We are absolutely thrilled to announce that we will be hosting a launch event with acclaimed bestselling historical fantasy fiction writer H.G. Parry, who will be in conversation with our very own Fiction Specialist, Neil Johnstone.
Join us at Newtown Library
6pm Friday 10 March
to celebrate the release of her latest novel The Magician’s Daughter, already hailed as a brand-new instant classic by no less than Alix E. Harrow.
Parry’s previous books include The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep, A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians and A Radical Act of Free Magic, all of which have gained her an international and ever-growing fanbase. This is a rare opportunity to hear Parry talk about The Magician’s Daughter and her writing practice and is not to be missed.
The Magician’s Daughter is set in the early 1900s and features a young woman caught between two worlds. It is a spellbinding tale told with a potent mix of magic myth and mystery, described by one reviewer “as the adventure of a lifetime”. It’s original and new, yet nostalgic; vintage, unmissable fantasy in the raw.
Parry holds a PhD in English literature from Victoria University and currently lives in a book-infested flat on the Kāpiti Coast. She lists her hobbies as: books, travelling, history, rabbits, tea, windy days, and Oxford commas.
It promises to be an entertaining, enlightening, enthralling and totally unmissable event, so put it in your calendar and come along!
Browse Parry’s books:
The magician’s daughter / Parry, H. G.
“It is 1912, and for the last seventy years magic has all but disappeared from the world. Yet magic is all Biddy has ever known. Orphaned as a baby, Biddy grew up on Hy-Brasil, a legendary island off the coast of Ireland hidden by magic and glimpsed by rare travelers who return with stories of wild black rabbits and a lone magician in a castle. To Biddy, the island is her home, a place of ancient trees and sea-salt air and mysteries, and the magician, Rowan, is her guardian. She loves both, but as her seventeenth birthday approaches, she is stifled by her solitude and frustrated by Rowan’s refusal to let her leave. One night, Rowan fails to come home from his mysterious travels. To rescue him, Biddy ventures into his nightmares and learns not only where he goes every night, but that Rowan has powerful enemies. Determination to protect her home and her guardian, Biddy’s journey will take her away from the safety of her childhood, to the poorhouses of Whitechapel, a secret castle beneath London streets, the ruins of an ancient civilization, and finally to a desperate chance to restore lost magic. But the closer she comes to answers, the more she comes to question everything she has ever believed about Rowan, her own origins, and the cost of bringing magic back into the world.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
The unlikely escape of Uriah Heep / Parry, H. G.
“For his entire life, Charley Sutherland has concealed a magical ability he can’t quite control: he can bring characters from books into the real world. His older brother, Rob – a young lawyer with a normal house, a normal fiancée, and an utterly normal life – hopes that this strange family secret will disappear with disuse, and he will be discharged from his life’s duty of protecting Charley and the real world from each other. But then, literary characters start causing trouble in their city, making threats about destroying the world… and for once, it isn’t Charley’s doing. There’s someone else who shares his powers. It’s up to Charley and a reluctant Rob to stop them, before these characters tear apart the fabric of reality.” (Adapted from Catalogue)
A declaration of the rights of magicians / Parry, H. G.
“A sweeping tale of revolution and wonder in a world not quite like our own. It is the Age of Enlightenment — of new and magical political movements, from the necromancer Robespierre calling for revolution in France to the weather mage Toussaint L’Ouverture leading the slaves of Haiti in their fight for freedom, to the bold new Prime Minister William Pitt weighing the legalization of magic amongst commoners in Britain and abolition throughout its colonies overseas. But amidst all of the upheaval of the early modern world, there is an unknown force inciting all of human civilization into violent conflict. And it will require the combined efforts of revolutionaries, magicians, and abolitionists to unmask this hidden enemy before the whole world falls to darkness and chaos.” (Adapted from Catalogue). Also available as an Audiobook.
A radical act of free magic : a novel / Parry, H. G.
“The Concord has been broken, and a war of magic engulfs the world. In France, the brilliant young battle-mage Napoleon Bonaparte has summoned a kraken from the depths, and under his command, the Army of the Dead have all but conquered Europe. In Saint Domingue, Fina watches as Toussaint Louverture navigates these opposing forces to liberate the country.But there is another, even darker war being fought beneath the surface: the first vampire war in hundreds of years. The enemy blood magician who orchestrated Robespierre’s downfall to bring about a return to dark magic to claim all of Europe. ” (Adapted from Catalogue)
