Kim doesn't hesitate when a stranger offers her a small fortune to break into the travelling magician's wagon in search of a silver bowl. Kim isn't above a bit of breaking-and-entering. Having grown up a waif in the dirty streets of London-disguised as a boy!-has schooled her in one hard lesson: steal from them before they steal from you.

But there is something odd about this magician. He isn't like the other hucksters and swindlers that Kim is used to. When he catches her in the act, Kim thinks she's done for.

Until he suggests she become his apprentice. Kim wonders how tough it could be faking a bit of hocus pocus.

But Mairelon isn't an act. His magic is real.

MAIRELON THE MAGICIAN Patricia C. Wrede. PW called this tale of an alternate Regency England, where a royal college of wizards flourishes and the government includes a minister of wizardry, "a delightful romp."

Period English fantasy from the author of Snow White and Rose Red (1989), wherein young street waif Kim, a girl disguised as a boy, takes up with traveling magician Mairelon and his lugubrious coachman Hunch after she is paid by a toff to search Mairelon's wagon and is caught in the act. She agrees to travel with Mairelon, help with his staging, learn some real magic, and eventually assist in unravelling the story of the Saltesh Set, a magical array of silverware that Mairelon has been falsely accused of stealing. After a plot of inordinate complications, Kim learns that behind it all was an earl's ambitious wife whose purpose was to win the Post of Minister for Wizardry for her husband. Peopled by an instantly forgettable cast of thousands, and with a backdrop that makes no historical or fantastical impression or even sense: a dreary, juvenile nonentity.

A London street thief's career comes to an abrupt end when an itinerant "magician" uncovers her boyish disguise and leads her with him on a wild chase through the English countryside to recover some powerful items of true magic. The author of Snow White and Rose Red creates a successful blend of Regency romance and historical fantasy in this lighthearted romp that should appeal to fans of both genres.

This historical fantasy borrows many of the conventions of the historical romance to create a frothy tale that should appeal to a broader audience than would a straightforward fantasy, romance, or historical novel. Kim is surviving the streets of some London in never-never land by disguising herself as a boy and working at the least objectionable and illegal tasks offered to her. She knows that her age is bringing her masquerade to an end, so when fortune throws the mysterious, but apparently honorable, Mairelon in her path with the offer of a job and a destination, she takes the opportunity. From this point, the plot plunges headlong into a convoluted story involving magic, disguised noblemen, sacred vessels, and a ``put all the subjects in the same room and we'll solve this mystery'' conclusion. Trying to stay one guess ahead of Kim and one behind the dashing Mairelon will keep the pages turning. Although Kim is a somewhat vague conception, Mairelon qualifies as a fully realized romantic hero. The novel ends with Kim entering wizard training and her realization that now, ``anything might happen. Anything at all.'' Savvy librarians will interpret this as the beginning of a series with crowd-pleasing potential.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　--Cathy Chauvette, Fairfax County Public Library, VA

length: (cm)19.4 　　　 　　　　　 　　 　 width:(cm)13.1