C. M. Waggoner

"An enchanting debut historical fantasy starring a young woman with an incredible natural talent for sorcery. Onna Gebowa is determined to become a great wizard. She can write the parameters of a spell faster than any of the young men in her village school. But despite her incredible abilities, she's denied a place at the nation's premier arcane academy. Undaunted, she sails to the bustling city-state of Hexos, hoping to find a place at a university where they don't think there's anything untoward about providing a woman with a magical education... Tsira is a troll who never quite fit into her clan, despite being the leader's daughter. She decides to strike out on her own and look for work in a human city, but on her way she stumbles upon a body of a half-dead human soldier in the snow. As she slowly nurses him back to health, an unlikely bond forms between them, one that is soon tested when an unknown mage makes an attempt on Tsira's life. Far away in Hexos, the newly arrived Onna is also drawn into a mysterious, magical attack on a troll. Trolls have lived alongside--and been revered by--humans for generations, but now it appears they're being targeted by a sinister sorcery. And Onna and Tsira both begin to devote their considerable abilities into figuring out how to stop the deaths before their homeland is torn apart.."--

Unnatural Magic

Miranda Mendoza

It took a little while to become equally invested in both Onna and Tsira, but once I was invested, I was INVESTED. I very much enjoyed this one and thought the way magic was used in this world was very interesting! I’d read a sequel!

A “brilliant and terrifically fun”* debut novel brings an enchanting new voice to fantasy. Onna can write the parameters of a spell faster than any of the young men in her village school. But despite her incredible abilities, she’s denied a place at the nation’s premier arcane academy. Undaunted, she sails to the bustling city-state of Hexos, hoping to find a place at a university where they don’t think there’s anything untoward about providing a woman with a magical education. But as soon as Onna arrives, she’s drawn into the mysterious murder of four trolls. Tsira is a troll who never quite fit into her clan, despite being the leader’s daughter. She decides to strike out on her own and look for work in a human city, but on her way she stumbles upon the body of a half-dead human soldier in the snow. As she slowly nurses him back to health, an unlikely bond forms between them, one that is tested when an unknown mage makes an attempt on Tsira’s life. Soon, unbeknownst to each other, Onna and Tsira both begin devoting their considerable talents to finding out who is targeting trolls, before their homeland is torn apart… *Kat Howard, Alex Award-winning author of An Unkindness of Magicians

Jennifer

A compelling and promising debut with an interesting blend of complex themes, diverse cast of characters, and a lot of unusual (and unnatural) magic. I was initially drawn to the book because of the very interesting premise and also the way the novel is structured - each section represents an organ which has both a scientific and a psychological definition which I found fascinating.

I guess I'm the kind of person who's into really big & complex themes like this and I love the use of figurative language and a well written prose. I certainly found the concept & the mention of the central themes - love and goodness, pretty interesting. I also love the diversity: Tsira's understanding of her sexuality + identity and also Onna's backstory quite a pleasure to read. I found them pretty likeable to read about (shoutout to Onna giving me Hermione Granger vibes and how she worked her way up to recognisation - this is precisely a situation that I'm currently going through). I also like the blend of magic and science in the novel too. I fthink the blend between the mystery and big themes worked here. 

Despite the good stuff I've mentioned, there are a few things which didn't tip me to a 4 star read here. I felt like that while the character backstories were well fleshed out at the start the two POV's felt very disconnected and it felt disconcerting when there's an alternating POV shift (not to say - at first the themes explored in Onna's and Tsira's POV's felt mutually exclusive at first and it took me a long while before how they all came together). So it would have been nicer if the action between the two POV's started earlier, rather than in the final 100 pages of the novel.

Moreover, while I do appreciate the LGBT+ representation (for example I found Tsira's awareness of her sexuality quite interesting to read) I don't think the romance worked for me. I think some of the romance scenes could be cut because I felt pretty disengaged in the romance stuff - which is a pity because Tsira's backstory is fascinating and somehow I wasn't able to fully engage in her narrative. On the other hand, I have an easier time connecting to Onna's headspace but plotwise, I felt like some of the plots from her POV could had been fleshed out more to merit a more even pacing. 

Last but not least, while I've read good books with long chapters I felt that it didn't really work here because of the slow pacing until the 2 characters' lives collided together. This could be livened up if the chapters are cut slightly shorter in favour of more action.

This an interesting debut & C.M. Waggoner def. put in a lot of effort in the concept (which has a lot of potentials) and the characters. I just feel like there could be less padding in the romance and more action which could had tied the two contrasting narratives together more nicely. Nevertheless, because of the interesting premise I would certainly look forward to the author's upcoming work - hopefully the pacing would be improved in the 2021 release.



(3.5 stars out of 5)

Heather Harrington

**I received a copy of this via the publisher in exchange for an honest review**

Full review here

This one is a little interesting for me because even though I enjoyed it, I found it a little hard to get through. It wasn't so much the characters or plot, but more the the pacing. There were a lot of dense parts, especially in the beginning due to all the world building, so it is slow going for a while. Despite that, I did end up liking the different cultures and places Waggoner created, and I also enjoyed the way her magic system works more mathematically than you usually see in fantasy. Telling the story through both Onna and Tsira worked well, but personally, I liked Tsira's perspective a little more because she came across way more dynamic, and I enjoyed her relationship with Jeckran. I do wish their paths would've come together a bit quicker because I think they worked well together. Overall, slowness aside, this was a fresh, imaginative and interesting debut, but I was just hoping for a smidge more.

Southern Today Gone Tomorrow

Unnatural Magic by C. M. Waggoner … okay. Let me stop there. I didn’t finish this book.

I got through the first…. 4 chapters or so (I don’t have it currently to verify), and could not get into this novel. The writing was fine, the characters should have been interesting, having a half-troll woman in a society where the female trolls rule, and having a human wizard girl who is really great at that.


 
But, I could not get into the world. The world just…. wasn’t really there for me. This is a novel that is fully immersed and based on the world premise. The world building. But it feels like the author is trying to build on something that feels like … 1800s England? Something like that?

If that was the case, it really wasn’t the best way to build this world. It is so alien from how we live, and different from anything I have read recently.


 
And, it didn’t work for me. Maybe someone else can make it through, but there was just nothing that caught and held my attention.

But, like, the cover is really cool.

Unnatural Magic

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