A Wizard’s Guide
5
By FanoftheKings
Marvelous fun. A lovely escape from the world here.
Carnivorous sourdough for the win!
5
By medicmsh
This is my personal favorite of many excellent books by author “T. Kingfisher”, the pen name of Ursula Vernon. In the author’s own afterwords, it is “a weird little anti-establishment book with carnivorous sourdough and armies of dead horses.” This is entirely accurate, and should be fully sufficient to motivate readership on its own merits.
In addition, this is also-sort-of-allegedly a “young adult” fantasy novel, because the protagonist is a 14-year-old baker who uses excellent baking technique and just a bit of magic. She makes gingerbread men who dance, carefully tends the aforementioned carnivorous sourdough starter, and winds up defending her city against nefarious plots, a psychopathic wizard, and an army of cannibal mercenaries. Again, all of this should be fully sufficient, et cetera.
However, the reason this is my favorite of all the Kingfisher books is because it *isn’t* like other young adult fantasy novels in one key respect. The narrator is fully aware that there are other people in her world who are far better equipped to deal with the challenges she and her young, outnumbered, doughy, or unbalanced friends wind up facing. “It shouldn’t be up to a couple of kids and a madwoman on a bone horse to fix the mess,” as Mona laments. She’s right. And when the alternative is watching her world go up in flames, she still does the best she can, despite being completely outmaneuvered by some truly despicable and well-written villains.
For me, this book provides the kind of encouragement and inspiration that I very much appreciate when I am facing another day of attempting impossible things despite being woefully under-qualified and under-equipped for the task ahead. “A Wizard’s Guide” doesn’t pretend that this sort of thing is normal, fair, or in any way likely to succeed. But, much like that pesky thing called Real Life, the narrative does promise unexpected assistance, alliances, and delightfully bizarre reasons to laugh out loud even while the world is falling down around you. In Mona’s words, “you haven’t lived until you’ve seen a cookie look smug.” Reading about a smug-looking cookie is probably the next best thing. In conclusion, if you want to be encouraged to live fearlessly (or if you love a “young adult” aged eleven to one-hundred-and-eleven who might appreciate that encouragement), read and share this book!
A joy to read
5
By Yo ABarbara
Incredibly entertaining!!
A great deal of fun and yet very thoughtful
5
By Desired username
Pitch perfect, with humor and heart. What does it mean to be a hero?
A a positive novel and has an uplifting ending
5
By Prairie_Dog
“A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking” is another heartwarming fantasy novel by T. Kingfisher, which is the pseudonym Ursula Vernon uses for her works for adults. It takes place in a medieval alternate world that features limited forms of magic. Our protagonist is a fourteen year old girl known as Mona. Mona works at her Aunt’s bakery, and this is where she has discovered her limited magical abilities that deal with doughs and breads. She can use magic to make them cook better, or even to make gingerbread cookies dance. She’s happy with her life, and all is well, until she finds a dead girl on the floor of the bakery early one morning.
This event brings her into the spotlight, and makes her a target for those who are trying to eliminate all those who have magical abilities. Mona’s life is now in danger, and soon her whole city is as well. Will we be able to help protect everything that she’s always held dear?
This could be considered a young adult novel, but it clearly can be enjoyed by adults as well. It won a number of awards in 2020-2021, and I think it was deserving of these accolades. It’s a positive novel and has an uplifting ending.
Baking is often magic
4
By Marina Ariadne
Yeast is a living thing, and dough is magic—ask anyone who’s learnt to bake bread.
I love Bob. I love the gingerbread man who becomes more than just a trick.
I love Mona for who she is and who she becomes—and who she does not.
More from this world, please! Too much whimsey to enjoy here to spend it all on one novel.
You should read this
4
By Athaleas
Death by sourdough starter! Misbehaving gingerbread men! Murder and sass! What more could you need.
Delightful
5
By HRJones
I think the only word for this book is “delightful.” In a standard-issue medievaloid fantasy setting, a teenage apprentice baker and wizard finds herself thrust into the unexpected role of saving the city-state from plots and foreign invasion. With the help of an animated gingerbread man and a magical familiar in the form of a sourdough culture named Bob. I mean, what more do you need to know? The protagonist is believably complex and flawed and the baking-based magic (indeed, the general premise of how magic works in the world) is well-realized and woven into the plot and its resolution. I may be biased in my love of this book because the quarantine initiated me into the Sourdough Tribe. But then again, I think it’s just that good.
War and wizards and tragedy and triumph
5
By Alice Bentley
A well rounded feast of an adventure, with characters you feel you know, and action that’s a crafted pulse of stress and stillness.
Really good.
5
By Archangel Beth
Yeah, maybe some pieces are dark, but heroes don't come out of frivolous peril.
It does start with a dead body. If you are old enough to handle the dead body, you're probably okay with the rest. (There are a few sewers as well, and they're appropriately gross for sewers. So, uh, be warned.)
Also, there is enough baking that I'm hungry now & eying the box-mix of cookies speculatively.
