One of the nice things about hanging out with genre professionals is hearing what gets them excited. While I was at the Nebula weekend here in Chicago in June, there was a lot of excited chatter about an upcoming book from debut novelist Zen Cho, a Malaysian writer who’s published short fiction in anthologies like Bloody Fabulous, End of the Road, and The Mammoth Book of SF Stories by Women.

Now I finally have my hands on an advance copy of Sorcerer to the Crown, and I can see what all the fuss was about. It captivated me with the very first chapter.  I predict this novel will launch Ms. Cho on a stellar fantasy career.

The Royal Society of Unnatural Philosophers, one of the most respected organizations throughout all of England, has long been tasked with maintaining magic within His Majesty’s lands. But lately, the once proper institute has fallen into disgrace, naming an altogether unsuitable gentleman — a freed slave who doesn’t even have a familiar — as their Sorcerer Royal, and allowing England’s once profuse stores of magic to slowly bleed dry. At least they haven’t stooped so low as to allow women to practice what is obviously a man’s profession…

At his wit’s end, Zacharias Wythe, Sorcerer Royal of the Unnatural Philosophers and eminently proficient magician, ventures to the border of Fairyland to discover why England’s magical stocks are drying up. But when his adventure brings him in contact with a most unusual comrade, a woman with immense power and an unfathomable gift, he sets on a path which will alter the nature of sorcery in all of Britain — and the world at large…

Sorcerer to the Crown will be published by Ace on September 1, 2015. It is 384 pages, priced at $26.95 in hardcover and $10.99 for the digital edition.