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    The Paper Magician
    The Paper Magician
    The Paper Magician
    Audiobook7 hours

    The Paper Magician

    Written by Charlie N. Holmberg

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    “Charlie is a vibrant writer with an excellent voice and great world building. I thoroughly enjoyed the Paper Magician.” —Brandon Sanderson, author of Mistborn and The Way of Kings

    Ceony Twill arrives at the cottage of Magician Emery Thane with a broken heart. Having graduated at the top of her class from the Tagis Praff School for the Magically Inclined, Ceony is assigned an apprenticeship in paper magic despite her dreams of bespelling metal. And once she’s bonded to paper, that will be her only magic…forever.

    Yet the spells Ceony learns under the strange yet kind Thane turn out to be more marvelous than she could have ever imagined—animating paper creatures, bringing stories to life via ghostly images, even reading fortunes. But as she discovers these wonders, Ceony also learns of the extraordinary dangers of forbidden magic.

    An Excisioner—a practitioner of dark, flesh magic—invades the cottage and rips Thane’s heart from his chest. To save her teacher’s life, Ceony must face the evil magician and embark on an unbelievable adventure that will take her into the chambers of Thane’s still-beating heart—and reveal the very soul of the man.

    From the imaginative mind of debut author Charlie N. Holmberg, The Paper Magician is an extraordinary adventure both dark and whimsical that will delight readers of all ages.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateSep 1, 2014
    ISBN9781491519585
    The Paper Magician
    Author

    Charlie N. Holmberg

    Charlie N. Holmberg is the award-winning author of the Numina series, The Fifth Doll, and many other books. Her Wall Street Journal bestselling Paper Magician series has been optioned by the Walt Disney Company. Charlie’s stand-alone novel, Followed by Frost, was nominated for a 2016 RITA Award for Best Young Adult Romance. Born in Salt Lake City, Charlie was raised a Trekkie alongside three sisters who also have boy names. She is a proud BYU alumna, plays the ukulele, owns too many pairs of glasses, and finally adopted a dog. She currently lives with her family in Utah. Visit her at www.charlienholmberg.com.

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    Reviews for The Paper Magician

    3.5/5

    827 ratings66 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      The cover and the concept drew me in, but I stayed for the alive origami. It wasn’t quite as tight and heartstrings-pulling as Ken Liu’s short story “Paper Menagerie” about alive origami. But I’m not sure you should compare Nebula/Hugo winning short stories to vaguely steampunk fantasy novels.

      Precocious student magician protagonist wanted to do magic with metal. It’s useful! It’s cool! She’d get to do dangerous and adventurous things! But she gets drafted into paper magic instead. What kind of fun can you have with paper?? Well, actually a lot, as she soon finds out. Her master built a servant out of folded paper bones. He can fly on a giant paper airplane. And even she, lowly first-day-of-training magician that she is, can make the words of a story literally come alive by reading them. Everything is going better than expected, there might even be some love in the air, when master magician’s ex comes calling and literally steals the heart right out of his chest. Now it’s up to the lowly apprentice to use her pluck and the 6 things she knows how to fold out of paper to rescue his heart.

