It's an occupational hazard that I read lots of different things for lots of different reasons. Don't get me wrong, they are almost all very good and I enjoy almost all of them, but there's the underlying awareness that I most likely wouldn't have read the majority of them if not for my job so they always feel just a little bit like work. Then there are books like this one that feel completely and entirely like fun.
Droll and witty in that particularly British way. Nerdily intellectual yet mocking of stuffy intellectualism at the same time; magic, computers, linguistic nimbleness, and bureaucratic exactitude are celebrated and caricatured in equal measure. (Phrases like a testament to the potential of wizidrical civil engineering projects are quite common, for instance.) Pacing is quick, with plenty of escalating tribulation and tension. Just enough mystery, suspense, and revelation. Just enough world building. While the book is not particularly focused on character building, the characters are each appealing in their own way. And it has a very satisfying ending. I may not have the best perspective having read the first in the series, but it seems to be this could easily be read as a standalone, as well.
Smart, silly, and simply entertaining.
A bit of an introduction from narrator and protagonist Jennifer Strange:
While we wait for magic to reestablish itself, it is very much business as usual: hiring out sorcerers to conduct practical magic. Things like plumbing and rewiring, wallpapering and loft conversions. We lift cars for the city's clamping unit, deliver pizza by flying carpet, and predict the weather with twenty-three percent more accuracy than SNODD-TV's favorite weather girl, Daisy Fairchild.
But I don't do any of that. I can't do any of that. I organize those who can. The job I do is Mystical Arts Management. Simply put, I'm an agent. The person who does the deals, takes the bookings, and then gets all the flak when things go wrong--and little of the credit when they go right. The place I do all this is a company called Kazam, the biggest House of Enchantment in the world. To be honest, that's not saying much, as there are only two: Kazam and Industrial Magic, over in Stroud. Between us we have the only eight licensed sorcerers on the planet. And if you think that's a responsible job for a sixteen-year-old, you're right--I'm really only acting manager until the Great Zambini gets back.
If he does.
Except, with The Chronicles of Kazam, it's almost never business as usual. Things quickly get very involved and the stakes crucial. All to the delight of entertained readers.