tamaranth | 2022/099: Notorious Sorcerer

2022/099: Notorious Sorcerer — Davinia Evans

"Alchemy's just a word. Just a box so they can say inside yes and outside no. You know what people called the Art, before they started dressing up fancy with their longvests and glassware?" Her smile curved wicked and clean as a blade. "Magic." [loc. 879]

Siyon Velo comes from the wrong side of town, Dockside, but he's built a successful business retrieving alchemical supplies from the other planes -- the Empyreal, the Abyssal, and the Aethereal -- and selling them to various alchemical practitioners. His clients are mostly azatani, or aristocrats: Siyon is well aware that they have privilege he can't even imagine. But when he commits an impossible act in a crowded square, he finds himself attracting the attention of several well-connected individuals. And maybe, just maybe, he can pull off another impossible feat...

Not only does Notorious Sorcerer contain an abundance of elements -- opera, alchemy, queer romance, card games, mannerpunk, swordfighting, fabulous clothes, women chafing at social mores -- that are highly relevant to my interests, but also I've known the author (mostly online) for lo these many years. Nevertheless, I was fully prepared to nitpick like mad: but I didn't need to, because this is a brilliant, engaging, emotional whirlwind of a novel, which made me laugh out loud and also reduced me to tears.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance review copy, in exchange for the full honest review which'll be appearing nearer UK publication date (13 September 2022).