The Paper Magician (The Paper Magician Series Book 1)
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The Paper Magician (The Paper Magician Series Book 1) Paperback – September 1, 2014
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“Ceony displays commendable pluck facing a more experienced mage trained in the dark arts, and Holmberg gives her a complete story while leaving ample room for sequels…This promising debut recalls the early work of Patricia Wrede.” —Publishers Weekly
“A fast-paced, perilous romp…The story was the perfect tempo and I immediately fell in love with Ceony, her astute mind and quick thinking. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series!” —CheriePie’s Book Reviews
"Stephen King once said, 'Love is a uniquely portable magic,' and if so, The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg must be a kind of love...If you can take yourself out of the real world for a little while and imagine yourself as one learning how to be a magician, this novel will easily become one of your favorites. With a little bit of magic, romance, and suspense, The Paper Magician is truly a fun and exciting summer read for anyone who needs a break from the real world.” —The Triangle
“The plot is pretty tightly focused on Ceony and Emery, but the glimpses I caught of this larger world were fascinating...If you enjoy fantasy or steampunk at all, give this one a try.” —The Introverted Reader
About the Author
Born in Salt Lake City, Charlie N. Holmberg was raised a Trekkie alongside three sisters who also have boy names. In addition to writing fantasy novels, she is also a freelance editor. She graduated from BYU, plays the ukulele, owns too many pairs of glasses, and hopes to one day own a dog. The Paper Magician is her debut novel and the first in a whimsical series exploring a world of magicians who animate manmade materials. She currently lives with her family in Utah.
More About the Author
Charlie Nicholes Holmberg was born in Salt Lake City, Utah to two parents who sacrificed a great deal to give their very lazy daughter a good education. As a result, Charlie learned to hate uniforms, memorized all English prepositions in alphabetical order, and mastered the art of Reed-Kellogg diagramming a sentence at age seven. She entered several writing contests in her elementary years and never placed.
Being a nerd, Charlie started writing fan-fiction as a teenager in between episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. She became a full-fledged band geek with mediocre talent in high school, where she met her husband Jordan Holmberg. While she strove to win his attention by baking him cookies and throwing ramen noodles at his house, he didn't actually ask her out until six years later.
Charlie began taking writing seriously during her undergrad at Brigham Young University, where she majored in English and minored in editing. She finally won a few writing contests. She graduated with her BA in 2010 and got hitched three months later. Shortly afterwards, her darling husband dragged her to Moscow, Idaho, where he subsequently impregnated her.
In summer 2013, after collecting many rejection letters and making a quilt out of them, Charlie sold her ninth novel, The Paper Magician, and its sequel to 47North with the help of her wonderful agent, Marlene Stringer. Someday she will own a dog.
Being a nerd, Charlie started writing fan-fiction as a teenager in between episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. She became a full-fledged band geek with mediocre talent in high school, where she met her husband Jordan Holmberg. While she strove to win his attention by baking him cookies and throwing ramen noodles at his house, he didn't actually ask her out until six years later.
Charlie began taking writing seriously during her undergrad at Brigham Young University, where she majored in English and minored in editing. She finally won a few writing contests. She graduated with her BA in 2010 and got hitched three months later. Shortly afterwards, her darling husband dragged her to Moscow, Idaho, where he subsequently impregnated her.
In summer 2013, after collecting many rejection letters and making a quilt out of them, Charlie sold her ninth novel, The Paper Magician, and its sequel to 47North with the help of her wonderful agent, Marlene Stringer. Someday she will own a dog.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
120 of 130 people found the following review helpful
By
C.R. Hurst
TOP 500 REVIEWER on August 1, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition
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When magician-in-training Ceony Twill is chosen as apprentice to the paper magician, Emery Thane, she is decidedly disgruntled. Not only was Ceony the first in her class at Tagis Praff School for the Magically Inclined, she possesses a photographic memory and more confidence than any nineteen-year-old should. Clearly her talents deserve more than an assignment to the dated and dull art of paper folding magic. Nevertheless, Ceony accepts her fate and resigns herself to an adventureless future--or so she thinks! Thus begins Charlie N. Holmberg's The Paper Magician, a winning fantasy that should appeal to both adolescent and adult readers alike, though teen girls are obviously the more specific target audience.
Perhaps what I liked best about The Paper Magician is that it borrows freely from any number of children's literature classics, Harry Potter and Mary Poppins to name only two, without ever becoming derivative. A familiar coming of age theme is made fresher by an inventive plot, witty dialogue, and a surprising love story. The characters also add to the story's quirky charm: Ceony, the snarky heroine, Emery, the peculiar magician, and Lira, the deliciously evil villainess. And although the novel is a serial (a sequel called The Glass Magician will be released this November), its ending is a satisfying one with no frustrating cliffhangers common to the fantasy genre. I found The Paper Magician a bewitching surprise--perhaps it will cast its spell upon you too!
Perhaps what I liked best about The Paper Magician is that it borrows freely from any number of children's literature classics, Harry Potter and Mary Poppins to name only two, without ever becoming derivative. A familiar coming of age theme is made fresher by an inventive plot, witty dialogue, and a surprising love story. The characters also add to the story's quirky charm: Ceony, the snarky heroine, Emery, the peculiar magician, and Lira, the deliciously evil villainess. And although the novel is a serial (a sequel called The Glass Magician will be released this November), its ending is a satisfying one with no frustrating cliffhangers common to the fantasy genre. I found The Paper Magician a bewitching surprise--perhaps it will cast its spell upon you too!
