Imagine if someone wrote a shorter, lighter, footnote-free version of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, partly from Stephen Black's point of view. Imagine no more, this is that book. Zacharias Wythe is a Black freed slave, brought up in an upper-class white British home to become an excellent magician, and eventually, take the position of Sorcerer Royal. Unfortunately, this history is not so alt that there's no racism, so when Britain starts to 'run out' of magic, this is all too easy to blame on Zacharias. It therefore falls to him to explore and resolve the problem. Along the way he meets up with the utter force of nature that is Prunella Gentleman, a young biracial British-Indian woman, discovering her parentage and developing her own very considerable magical ability. I frankly adore Prunella. She is ferociously pragmatic about her life and options, but fun and fearless with it.

I really liked that it tackled serious issues head-on, without being a very serious read. It's not terribly 'historically accurate' (even leaving aside all the magic that's happening) -- but carries the flavour of the ton and time period beautifully. It works well as a standalone with a satisfying ending; there is another in the series already, but follows other characters, and I probably won't pick it up anytime soon.