We’re thrilled to share the cover of Freya Marske’s historical fantasy A Marvellous Light—arriving November 2nd from Tordotcom Publishing!
Robin Blyth has more than enough bother in his life. He’s struggling to be a good older brother, a responsible employer, and the harried baronet of a seat gutted by his late parents’ excesses. When an administrative mistake sees him named the civil service liaison to a hidden magical society, he discovers what’s been operating beneath the unextraordinary reality he’s always known.
Now Robin must contend with the beauty and danger of magic, an excruciating deadly curse, and the alarming visions of the future that come with it—not to mention Edwin Courcey, his cold and prickly counterpart in the magical bureaucracy, who clearly wishes Robin were anyone and anywhere else.
Robin’s predecessor has disappeared, and the mystery of what happened to him reveals unsettling truths about the very oldest stories they’ve been told about the land they live on and what binds it. Thrown together and facing unexpected dangers, Robin and Edwin discover a plot that threatens every magician in the British Isles—and a secret that more than one person has already died to keep.
Buy the Book
A Marvellous Light
Author Freya Marske had this to say:
The first time I saw the cover that Will Staehle has produced, I sat bolt upright and emitted the oh that usually signals a character realising they’re in love. I adore how it combines the Arts & Crafts motifs of the book with a bold, sexy colour scheme that says: this is historical fantasy, yes, but hold onto your hats. It’s the perfect first impression for Robin and Edwin to make, and I hope it makes readers as impatient to meet them as I am to set them loose in the world.
Applicable AO3 (Archive Of Our Own) tags:
- overthinking under-powered spiteful librarian/genial jock with surprising layers
- UST (unresolved sexual tension)
- VRST (very resolved sexual tension)
- fantasy of very bad manners
- hurt/comfort
- Houses That Love You
- bound by blood
- bound by sexy magical restraints
- gratuitous library porn
- homicidal hedge maze
- sleeves rolled up forearms
- Messing About In Boats
Freya Marske is one of the co-hosts of Be the Serpent, a Hugo-nominated podcast about SF, fandom and literary tropes, and her work has sold to Analog and been shortlisted for Best Fantasy Short Story in the Aurealis Awards. She lives in Australia.