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158 of 181 people found the following review helpful
By
JZS
on August 2, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition
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Several friends on the Amazon book forum like to discuss what we're reading and recommend books we think others would like. When one mentioned that he reads to his 11 year old daughter every night (what a great family tradition!), I added children's books to my "watch for" list. So when I saw a kindle first book promoted as "extraordinary adventure both dark and whimsical that will delight readers of all ages", I was excited to think I might have found something new to recommend. Especially something an 11 year old might enjoy that wouldn't be torture for a very literate Dad. So I went into the book primarily with the mind set of sharing with a child, not as a straight adult read.
I read the book off and on throughout the day yesterday. It is fairly short (about two thirds the size of the original Harry Potter) and although the story is set in late Victorian England, the prose is modern so it wouldn't be a tough read for any one. Unfortunately, it didn't quite hit the mark for me either as an adult or as something to share with a child. It seemed to be caught between two audiences and couldn't quite satisfy either.
As an adult, the premise was imaginative with an original take on "magic" and it was mildly enjoyable at times. But the characters were one dimensional and attempts to add complexity seemed forced and tacked on. The author went to great length to be descriptive, but rather than finding it evocative, I thought it became rather tedious. I really didn't need to know the details of the heroine's morning primping, what she ate and boring tasks for three consecutive days. This, like much of the description, seemed designed to add length without moving the story forward or creating atmosphere.Read more ›
I read the book off and on throughout the day yesterday. It is fairly short (about two thirds the size of the original Harry Potter) and although the story is set in late Victorian England, the prose is modern so it wouldn't be a tough read for any one. Unfortunately, it didn't quite hit the mark for me either as an adult or as something to share with a child. It seemed to be caught between two audiences and couldn't quite satisfy either.
As an adult, the premise was imaginative with an original take on "magic" and it was mildly enjoyable at times. But the characters were one dimensional and attempts to add complexity seemed forced and tacked on. The author went to great length to be descriptive, but rather than finding it evocative, I thought it became rather tedious. I really didn't need to know the details of the heroine's morning primping, what she ate and boring tasks for three consecutive days. This, like much of the description, seemed designed to add length without moving the story forward or creating atmosphere.Read more ›
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful
By
Lisa184
on August 16, 2014
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The more interesting aspects of the books premise were either barely touched upon or never explored (the world she lives in, the governing magic structure, the other forms of magic, how Lira became what she did). It could have been a really interesting book, but it took the figurative idea of being in someone's heart far too literally and the rest of the world was lost in the overly saccharine sap. It started off really promising, but by the end I found I didn't care what happened to them. Lira was more interesting than Ceony, and she was barely touched upon other than the "big bad" out there. It's also hard to swallow that a novice training for a handful of days would defeat this villain who has eluded 3 of the best magicians out there for years, on her own. Easy to follow and concise writing, but I would skip over a sequel. I'm an adult, so perhaps I'm the wrong demographic.
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49 of 63 people found the following review helpful
By
Tinfoot
TOP 500 REVIEWER on August 1, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition
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If you are a fan of Susanna Clarke's epic novel of an early 19th Century alternate magic-filled England, JONATHAN STRANGE & MR. NORRELL, then Charlie N. Holmberg's work set in alternate magic-filled England, 1902, will fit right in.
There is one necessary forewarning, however. For those who well remember Robert Jordan's rather infamous lovingly detailed scenes, from clothing to tea sets, that became prevalent mid-way through the WHEEL OF TIME series, Holmberg does follow suit with extraordinary scene painting, down to what many could well (and possibly justly so) consider as extraneous, gratuitous details. I am one who actually favored Jordan's attention to such minute description and relished it just as much here in THE PAPER MAGICIAN. Additionally, I get the sense that such lush word paintings are an indirect indication of our Heroine's acute observation and perspicacity, a characteristic that is briefly mentioned at the beginning. Just as an example amongst a great many, in chapter 16 we briefly get treated to details such as a bag's seams having three distinctly black stiches and how a cream resembled one that a nurse "always kept on the third shelf of the medicine cabinet between beds one and two."
The majority of the story does in fact seem more about indirect character depiction and scene painting, always zeroed-in on the heroine's surroundings and reactions, than propelling external story action, perhaps relying on the anxiety of the arcing situation to keep interest going. However, Holmberg paints scenes extremely well! (Chapter 12's abattoir is an outstanding example.Read more ›
There is one necessary forewarning, however. For those who well remember Robert Jordan's rather infamous lovingly detailed scenes, from clothing to tea sets, that became prevalent mid-way through the WHEEL OF TIME series, Holmberg does follow suit with extraordinary scene painting, down to what many could well (and possibly justly so) consider as extraneous, gratuitous details. I am one who actually favored Jordan's attention to such minute description and relished it just as much here in THE PAPER MAGICIAN. Additionally, I get the sense that such lush word paintings are an indirect indication of our Heroine's acute observation and perspicacity, a characteristic that is briefly mentioned at the beginning. Just as an example amongst a great many, in chapter 16 we briefly get treated to details such as a bag's seams having three distinctly black stiches and how a cream resembled one that a nurse "always kept on the third shelf of the medicine cabinet between beds one and two."
The majority of the story does in fact seem more about indirect character depiction and scene painting, always zeroed-in on the heroine's surroundings and reactions, than propelling external story action, perhaps relying on the anxiety of the arcing situation to keep interest going. However, Holmberg paints scenes extremely well! (Chapter 12's abattoir is an outstanding example.Read more ›
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