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The Books of Conjury #1
The Magic of Unkindness
An unstoppable heroine takes on the infernal in a sweeping new fantasy trilogy set in a magic-riddled 18th Century Boston.
The demons want sixteen-year-old Kate Finch’s soul. The governor wants her hanged.
And she’s only been in the colony for a day.
Outrunning the murderous spirits leads her into the heart of Salem, where she uncovers the secret experiments of August Swaine, the greatest sorcerer of the age. Her talents at surviving mayhem make her the perfect apprentice for Swaine. But when the terrors that destroyed the witches explode out into the countryside, word of Finch’s peculiar nature spreads to all the wrong ears.
As dangers close in, Finch discovers the only hope to stop the unimaginable threat facing the colony…
But will anyone believe her?
The demons want sixteen-year-old Kate Finch’s soul. The governor wants her hanged.
And she’s only been in the colony for a day.
Outrunning the murderous spirits leads her into the heart of Salem, where she uncovers the secret experiments of August Swaine, the greatest sorcerer of the age. Her talents at surviving mayhem make her the perfect apprentice for Swaine. But when the terrors that destroyed the witches explode out into the countryside, word of Finch’s peculiar nature spreads to all the wrong ears.
As dangers close in, Finch discovers the only hope to stop the unimaginable threat facing the colony…
But will anyone believe her?
406 pages, Paperback
Published December 19, 2018
380 people are currently reading
636 people want to read
About the author
Kevan Dale
14 books35 followersKevan Dale grew up in a Massachusetts home full of books, next to a winding patch of woods full of stories (in his already vivid imagination). Books and stories eventually pointed him to a degree in English. That degree in English inspired him to pursue a career as a professional guitar maker (long story.) A decade of luthiery led to a second career, this time in video games (another long story) where he remains. It all made sense at the time, honestly.
Throughout all, books and stories. History, fantasy, horror. All of them tug at his imagination, and he happily follows.
Kevan is once again in Massachusetts, glad to live in his own home full of books, next to a winding patch of woods full of stories.
Join Kevan's private newsletter: www.kevandale.com
Throughout all, books and stories. History, fantasy, horror. All of them tug at his imagination, and he happily follows.
Kevan is once again in Massachusetts, glad to live in his own home full of books, next to a winding patch of woods full of stories.
Join Kevan's private newsletter: www.kevandale.com
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
November 23, 2019
I bought this book not expecting too much. I hadn't read anything by this author and the market is almost saturated with books involving magic in one form or another. I was therefore very pleasantly surprised when I started to read. One of the main criticisms of this story is the writing style. Long, drawn out and descriptive sentences that may well deter some readers. To me, this is one of the biggest attractions. The story is set during the 18th century, and the writer has done an excellent job of incorporating a style similar to that period, adding authenticity to the historical setting by not mixing modern styles with old word usage. The story develops gradually, introducing a strong female character (Finch) and detailing her dark history. During the course of the novel, we find out about her encounters with several benefactors and her training both domestically and, later on, in the arts of Magick. There are some great depictions of otherworldly manifestations and the descriptions of energy flow and manipulation are easy to relate to, showing that the author has put in the time to make this gel properly. August Swaine is a fascinating companion who has his own Demons to contend with (pun intended), and bounces off of Finch perfectly as a tutor / master. As the relationship between them grows and the story progresses, you are drawn in deeper and deeper into their world and its many layers and, as the story reaches the end, eagerly awaiting the next instalment in this series.
This will appeal to fans of supernatural / historical horror / old school horror fiction (Ann Radcliffe / J.S. Lefanu) etc, and may also appeal to fans of Urban Fantasy.
This will appeal to fans of supernatural / historical horror / old school horror fiction (Ann Radcliffe / J.S. Lefanu) etc, and may also appeal to fans of Urban Fantasy.
July 26, 2019
2.5 stars
I forced myself to finish the book just so that I could write a more negative review to counteract all of the gushing praise. I'm not sure what book those people read, but I can't believe that it was "The Magic of Unkindness."
