Autor: Susanna ClarkeData: 2004
Língua: Inglês (recomendado)
Amazon: 4
Ficção, Histórico, Fantasia
Imaginem que alguém conseguia juntar os mais obscuros de Magia! Não apenas o Livro de S.Cipriano, mas os mais raros que só são encontrados nas bibliotecas das velhas mansões europeias, e usar isso para se tornar no único, verdadeiro mágico do mundo. Até que aparece uma segunda personagem que tem uma propensão natural para ser mágico e se torna no seu discípulo. Rapidamente o discípulo ultrapassa o mestre e acabam por se envolver mais na Magia do que estavam à espera.
Passado numa Inglaterra (e não só) que tenta libertar-se da ameaça Napoleónica, esta história retrata fielmente a paisagem europeia dessa época e assume um novo recontar da história das invasões francesas com um elemento novo: a Magia.
"They had been recommended to a hotel in Shoemaker-street which belonged to a Mr Prideaux, a Cornishman. Mr Prideaux's guests were almost all British officers who had just returned to Portugal from England or who were waiting for ships to take them on leave of absence. It was Mr Prideaux intention that during their stay at his hotel should feel as much at home as possible. In this he was only partly successful. Do whatsoever he might, Mr Prideaux found that Portugal continually intruded itself upon the notice of his guests. The wallpaper and furnishings of the hotel might all have been brought originally from London, but a Portuguese sun had shone on them for five years and faded them in a peculiarly Portuguese manner. Mr Prideaux might instruct the cook to prepare an English bill of fare but the cook was Portuguese and there was always more pepper and oil in the dishes than the guests expected. Even the guests' boots had a faintly Portuguese air after the Portuguese bootboy had blacked them."
