic because they are too delicate - except for any occasion in which a lady feels like doing a bit of magic would be convenient.

Can almost everyone do magic? It is mentioned many times how useful maids, farmers, laborer etc find doing spells to aid their everyday work, so I was left with the idea that almost everyone in England must be able to do a bit of magic.

What does the Sorcerer Royal do? Zacharias mentions attending to his duties and being very busy, but doesn't say what he is doing. He can't flee Midsomer because he can't leave his duties, but I could not figure out why since he mainly seemed to be teaching Prunella and collapsing in pain at intervals. And much is made of the Sorcerer Royal's magical staff - but what does it do? I can't remember any instance of explanation of where it came from or what it actually does.