To be honest, it's not a BAD book. It's much better than others in its genre, but that isn't saying much. Its main fault lies in its excessive verbosity. Its second fault lies in the fact that what little plot there isn't doesn't kick in until halfway through its excessively verbose length. The entire first half of the novel consists of our heroine Finch and her sorcerer master August Swaine performing magical experiment after magical experiment, apparently just so that the author can expound (at great length) about his magic system. The truly awful fact is that after all of the verbiage spilled we're still left with no better understanding of said magic system (It involves planes. And multiverses. And demons that are shadowy and insubstantial and never seems to present a genuine threat to the main characters.
And of course witchcraft, which is somehow different from "regular" magic, but the for once author just handwaves how it works.) nor of the characters. And the plot hasn't progressed an inch.
Once you reach the mid-point and the story starts to advance, the characters also begin to take on more life. By that time, though, I'd been bludgeoned into insensitivity by hundreds of pages of prose like,
"...the key, I think, is sympathetic entrainment, a concept found in harmonic resonance work"
and really didn't care anymore what happened to them. Other reviews have described the story in detail so I won't bother. Hijinks in faux-18th century New England. Powdered wigs, witch hunters, insurrection, knee breeches, etc. It's the setting that lured me to read "Magic of Unkindness" in the first place, but I won't be continuing on with the series unless August Swaine can summon up an editor.
I forced myself to finish the book just so that I could write a more negative review to counteract all of the gushing praise. I'm not sure what book those people read, but I can't believe that it was "The Magic of Unkindness."
To be honest, it's not a BAD book. It's much better than others in its genre, but that isn't saying much. Its main fault lies in its excessive verbosity. Its second fault lies in the fact that what little plot there isn't doesn't kick in until halfway through its excessively verbose length. The entire first half of the novel consists of our heroine Finch and her sorcerer master August Swaine performing magical experiment after magical experiment, apparently just so that the author can expound (at great length) about his magic system. The truly awful fact is that after all of the verbiage spilled we're still left with no better understanding of said magic system (It involves planes. And multiverses. And demons that are shadowy and insubstantial and never seems to present a genuine threat to the main characters.
And of course witchcraft, which is somehow different from "regular" magic, but the for once author just handwaves how it works.) nor of the characters. And the plot hasn't progressed an inch.
Once you reach the mid-point and the story starts to advance, the characters also begin to take on more life. By that time, though, I'd been bludgeoned into insensitivity by hundreds of pages of prose like,
"...the key, I think, is sympathetic entrainment, a concept found in harmonic resonance work"
and really didn't care anymore what happened to them. Other reviews have described the story in detail so I won't bother. Hijinks in faux-18th century New England. Powdered wigs, witch hunters, insurrection, knee breeches, etc. It's the setting that lured me to read "Magic of Unkindness" in the first place, but I won't be continuing on with the series unless August Swaine can summon up an editor.
May 30, 2019
Wondrous Start to a Unique Series
Too many books can be summarized with the basic premise of a solitary sorcerer finds a talented orphan with untrained, yet powerful / rare magical potential and therefore trains the orphan, who must avenge the death of his/her parents, or just fulfill the obsession of the sorcerer once the orphan is trained to be a virtual ninja sorcerer / assassin.
Luckily, this is not any of those trite books! This is far a better tale, where much more thought has been spent on the different philosophies of magic, and the plot in general. It is head and shoulders better than much of what is offered in the genre. For the low price I purchased this ebook for, it is one of the best deals out there. I enjoyed Finch and Swaine's adventures on par with Brett's "Warded Man", Wolfe's "Book of the New Sun", Bodard's "Shattered Wings" and anything by Max Gladstone.
Bottom Line: Just buy this book. After racing thru in a day or so, you'll buy a few more. Enjoy!
Too many books can be summarized with the basic premise of a solitary sorcerer finds a talented orphan with untrained, yet powerful / rare magical potential and therefore trains the orphan, who must avenge the death of his/her parents, or just fulfill the obsession of the sorcerer once the orphan is trained to be a virtual ninja sorcerer / assassin.
