{"id":30918,"date":"2016-08-10T23:01:13","date_gmt":"2016-08-11T03:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=30918"},"modified":"2016-08-10T23:01:13","modified_gmt":"2016-08-11T03:01:13","slug":"review-of-glamour-in-glass-by-mary-robinette-kowal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=30918","title":{"rendered":"Review of Glamour in Glass, by Mary Robinette Kowal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"glamour_in_glass_large\"<\/a>Glamour in Glass<\/em><\/p>\n

by Mary Robinette Kowal<\/p>\n

TOR, Tom Doherty Associates, 2012. 334 pages.
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

A big thank-you to my sister Melanie for giving me this book, which I finally got around to reading.<\/p>\n

I have trouble getting around to reading books I own \u2013 they don\u2019t have a due date. I read the first book, Shades of Milk and Honey<\/a><\/em>, on a plane trip, and enjoyed it, but wasn\u2019t terribly impressed. I didn\u2019t like the jealousy between the sisters and the tribute to Pride and Prejudice<\/a><\/em> made it quite predictable.<\/p>\n

So when I finally read this second book on a plane trip, I thought only to pass the time \u2013 and then I loved it! <\/p>\n

Jane and her husband Vincent are newly married. They are now working together as Glamourists \u2013 people who use magic to create illusions. As the book opens, they have just finished working months on a commission for the Prince Regent.<\/p>\n

From there, they decide to go to Belgium as a sort of honeymoon, celebrating the end of the war. Vincent is going to consult with a glamourist there who is developing a new technique that allows one to walk around a glamour and see different things from different sides. There Jane gets an idea of a way to record a glamour in glass so that you can carry it along with you. As they experiment together, they manage to record an invisibility glamour.<\/p>\n

However, before long Jane\u2019s activities as a glamourist are put to a halt when she becomes pregnant. The work of creating glamours is too taxing for pregnant women, and she has to sit on the sidelines for a time.<\/p>\n

But then word comes that Napoleon has escaped his island exile and is coming back to France, via Belgium. Vincent is more embroiled in events than Jane had realized. Between spies on both sides and the military advantages of the invisibility glamour, Vincent gets into trouble, and it\u2019s up to Jane \u2013 who can\u2019t perform glamours \u2013 to find a way to get him out.<\/p>\n

I thought this book was delightful. Jane\u2019s younger sister wasn\u2019t in it, so there was none of the jealousy or sibling rivalry I didn\u2019t like in the first book. I liked the easy affection between the couple, with natural worries and stumbles as they figure out how to work together and merge their lives together.<\/p>\n

This time, I didn\u2019t expect the magic to be earth-shaking \u2013 it\u2019s only about glamour, after all \u2013 but I think I enjoyed all the more the way it turned out to have military applications. Even before that bit, I liked the way creating glamours was presented as a skill that requires practice and study and invention \u2013 and the way Jane and Vincent both brought their talents to this work together. It was a lovely picture of a marriage \u2013 yet in a world quite different from our own. The plot wasn\u2019t at all predictable, and I enjoyed the suspenseful elements and political intrigue \u2013 all with our heroine mixed up in the middle of it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to have to catch up on this series!<\/p>\n

maryrobinettekowal.com<\/a>
\ntor-forge.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Fiction\/glamour_in_glass.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Source: This review is based on my own copy, a gift from my sister Melanie.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

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