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Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell meets A Tale of Two Cities in H. G. Parry's A Far Better Thing, a heart-rending fantasy of faery revenge set during the French Revolution.
I feared this was the best of times; I hoped it could not get any worse.
The faeries stole Sydney Carton as a child, and made him a mortal servant of the Faery Realm. Now, he has a rare opportunity for revenge against the fae and Charles Darnay, the changeling left in his stead.
It will take magic and cunning―cold iron and Realm silver―to hide his intentions from humans and fae and bring his plans to fruition.
Shuttling between London and Paris during the Reign of Terror, generations of violence-begetting-violence lead him to a heartbreaking choice in the shadow of the guillotine.
"Parry dazzles in this masterful fantasy riff on A Tale of Two Cities...The result is a rip-roaring tale rooted in love, vengeance, and justice. Readers will be wowed." ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"With intricate character work and a seamless blend of history, literature, and imagination, this novel crafts a tale as vivid and textured as the classic that inspired it." ―Library Journal
"A dazzling incarnation of A Tale of Two Cities; a spellbinding tale of vengeance, violence and enduring heartbreak." ―Ariel Kaplan, author of The Pomegranate Gate
"This book had me at 'fairy revenge set against the French Revolution' and it did not disappoint! An elegant blend of magic, history and fairy lore that taps deep into what it means to be human―and the love and loss that entails." ―Kell Woods, author of Upon a Starlit Tide
This information about A Far Better Thing was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
H.G. Parry is the author of several books including The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep, the Shadow Histories duology, and The Magician's Daughter. She holds a PhD in English Literature from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and divides her time between her tiny Wellington flat and a house on the Kapiti Coast where she lives with her sister and a menagerie of small animals.
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