City of Broken Magic is a solid, not stellar, debut

City of Broken Magic is a fine debut for Mirah Bolender, and although there are a few places for improvement, it’s worth a spot on a to-be-read list.

This reviewer will readily admit that it took her quite some time to get into City of Broken Magic, out this week from Tor Books, but once things really start picking up, it was well-worth her time. This might sound like damning with faint praise, and it is, to an extent, because there’s a lot of good here, but there are places where it could have been better.

That being said, Laura Kramer has plenty to recommend her as a protagonist, including perhaps one of the best-written cases of self-doubt or lack of confidence in recent memory. It’s one of those character traits that can easily tip the scales from adding complexity to just flat-out overtaking the book, but Bolender’s take on it has just the right amount of insidiousness. It doesn’t show up all the time; it doesn’t need to. Laura has more than enough to handle otherwise as one of just a few Sweepers in the city of Amicae, where she has to work with Clae Sinclair in order to get rid of magic gone bad in amulets.

Part of the reason that it might take a reader some time to go along with the book is that it takes quite a while to actually explain how most of the system works. Although Laura is still an apprentice Sweeper, she still has a lot to learn, and Bolender sneaks in another apprentice to neatly weave the exposition in when it does come around. However, the jargon comes fast and furious to start, and it actually doesn’t do much for the otherwise well-written action.

However, although Laura is the protagonist, and the narration is mostly limited to her, there are moments when other perspectives slip in and out. It doesn’t happen too terribly often, but because it’s otherwise remarkably consistent, it’s quite noticeable when it does happen.

Additionally, the book does take quite a bit of time to build up how Amicae as a city functions (and does so before the Sweeper work gets further elaborated on). It’s worth it, especially to contrast to the other cities, and once Laura gets the opportunity to learn more about the world as a whole, there’s plenty to get readers interested in a sequel or an ongoing series. Additionally, the relationships built up help pull readers in.

This is why this reviewer is happy to call it solid, despite the vague issues with what exposition is given when. Did I pick up on the idea that this is supposed to be about a “bomb squad that defuses magical weapons,” as described on the above-linked product page? Absolutely not, but that didn’t ruin the enjoyment. Fans of Jim Butcher might like this one in particular, for instance.

City of Broken Magic is on sale now.