Witchmark

The first book in the Kingston Cycle series, Witchmark is set in a magic-powered Edwardian era just after the end of a World War. I loved the balance of soaring magic and gritty realism as well as the unexpected revelations surrounding each of the characters.

Miles — a witch who is desperate to keep from being used as a power source by mages — has faked his death and lives in hiding as a military doctor. However, when Tristan Hunter brings a dying man to Miles’ hospital, Miles’ secrets are threatened. But Tristan isn’t interested in blackmailing or exposing him.… show more.

Now for the fiction! C. L. Polk’s Witchmark trilogy is one of the few books I’ve encountered that shows a realistic nonviolent political movement in a fantasy setting. I also like this trilogy because it shows the choices people in power have in response to social movements as well as the role ordinary citizens play in supporting or impeding change.

Witchmark is a gorgeous example of what some call “gaslamp fantasy”—where sorcerers and the supernatural exist in fantastical but post-industrial worlds. Following the journey of witch-turned-veterans’-doctor Miles, Witchmark is set in Kingston, a city that relies on an element known as aether to power its lights, trains, and telephones. The question of aether’s source is key to the conflict that Miles and his allies must untangle, so I won’t give it away, but the mystery surrounding it expertly utilizes the fantastical and themes of magic to raise questions in the reader about the cost of modern comforts and which members… show more.