Minor Mage - BoundCovers

Tsundoku reviewed Minor Mage by T. Kingfisher

New to Vernon / Kingfisher, but everything I've read so far is great

5 stars

I know Ursula Vernon has a lot of stories under her belt, but until I read Jackalope Wives (LeVar Burton Reads) I hadn't read anything of hers. Then I read A Wizard's Guide To Defensive Baking which I'm going to go back and rate because I can't get it out of my head.

In that one (and Minor Mage) there's this recurring theme of Children having to do things because adults in their lives failed them. I don't mean in the usual kid lit way. I mean in Minor Mage, the protagonist sets off for a quest he was already going to go on because an angry mob forced him out of town. He's 12. Maybe I just need to read more Middle Grade, but it feels like T. Kingfisher forever amazes me

Kelson Reads reviewed Minor Mage by T. Kingfisher

By turns melancholy and creepy, with a dash of sarcastic armadillo

No rating

Minor Mage is firmly in the "kid goes on scary quest and comes back stronger" genre. The 12-year-old protagonist is cast out to complete a nigh-impossible quest alone (aside from his armadillo familiar), facing ghouls and starvation and bandits and ghosts and murderers. He's a wizard, yes, but he's barely half-trained and only knows a handful of spells (though his herbal lore is pretty strong). Like the young heroes of A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking and Illuminations, he has to learn how to make the most of his limited abilities in order to survive -- only this story takes place not in a city but mostly in wilderness an abandoned farmlands.

From an adult perspective, Oliver's constant lamenting that he's "only a minor mage" starts to grate after a while. But that's not the perspective it's written for: it's a kids' book, and operates on kids' fantasy logic. …

Minor Mage is firmly in the "kid goes on scary quest and comes back stronger" genre. The 12-year-old protagonist is cast out to complete a nigh-impossible quest alone (aside from his armadillo familiar), facing ghouls and starvation and bandits and ghosts and murderers. He's a wizard, yes, but he's barely half-trained and only knows a handful of spells (though his herbal lore is pretty strong). Like the young heroes of A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking and Illuminations, he has to learn how to make the most of his limited abilities in order to survive -- only this story takes place not in a city but mostly in wilderness an abandoned farmlands.

From an adult perspective, Oliver's constant lamenting that he's "only a minor mage" starts to grate after a while. But that's not the perspective it's written for: it's a kids' book, and operates on kids' fantasy logic.

Speaking of the target audience: In the afterward, Kingfisher/Vernon talks about trying to convince editors that yes, this is a children's book, and getting constant pushback that it's "too scary." (This is how she ended up publishing it as Kingfisher rather than Vernon) It reminded me of similar comments Neil Gaiman wrote about Coraline, remarking that it was too scary for adults but not too scary for children.

Sometimes I wonder: Do these editors remember being 12?

(Cross-posted at my website.)

Someology reviewed Minor Mage by T. Kingfisher

Cute read.

3 stars

Cute YA book. Not quite cozy fantasy, because the protagonist goes out into the world, but cozy fantasy adjacent.