Luckily, this is not any of those trite books! This is far a better tale, where much more thought has been spent on the different philosophies of magic, and the plot in general. It is head and shoulders better than much of what is offered in the genre. For the low price I purchased this ebook for, it is one of the best deals out there. I enjoyed Finch and Swaine's adventures on par with Brett's "Warded Man", Wolfe's "Book of the New Sun", Bodard's "Shattered Wings" and anything by Max Gladstone.
Bottom Line: Just buy this book. After racing thru in a day or so, you'll buy a few more. Enjoy!
August 16, 2021
I'm torn about how to properly rate this book. Very well written in all aspects. Well drawn characters, excellent descriptions of the settings and situations, and great dialogue. But it was very weird, and I spent the entire time I was reading trying to decide if I was enjoying it or not. In the end I think it deserves 3.5 stars and have rounded up to 4. I really don't feel the need to read another in the series. If I had to work so hard to enjoy the first one, why should I bother with the rest?
dnf
August 5, 2019DNF 15%-- the idea seemed interesting, liked the setting, but once the dude came on scene, the rambling scattered info dump was absolutely boring.
May 29, 2021
Great magic
Interesting world, creative characters, and fantastic magic system! This book is one of the most original I have read in some time. The world described is intriguing and frightening, and the magic quite unique. Definitely worth reading.
Interesting world, creative characters, and fantastic magic system! This book is one of the most original I have read in some time. The world described is intriguing and frightening, and the magic quite unique. Definitely worth reading.
December 12, 2021
DNF - Bored to tears at 16%.
December 2, 2021
It's written beautifully and I like many of the characters but something with its plot building is wrong. Many things are happening but the culmination is somehow... Wrong. It's hard to get why some things are there but because I read the 4th book at first I kinda understand that a part of it is a preparation for the future.
Still, some places are too slow and too long. Many words are for a sake of them and not the plot.
Still, some places are too slow and too long. Many words are for a sake of them and not the plot.
September 14, 2020
This is a decent start with intriguing magical systems. I hope that our heroine starts to see her own power and gains self-confidence. This book was choke full of her reacting to situations and I hope in the future books that she is more proactive about creating her own story line.
June 18, 2019
I bought this book on a whim and on sale. And I'm glad I did! The care put into both historical and magical details brought the setting to life, and the author has a great sense of comedic timing with every witty remark or quick banter between Finch and Swaine. Can't wait to read the next books in the series!
March 10, 2019
For me a great heroine/hero seals the deal and I LOVED Finch! She tells the story and doesn’t go easy on herself. She makes mistakes, doubts herself and admits to each folly. At the same time she also becomes a bad-ass spell-caster, learns sorcery, outsmarts demons and elbows her way (kind of accidently) into the high society of 1700s Boston. But the best part is her apprenticeship to the sorcerer Swaine. The two of them are a perfect, awkward fit for each other and I loved how the connection evolves into a real friendship that’s closer to family. Swaine is amazing in his own right, intense and funny, and I really enjoyed every scene he’s in.
What I also loved:
The setting is perfect. Standing on the piers of Boston, racing through the streets in a carriage, the creepy ruins of Salem. Workshops, ballrooms and taverns. It all feels alive and convincingly colonial American.
All the sorcery/witchcraft/magic. Sorcery is all about controlling demons. Witchcraft is thought to have vanished (it hasn’t). Magic was once studied like science but is now illegal. It all has a history that’s detailed and believable and the descriptions of it working are brilliant.
The other characters (especially the Whitelocke siblings and Doctor Rush). They’re all complicated and have depth and Finch’s reactions and observations to/of them keep the story moving in surprising ways.
The Demonmere. No spoilers—but I would never (but always) want to go there.
Finch, by the end of the book, has her hands very full. Very promising start to this series!
What I also loved:
The setting is perfect. Standing on the piers of Boston, racing through the streets in a carriage, the creepy ruins of Salem. Workshops, ballrooms and taverns. It all feels alive and convincingly colonial American.
All the sorcery/witchcraft/magic. Sorcery is all about controlling demons. Witchcraft is thought to have vanished (it hasn’t). Magic was once studied like science but is now illegal. It all has a history that’s detailed and believable and the descriptions of it working are brilliant.
