One of New Zealand author Margaret Mahy's most recent of offerings, The Magician of Hoad is a little different from her works I have previously have read; while The Changeover and The Tricksters are very much urban fantasy/paranormal novels, The Magician of Hoad is very much a more traditional fantasy piece. It features kings, princes and nobles ladies, street rats and travelling people, and heroes and magicians.But is the fact that The Magician of Hoad is quite different from Mahy's previous stuff I adored, a sign that it does not stand up to the quality and wonder of her older books? While some might be put off in a change in genre (to one that they themselves do not enjoy as much), The Magician Of Hoad is still very much a wonderful addition to Mahy's body of work. It still has her same wonderful voice and way with words that her other novels have. The Magician Of Hoad may be a little different, but it is still very good and very enjoyable, with many similarities to help counter the differences; overall it is nice to see successful exploration/change such as this, be it for author or reader.
The Magician of Hoad is a novel full of surprises. It seemed to take great delight in pulling the rug out from underneath me as the story progressed - in a good way though, as even though I found myself saying "Whoa!" in the latter half of the novel, the surprises/revelations were pleasant, impressive and made for a story far more complex than I initially expected The Magician Of Hoad to be. I had actually originally thought The Magician of Hoad to be a story for slightly young adult readers on the younger end of the spectrum but then I saw the actual size of the book - over 400 pages of Mahy goodness - and was hit with a decided number of older subjects, especially once the characters became much older than they were when I first 'met' them in the early pages.
The Magician Of Hoad is a patient, intelligent fantasy, focusing on the clashing of personalities and politics, rather than the use of physical weapons that one might typically see in a sword-and-sorcery style fantasy. If you are a fan of Margaret Mahy, or any of the above, then I recommend you give The Magician Of Hoad a try.
