Sorcerer to the Crown

Zen Cho's debut is a Regency fantasy of manners set in an England where magic is a respectable, male-only profession. Zacharias Wythe, raised by the previous Sorcerer Royal and the first Black man to hold the office, takes up the post under a cloud of suspicion and the open contempt of the Royal Society of Unnatural Philosophers. England's magic is running dry, and the Fairy Court that once supplied it is no longer sending any.

While Zacharias searches for a cause, he meets Prunella Gentleman, an orphan of mixed heritage at a school that trains gentlewitches to suppress their gifts. She has an unschooled talent far beyond anything the Society allows women, and no money or family to protect her. Their alliance draws in a formidable Malay witch, a society full of waspish gossips, and a journey to Fairyland.

The book mixes drawing-room comedy and romance with sharp commentary on race, class, gender and empire, and draws on Malay folklore as well as English fairy lore. It starts at a leisurely pace and builds to a fast, action-filled finish. It is the first book of the Sorcerer Royal series, followed by The True Queen.