The other characters (especially the Whitelocke siblings and Doctor Rush). They’re all complicated and have depth and Finch’s reactions and observations to/of them keep the story moving in surprising ways.
The Demonmere. No spoilers—but I would never (but always) want to go there.
Finch, by the end of the book, has her hands very full. Very promising start to this series!
June 29, 2019
This book follows Kate Finch, a young English girl who believes she is stalked by evil things that kill everyone close to her. When we meet her, she's fleeing England to start a new life in America, but it seems that evil is reluctant to let her go.
Finch survives a murder attempt to begin a life she could never have dreamed of. Her new master is a practitioner of supernatural arts and Finch learns why evil entities have been drawn to her, brutally killing those closest to her. It's a life where dealing with corpses and revenants becomes a regular occurrence.
It wasn't clear to me at first that this is an alternative universe, not history as we know it. I knew it was a fantasy novel, dealing with the supernatural, but not that it was set in a world slightly different from the world we know. In this book, Salem is a centre of supernatural - often demonic - activity and has been abandoned by the local population.
Mr Dale has created vivid characters, particularly in Finch and her master Augustus Swaine. The book gets bogged down in parts by descriptions of what earlier practitioners of magic or supernatural arts wrote about their craft. I could have happily done without a lot of that, but it picks up when Finch is drawn reluctantly into aiding a group of rebels just when she is searching for her missing master.
Overall, it's an interesting story and I will read the next instalment.
Finch survives a murder attempt to begin a life she could never have dreamed of. Her new master is a practitioner of supernatural arts and Finch learns why evil entities have been drawn to her, brutally killing those closest to her. It's a life where dealing with corpses and revenants becomes a regular occurrence.
It wasn't clear to me at first that this is an alternative universe, not history as we know it. I knew it was a fantasy novel, dealing with the supernatural, but not that it was set in a world slightly different from the world we know. In this book, Salem is a centre of supernatural - often demonic - activity and has been abandoned by the local population.
Mr Dale has created vivid characters, particularly in Finch and her master Augustus Swaine. The book gets bogged down in parts by descriptions of what earlier practitioners of magic or supernatural arts wrote about their craft. I could have happily done without a lot of that, but it picks up when Finch is drawn reluctantly into aiding a group of rebels just when she is searching for her missing master.
Overall, it's an interesting story and I will read the next instalment.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 28, 2019
I wanted to like this, I expected to like this. It has most everything I'm normally into: witches, magic, demons, a spunky brave female protagonist, battles to fight. Somehow, though for reasons I can't put my finger on, this just did not draw me in, and I had to accept at about 50% this was going to be a DNF.
First, one of the things that got me to buy this audio book was that it was set in Boston. I thought it would be a different feel with the American setting. But other than occasional mentions of the Witch burnings, there was really nothing about or feel of, being in Boston. This could have been set anywhere and that was a small disappointment for me.
Our main character Finch, is brave, but she flip-flops more than I'd have liked into being a weak apprentice being bossed around by her "master". I get that was how it had to be to some extent since he was teaching her all the things she didn't know about the demons, but she could have been a *little* feistier for my tastes.
Overall, this was not at all a bad book. For whatever reasons, it just didn't connect for me. It could be a great read for others.
First, one of the things that got me to buy this audio book was that it was set in Boston. I thought it would be a different feel with the American setting. But other than occasional mentions of the Witch burnings, there was really nothing about or feel of, being in Boston. This could have been set anywhere and that was a small disappointment for me.
Our main character Finch, is brave, but she flip-flops more than I'd have liked into being a weak apprentice being bossed around by her "master". I get that was how it had to be to some extent since he was teaching her all the things she didn't know about the demons, but she could have been a *little* feistier for my tastes.
Overall, this was not at all a bad book. For whatever reasons, it just didn't connect for me. It could be a great read for others.
