Magician and Fool by Susan Wands - Book Review

Publication Date: 02nd May 2023

Genre: Historical Fiction (based on real people)

3 Stars 

One Liner: Interesting premise but lacks execution 

*****

Pamela Colman Smith is ten years old when she first sees the image of a man standing atop a cliff with one foot in the air and two paths to choose from. 

Aleister Crowley feels his life change forever when his loving preacher father dies and his mother can’t stand the sight of him. 

The Golden Dawn group is working on various magical experiments to create a powerful tarot deck, no matter how long it takes. 

The Lyceum Theatre is flourishing with Henry Irving, Ellen Terry, Bram Stoker, and William Terriss shouldering the work. 

In a chance incident, a young Pamela goes to the Lyceum Theatre and realizes it’s the place to find magic. Years later, she is back to audition at the same theatre and takes up the job of illustrating the tarot deck for Golden Dawn. However, Aleister Crowley, now a powerful magician, is determined to own more magical power. 

With Irving and Terriss to protect her, Pamela must learn about her hidden powers and a second sight to illustrate the cards and control her gifts. 

The story comes in the third-person POV. 

Don’t read the Goodreads blurb. 

What I Like:

As a tarot learner, I loved the premise based on real people. The Raider White Smith deck was first illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith (a piece of information lost for years before it came to light). 

The climax is wonderful. Magic is unleashed with full force, and seeing Pamela understand her powers to save people she admires and loves. It is the best part of the book. 

Ahmed, the Egyptian scholar, is my favorite character. His resentment towards the English ‘scholars’ who want to benefit from ‘exotic’ magic without acknowledging the cultural heritage comes out clearly. I echo his sentiments. The idea of ‘discovering’ treasures in other lands and claiming them as the world’s property is something the international chor bazaar (I mean the British Museum) excels at. 

Despite the issues I have with the book (listed in the next section), I can’t help but feel happiness bubbling inside me each time little bits of tarot symbolism are mentioned. Newbies are told to focus on the imagery as well as the standard interpretation, and the book highlights why this advice is so important. 

The Fool Card

***

The Magician Card

What Could Have Been Better for Me: 

The blurb doesn’t suit the book. The said events don’t occur until after 70%. The first 55% establishes the backstory. As such, this isn’t a problem because we do need to know the characters. However, the entire thing reads like a badly patched-up assignment. 

The story has three tracks- Pamela’s, The Lyceum Theatre, and Aleister Crowley’s. They merge in the second half. However, the execution is choppy and full of info dump. It reads more like an early draft needing a capable developmental editor. 

Many real-life people are characters in the book. That’s fine too. But they seem to have no personalities and feel like cardboard cutouts. It doesn’t help that none of them, including Pamela and Crowley, are explored in depth. Since the book has a what-if premise, exploring Pamela’s second sight (or synesthesia) and Crowley’s obsession with magic shouldn’t be a problem. 

There are issues with time jumps and connections between scenes. The transition is jumpy, jerky, and hard to follow. It doesn’t help that the characters seem surreal and impossible to connect with. It’s hard to keep track of things (though I can go with the flow, I can’t help but feel confused when it is erratic). 

Despite the scenes with paranormal elements, most of them don’t make an impact except for the climax. This could be because the aspects are not detailed. They are mentioned but not explored in full. A book dealing with magic, the occult (light & dark) should present the supernatural in all its glory. Bring it on! 

To summarize, Magician and Fool has great potential but falls flat almost throughout (until the climax, which is a gem). A solid round of structural editing and polishing should make this a 4-star read. Still, I look forward to book two (I do love tarot). 

You don’t have to be a tarot reader to enjoy the book, but knowing the basic symbols and cards will help visualize them easily. 

Thank you, NetGalley and SparkPress, for the eARC. 

#NetGalley #MagicianandFool

*****

P.S.: I can’t say how true the book is to history. From what I read, some of it is worth contemplating. I haven’t read in detail about all people in the book.