      This book lived up to all of my expectations. Certainly not high brow, but it was entertaining and interesting and got me to look up how to make an origami pterodactyl. I had started reading a bunch of kinda grim books, and the lightness and adventuring of this was exactly what I wanted.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      If you read, this synopsis, you know, the story is about a 19-year-old apprentice to a paper magician. It is a young adult romance series within fantastical world of Magic.
      I enjoyed the main protagonist voice. The story was interesting and I like that the first book focused mainly on one magic, allowing us to fully understand its potential so that in the next book we can then have a more expanded world. Now keep in mind, this book is for a younger audience, and I am 15 years older than that audience. So I saw through it a little bit and found it predictable? I still enjoyed it though. And would absolutely recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the synopsis because it is exactly that.
    • 5/5
      Goodreads Synopsis: Ceony Twill arrives at the cottage of Magician Emery Thane with a broken heart. Having graduated at the top of her class from the Tagis Praff School for the Magically Inclined, Ceony is assigned an apprenticeship in paper magic despite her dreams of bespelling metal. And once she’s bonded to paper, that will be her only magic…forever.Yet the spells Ceony learns under the strange yet kind Thane turn out to be more marvelous than she could have ever imagined—animating paper creatures, bringing stories to life via ghostly images, even reading fortunes. But as she discovers these wonders, Ceony also learns of the extraordinary dangers of forbidden magic.An Excisioner—a practitioner of dark, flesh magic—invades the cottage and rips Thane’s heart from his chest. To save her teacher’s life, Ceony must face the evil magician and embark on an unbelievable adventure that will take her into the chambers of Thane’s still-beating heart—and reveal the very soul of the man.My Review: I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for a review, and am so glad I requested it now. I wasn't sure if I'd completely love it by reading the description, but was pleasantly surprised. Though I'm not completely sure what time period this book is set in, most likely the early 1900's if I imagined correctly, and I'm not a big fan of magic, but the magic in this book was so intricate and subtle that I couldn't help but love it. I had to read it over after I finished it because I realized that I was so caught up in finishing it, I couldn't remember anything except the beginning and the end. I'm glad I re read it. It's an awesome book, and the story is amazing. Ceony is a good character, and Emery Thane is a good teacher. I really hope what happened at the end really happens, and isn't just a prediction. It's adorable. And she saved his life. What more could he ask for? Definitely check this book out if you get the chance, you won't regret it. Thanks for reading.(Radioactivebookreviews.wordpress.com)
    • 2/5
      Imaginative idea that wasn't as well executed as it could have been.
    • 4/5
      Was goofy, fun and light hearted. The writings enjoyable enough to stick with the two after and passed the time at my crappy job.
    • 5/5
      I love the story but I didn’t like the accent of the lady who was speaking her pronouncing was just odd. But don’t let that effect the story line it was different and entertaining
    • 4/5
      AUTHOR: Holmberg, Charlie N.TITLE: The Paper MagicianDATE READ: 01/28/2016RATING: 4/B GENRE/PUB DATE/PUBLISHER/# OF PGS YA Fantasy / 2014 / 47 North / 214 pgs SERIES/STAND-ALONE: #1 Paper Magician TriologyCHARACTERS Ceony Twill / paper magician apprentice; Emery Thane/ Paper Magician TIME/PLACE: Early 1900's LondonFIRST LINES For the past 5 years, Ceony had wanted to be a Smelter.COMMENTS: Even tho' I am not fond of fantasy there are always exceptions. This one is not quite steampunk (even tho' the cover hints of that genre) but it is not fairy & way-out-there fantasy. This is sent in the early 1900's in London. Ceony (what kind of a name is this & how do I pronounce it?) received a scholarship from an anonymous donor to attend the school for the magically inclined. After the preliminary school you go off to specialize in a specific medium -- Ceony was not given a choice and assigned to paper. Although not her 1st choice she begins to see there is more to paper magic than she had originally thought. When her mentor is in danger she needs to put her skills to the test … A light quick read. Will look for the next one.
    • 3/5
      It was cute and adventurous.
      I thought some things were out of nowhere and some explanations were lacking, but well... Now I gotta read the next one ??‍♀️
    • 2/5
      This just seemed like Alice through the looking glass only she's trapped in a heart?? I dunno, it was just weird and didn't flow. I found myself not caring about the characters. I wanted to roll my eyes so many times at the end. Ridiculous.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed the idea behind this book. It was a little Lockwood & Co combined with magicians and and an evil band if diabolical wizards and witches.
    • 3/5
      I had somehow taken this book off of my to-read list; don’t even know how it happened, but it wandered over onto my ‘not now’ list and languished there. VERY unique world building, definitely liked it, BUT. There was one part of the book that was just needlessly, endlessly long -- I understand the reason for it, it allowed us to get a great view of Thane’s past, but dude, I ended up skimming almost all of it.
    • 1/5
      I don’t know what I hated more, this book or this narrator.
    • 5/5
      I liked the book for similar reasons as I did the first time around when I read it myself, vivid scenery and well developed main character, but I will always enjoy reading the book first because I love the imagery I was able to put into my own head with my own versions of the voices and how places and people looked when I read their descriptions. I would still recommend this book and this version, just the same. 5/5
    • 5/5
      This was a fantastic book. Full if magic, adventure, love and betrayal. I can not wait to listen to the next one.
    • 3/5
      This book felt like an author’s first book. I kept reading because I wanted to know the end but it was easy to put down through most of it. The chambers of the heart concept was imaginative. The action sequences were short. Most of the book was about describing environments. It also felt short. It was just long enough for character development but it felt like as soon as that part was done, it was over. Odd.
    • 5/5
      I love fantasy, and I love novel ideas, and this certainly is novel. Magicians, who have to bond to a man-made material and can only do magic with the material they've bonded to.
      Paper wouldn't have come to mind for me, and so I was amazed at the possibilities this material offers. To be sure, it has its weaknesses...

      I love bubbling Ceony, and Emery, her tutor. She sometimes acts younger than her 19 years, but it is charming, and she is a perfect heroine.