June 17, 2020
I purchased this audio book on sale in Chirp. Unfortunately, I could not finish it. I found it horribly boring and dull. The main characters failed to draw me in at all and I found TV to be of better entertainment. Not the slightest bit of humor or intrigue and the horror had me falling a sleep. I really attempted to finish it, but after almost 5 hours, I determined I really did not care where the story was going. The narration is not bad, but the story is lacking.
December 13, 2021
I just couldn't finish it! It was very well written, the scenery the author paints is beautiful, but it didn't click. I was about 70 pages in, had read several other books while I re-read those first 70 pages about 3 times, and decided to put it to rest. There were a lot of very interesting concepts here and might try it again if I can find a decent audio book of it, maybe listening to it will be a bit easier as it is just a very, very, very slow burn.
July 31, 2021
An interesting read
As this is the first book in the series, the author took a fair amount of time setting up the characters and the environment. I’m sure the secrets he had Finch keep seemed appropriate for the story but for me they didn’t make sense. I hope the next book makes Finch stronger with fewer unnecessary secrets.
As this is the first book in the series, the author took a fair amount of time setting up the characters and the environment. I’m sure the secrets he had Finch keep seemed appropriate for the story but for me they didn’t make sense. I hope the next book makes Finch stronger with fewer unnecessary secrets.
September 27, 2021
Good, but difficult
Although this was an interesting story, reading it is a bit difficult because of all the magical terms, and it seemed ten words were used to describe something , when 5 would have sufficed. I enjoyed the basics the book was written on , but felt it more a job than a joy to read
Although this was an interesting story, reading it is a bit difficult because of all the magical terms, and it seemed ten words were used to describe something , when 5 would have sufficed. I enjoyed the basics the book was written on , but felt it more a job than a joy to read
November 18, 2020
I listened to the audiobook and had a hard time engaging with the story potentially due to the narrator for this one. I might go back and give the story a visual read at a later date when I have more time, but the audiobook was not it for me.
June 11, 2021
Excellent writing g style.
Absolutely sucks you right in. A young girl ends up in a sorcerers abode by chance and becomes an apprentice, surprisingly. They learn to work together with each their own foibles and much adventure ensues!
Absolutely sucks you right in. A young girl ends up in a sorcerers abode by chance and becomes an apprentice, surprisingly. They learn to work together with each their own foibles and much adventure ensues!
April 8, 2022
Beautifully written. The characters and storyline are great, as you follow Kate Finch discovering a new and powerful side of herself when faced with ghouls and demons. Equally engaging is a setting that really makes you feel every bit like you are experiencing 18th century Massachusetts.
August 4, 2019
A wonderous atmospheric book. I loved it. It delighted me, scared me, and made me check the locks on the doors before bed.
did-not-finish
April 7, 2020The audiobook was not holding my attention. Giving up on it.
June 14, 2020
Unkindness thwarted
An excellent tale of magic, history and engaging characters, with many twists and turns, never anticipated. Quite believable with all its permutations!
An excellent tale of magic, history and engaging characters, with many twists and turns, never anticipated. Quite believable with all its permutations!
June 19, 2020
Fun!
Dale mixes new ideas with ancient secrets in a delightful way. Wonderful characters and settings, intriguing story lines and plot twists.
Dale mixes new ideas with ancient secrets in a delightful way. Wonderful characters and settings, intriguing story lines and plot twists.
October 8, 2020
YA focused but a nice enough way to travel. Voice talent was good and made the central characters easily distinguishable and likeable.
July 20, 2021
A well written tale.
Enjoyable story, good characters. I am egar to read more by this author. Set a god foundation for more books.
Enjoyable story, good characters. I am egar to read more by this author. Set a god foundation for more books.
August 14, 2021
an unusual premise and well thought out. I loved the main character and found the others to be quirky and yet dangerous. I would read more from this author.
September 8, 2021
Takes a long while get going, nearly gave up
June 2, 2022
In the tradition of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, with slightly more demons and fewer fairies.
September 20, 2022
Dnf: couldn’t get into it at even 15%- too bored to even speed read. Swaine was too verbose, too absent-minded professor. And, to tell the truth, I can’t stand zombie stories! Soooo, big no for me!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews