(Every magician has Views about how magic works, or should work, particularly in fiction, and every one of us is right. I was pleased to find that the author’s take did not clash wildly with mine. My first concern, walking into The Peculiarities, was to see how ceremonial magic was portrayed. His loves and loyalties will suffer change. Thomas’s heritage will be revealed, along with its dreadful purpose. He is being herded toward more than marriage: Somehow he finds himself enrolling in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and finds the work absorbing, his progress hampered by staider members and accelerated in secret by the irrepressible Crowley, who acts as Puck and goad when Thomas’s Victorian lethargy of character threatens to immobilize him.Įvil forces are at work. He is increasingly afflicted with symptoms of the epidemic of magical transformations that London is looking hard away from. His brother oppresses him intensely, not omitting to force him toward an arranged marriage with a wealthy and homely Jewess. Thomas Thresher, a formerly well-heeled idler now enslaved in his family’s bank, has a lot of problems. Desperate for counsel, he seeks the advice of a lycanthropic medium and London's unacceptable occult society, including a strange fellow named Aleister Crowley.The Peculiarities by David Liss is a strong steampunk story about Victorian magicians, featuring Aleister Crowley and other lights of the era. If Thomas is going to save the family business-and stop turning into a tree-he'll need help from some rather improper companions. Proper society scoffs at the notion of magic, even as it seeps into their buildings, transfiguring the rich and poor alike.
Perhaps it is all the fault of the long-rumored "Peculiarities" lurking in London's grey fog? Far worse, leaves are sprouting on Thomas's skin.
His childhood friend has died under mysterious circumstances.
His elder brother may be sabotaging the family's bank. Thomas's problems are more serious than those of a typical young Victorian gentleman. "Intricate plotting, exquisite pacing, crackling suspense, and fascinating historical rabbit hole revelations." Rooted in strange conspiracies and secret societies, this absurdist comedic romp combines strange bedfellows with murderous creatures, resulting in an unexpectedly delightful consequences. From popular historical fiction author David Liss (A Conspiracy of Paper) comes the tale of a clueless young man embroiled in a deadly supernatural mystery in Victorian London.
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