      I knew the narrator from the Annum Guard trilogy, and I think her voice and narration are nearly perfect for the story (a narrator with a British accent would have fitted better, since the story is set in England), but Amy McFadden does a great job.
    • 4/5
      The Paper Magician(The Paper Magician #1)by Charlie N. HolmbergNow that everyone else on Goodreads has read this I am just getting around to it! I found it delightful! It's a strange but fresh fantasy. Each magician has to be bound to only one material. Most don't want paper and this makes a shortage. Our gal of the story is then stuck being bound to paper and having to go to a Paper Magician to apprentice. She finds she likes him and paper after all.Then an evil dark magician comes in and steals the Paper Magician's heart! Our gal then has to save the magician by getting the heart back. How is she going to fight with paper? It's a great story set in an alternate 1900 turn of the century era. Unique plot and memorable characters. Touch of romance near the end.
    • 4/5
      Wherein we meet Ceony, a young Apprentice Magician who is forced into paper magic out of necessity. There are too few Paper Magicians, or Folders, in the country, and from time to time a student has the medium forced upon them to keep it from dying out. Emery Thane is introduced as Ceony's teacher. An odd man, whose talent for folding is astounding. It doesn't take long for Ceony to develop a grudging like for her strange teacher, and the medium of folding. Shenanigans ensue when someone from Thane's past attacks him in his home and it's up to Ceony and per paper puppy companion Fennel to save the day.This book was lovely. The story was original and kept my interested the whole way through. The characters was likable. Fennel was my favorite and must be protected at all costs. I love the fact that though it's the first in a series, this book had a clear ending and was not a cliffhanger. A fun read and the audiobook was wonderful. The narrator did a wonderful job with the voices and her telling of the story keep me attentive.
    • 3/5
      Interesting and creative. Like the unique magic and the problems the main character faces.
    • 2/5
      Interesting concept, promising worldbuilding but...bad execution. The pace is really strange. It's hard to tell if and when time has passed. The descriptions were too detailed for some aspects and scenes, and confusing for others.
    • 5/5
      i was very pleasantly surprised by this book. it was more well written, well crafted, and more delightful than i anticipated. i'm glad i discovered this author.
    • 2/5
      Odd book. Neat ideas, interesting world, but the bulk of the book is set in a sort of backstory/flashback inside a magical construct and the romance at the center troubled me with its weak premise and teacher/student basis. A fairy tale and probably best read by a very young person.
    • 3/5
      [maaaybe 3.5 stars]
      This book had an enticing premise, but didn't quiiiite reach its potential. That being said, I did enjoy it, and most likely will continue with the series eventually.

      One of the things that did not work in favor of this book was the fact that 2/3 of it took place in the chambers of Thane's heart, as referenced in the blurb. I was SO sick of reading descriptions of doors and windows every time Ceony entered a new flashback/vision, and of the repeated references to the heartbeat sound: PUM-pom-poom. I feel that it would have worked much better in a video game setting, as a dungeon or something, rather than over 100 pages of a book that's just over 200 pages total. The concept itself really isn't that bad (think diving into a whale's belly like in Ocarina of time, just with visions; or of Grandia II and adventuring through possessed organs)--it's just not for this medium.

      The romance aspect of the book is indeed very mild. I'm not sure I like how it was done, honestly. We don't spend nearly enough time learning about the magic of this version of the world before diving into Thane's heart, and therefore, we learn much of what we do about him (and magic) via flashbacks and exploration of his greatest hopes. This is where Ceony discovers her own feelings, but I'm not really into the idea of falling for someone in that way. The literal invasion of his heart is one thing, which I can honestly overlook, but that's like falling for someone you've only met through their journal. It's a romantic idea, but...

      Despite that being my main complaint in regards to the romance, I also really liked Emery Thane, so...I guess it comes down to a book version of crushing on an anime/video game/book character, albeit one you've actually known in person for a few weeks. I suppose the biggest problem with it is none of those things, but the fact that it is very one-sided and that everything about Ceony's life revolves around Thane. [And near the end, where she's fretting over her clothes and makeup for days...blehhhh.] He's a much more likable character than she is, and we don't really even see that much of him--apart from what's in his heart, which isn't what I'd use to describe his current self. But I still don't really like how her education, her work, and her love life is all wrapped up around his existence. That could be done in a better way--it just wasn't done the right way here.

      As for the magic, I love the idea of it tying in to only man-made materials. I'm definitely a "natural magic" person, but this sort of human-centric magic is an interesting take. We don't really get a lot of information about how it all works, though--whether it's something anyone can do if they just go to the school and learn about it and then bond with a material; how long this magic has been in use; if the other Magicians like, say, the Smelters, also have to build an object first (like how Folding is an actual, practiced physical skill, with magic added after). Also, I really love paper, stationery, notebooks, etc., so the magic tied into paper was a happy little thing for me.

