City of Dark Magic
Ratings14
Average rating3.3
Cosmically fast-paced, wildly imaginative, and with City of Lost Dreams—the bewitching sequel—on shelves now, City of Dark Magic is the perfect potion of magic and suspense Once a city of enormous wealth and culture, Prague was home to emperors, alchemists, astronomers, and, as it’s whispered, hell portals. When music student Sarah Weston lands a summer job at Prague Castle cataloging Beethoven’s manuscripts, she has no idea how dangerous her life is about to become. Prague is a threshold, Sarah is warned, and it is steeped in blood. Soon after Sarah arrives, strange things begin to happen. She learns that her mentor, who was working at the castle, may not have committed suicide after all. Could his cryptic notes be warnings? As Sarah parses his clues about Beethoven’s “Immortal Beloved,” she manages to get arrested, to have tantric sex in a public fountain, and to discover a time-warping drug. She also catches the attention of a four-hundred-year-old dwarf, the handsome Prince Max, and a powerful U.S. senator with secrets she will do anything to hide. And the story continues in City of Lost Dreams, the mesmerizing sequel, which finds Sarah in the heart of Vienna, embroiled in a new web of mystical secrets and treacherous lies.
Series
Series
2 primary booksCity of Dark Magic
City of Dark Magic is a 2-book series with 2 primary works first released in 2012 with contributions by Magnus Flyte.
Reviews
Popular Reviews
Reviews with the most likes.
Very random read but I loved it. The history and the complexity of the story line just kept me going and going and going.
Doctoral candidate Sara Westen gets a summer job (that she didn't apply for) in Prague to help a royal Czech family in the creation of a museum displaying the greatness of that family over the centuries, as they've recently been reunited with their treasures after the pillaging of the Nazis and Communists. Once there, she stumbles into international (as well as inter-chronological) intrigue, the mysterious apparent suicide of her mentor, and paranormal events of some order. Oh, and there's sex, too. Can't forget that, it's part of the sales pitch.
I don't know. I just don't know.
On the one hand, this is well-written, clever, surprising, all the twists and turns you could ask for (and then some), a novel approach to time travel and supernatural-ish storytelling. The hero, Sarah Weston is great – the kind of strong women character you can relate to. The writing is brisk, and often amusing. The conclusion is wild, heart-warming, and not what anyone would expect.
But it left me cold and apathetic. I had to force myself to push beyond page 100, and the only urgency I felt towards the finish was so I could move on to something else (although it was pleasant enough while reading, there was just nothing that kept me going). As amusing as I found some of the characters – the blind girl/musical savant, the impossible and very talented dwarf, a very American Czech prince, the gun-loving Asian from Texas, – I didn't care about any of them. I wouldn't have been surprised if the villain of the piece had twirled her moustache at some point. (yes, her moustache...I'd believe she'd have grown one just to twirl at appropriate moments).
And don't get me wrong, I'm neither a prude nor the son of a prude, but the sex was a too graphic. It felt very incongruous to the rest of the book – especially the first “encounter” Weston had in Prague, which appears to be only semi-consensual for all involved. That really put me off, and I'm surprised two women writers would've included that and put it in even a slightly positive light.
Enjoyed this book and the take on history, mystery and a little magic except.... the ridiculously detailed and erotic sex scenes in an otherwise tame book. I don't mind a sex scene or two but they seemed to come out of nowhere and were, up to and even slightly over the line of, vulgar for no real reason. But if you can overlook those few pages, its an enjoyable tale of mystery and magic.