      So I still have questions, and I hope the world-building gets more attention in the rest of the series.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed the idea behind this book. It was a little Lockwood & Co combined with magicians and and an evil band if diabolical wizards and witches.
    • 4/5
      There were a few things that didn't really fit in with the over all concept. Mostly it was patterns of speech. But I like the characters and the story had me interested for the whole of the book.
    • 3/5
      This book was super intriguing for me immediately. I mean the description it just sounded awesome. I was left having enjoyed it, but not loving it overall. I think that Holmberg did an amazing job crafting the start of a world that I want to live in! Well okay besides the victorian stuff, but seriously the magic system is awesome.

      I was left a bit put off by how quickly she fell in love with Emery, BUT I think it's important to remember that the book is rather short (under 300 pages). So there isn't a lot of room for that to develop.

      I'm pretty excited to read book 2, but this for me gets a middling review of 3. A lot was missing, but I actually appreciated how quick it was to read.
    • 2/5
      BORING. Wish I hadn't bought my copy, and instead found it through a library. C'est la vie, but I definitely won't be bothering with the sequels.
    • 4/5
      The Paper Magician????By Charlie N. Holmberg201447 North/Seattle"Who needs ghosts to haunt a house when you could form his own demons out of paper?"Ceony Twill, graduating at the top of her class from the Tagis Praff School for the Magically Inclined, is assigned apprenticeship in London to learn to be a paper magician, to learn the art of folding paper perfectly and animating them. (Origami comes to life!). She is happy, yet slightly disappointed as her wish was to learn to bespell metal. Her sponsor, magician Emery Thane teaches her to animate paper creatures, to bring stories to life through ghosts and the craft of folding.As Ceony discovers the wonders of her paper magic, she also learns that their is a dangerous and dark side of magic, and is confronted with the Excisioners, who can reanimate the deceased to fight. To save Thane, Ceony must enter the chambers of Thanes heart and conquer each one.This is the first book in this fantasy fiction series. It is well written, with an adventurous and fun concept. I thought it was captivating and unique and am compelled to read the rest of the series.I love this cover!
    • 3/5
      As Ceony Twill graduates from magic school, she hopes she will be apprenticed to a metalsmith. She's wanted to do magic with metal her whole life. Instead, she works under the very odd Emery Thane, a paper magician. What can you even do with paper? But she makes the best of her situation and starts to enjoy Magician Thane's company. Until one day a wild woman breaks into their house and steals Magician Thane's heart right out of his chest. She is Magician Thane's ex-wife, a practitioner of Excision (the dark magic of human flesh), and Ceony has no choice but to follow her and rescue her mentor's heart.The first 90 pages of this book are decent, but after that it devolves into a total mess. Nineteen-year-old Ceony falling in love with her thirty-one-year-old employer, mentor, and housemate is gross, especially when she also cooks and cleans for him, and has known him for less than a month. Ceony is trapped inside Thane's heart for a fully 95 pages of this 214 page book. It feels like an eternity. She brings along with her a (admittedly extremely cute) paper dog, who serves no purpose except for Ceony to repeatedly put him in her bag so he doesn't get wet, and then immediately take him out again. Just leave him in the bag!! She travels through about a dozen of Thane's memories, but she does not seem to actually learn anything and never fully figures out that she cant interact with the memories. Harry Potter and Ebeneezer Scrooge aren't the brightest bulbs in the chandelier but neither of them took more than 2 minutes to figure out they can't interact with memories/visions. Ceony makes quite a lot of assumptions that make no sense, like when she sees a book inscribed to "The Thanes", instead of thinking that Thane might have been previously married, she assumes he has an illegitimate child and someone is letting him know that they know about it by inscribing this book. What a stretch! It's the first one, for the record.Even outside of Ceony's confounding behavior, the writing is not great. The villain has no motivation or depth, she is flat and uncompelling. If a system of magic is based on human flesh, couldn't it sometimes be used to heal people? That would be much more interesting than one-dimensional evil. The real breaking point for me came with this paragraph, 3/4 through the book:"What about the time I was supposed to pick up my baby sister from school because my mom was having surgery on her foot?" she asked. "It was the middle of January, but I didn't go because I had a diorama I was supposed to present in English the next day and I wanted to get it done. It took me three hours, Emery! Three hours my sister stood in the cold, waiting for me. She got pneumonia and almost died because my homework was more important than her!"It is established several times that this book takes place in 1901, and that Ceony's family was poor. Things that did not exist in 1901: poor people picking their children up from school. Non-emergency foot surgery. Foot surgery that only takes one day for recovery. Dioramas (in this usage of the word). Homework. I verified all of that in about 20 minutes of Googling. Did the author do any research at all?Sorry for the rant. It's an extremely disappointing end to a promising beginning, and I won't be reading more unless I get very good reassurance that it gets better.
    • 4/5
      I loved the world that was introduced - a world where paper folding can give rise to living, moving creatures. I also found the idea of traveling through a heart a fascinating idea - i loved all the implications of that journey.I can't wait to see what new wonders of this world await in the next book in the series.