Who Are The Main Characters In Sorcery And Small Magics?

Question

Loved the dynamics in that witchy academy novel, but the cast list seems massive. Which duo or trio really carries the central plotline?

Marbella Rendón · Answer

This story follows Elara, a scribe with secret magic, and Kaelen, the crown prince of the kingdom who is trying to hide that he has been cursed. Together they are forced into a pact as they try to survive a very political conspiracy. I would recommend ‘Bound by Crystals and Shadows’ as it is another series that follows a similar central duo but in a completely different story. ‘Bound by Crystals and Shadows’ follows a gem mage and a shadow assassin that are bound by a life-link. The two are forced to work together and along the way they have to hide from the guilds that want them dead.

Isla · Answer

'Sorcery and Small Magics' is a very cozy yet very chaotic ensemble. The main heart of the story is Elara, a witch who makes her potions in cracked teacups and argues frequently with her sentient herb garden. Then there’s Rook, big and muscular with a sad backstory, but who often provides the comedic relief with his grumpy one liners. And then there’s Lysander who is just a bit of a wildcard. He bursts into song at times and delivers cryptic prophecies. As for the ‘villain’, Veyra, she isn’t just evil. In fact she is terrified of chaos, and it is this that is driving her actions. A great read for fans of ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ and ‘Locke & Lamora’.

Lydia · Answer

At the heart of ‘Sorcery and Small Magics’ are a cast of wonderfully realized characters. At the center is young Elara, the prickly, fiery and totally endearing hedge witch. She is aided by the brooding, rather disgruntled Rook (a former enforcer for the magical ruling elite). This gruff and rather disenchanted character is repeatedly dragged out of his trench by Elara, who brings out his more sweet nature. He bickers constantly with the lad, but you get the feeling that he doesn’t really dislike the young man. The third main character is Lysander – a swishy bard with a dry sense of humor and unexpected skill with the ancient art of Runes.

Magistrate Veyra is an excellent antagonist because she is only concerned with maintaining order and sees magic as a threat to that. I love that the story “subverts” our expectations regarding the term “small magics”. Here Elara is using her herbal remedies in addition to Rook’s street tactics to fight against the Magistrate’s heavy-handed attempts to suppress magic. He is a very one-dimensional character and easily outwitted by the pair and the rest of the main characters. On a secondary note, I must say that I found all of the secondary characters to be very unique and enjoyable. Granny Hesta, the chain-smoking seer, is one of the funniest characters in the story. The main characters are also a very found family type of group and it is easy to recognize and remember the many unique characteristics of each of them.

Leanne Robertson · Answer

The GraphicAudio version, with a full cast and sound design, changed my perception of some of the major characters. The performances were really good, and Finn’s humor landed better than it did in audio. Elara’s haughty pride actually sounded like nervousness most of the time, which was really interesting. And characters like Barlow and Morwen, who didn’t really have a lot of scenes of their own, sounded like major characters with their own voices. The soundscape made markets and scenes in council chambers feel equally weighty, and it was a really ensemble-driven experience. I would argue that GraphicAudio version presents the story as having an ensemble of main characters, with Elara and Finn as the primary points of view, but not the sole focus of the story. This is really interesting to me in terms of how adaptation medium can shift the focus of a narrative.

Veinnah Amoris · Answer

At its core, this is a story about three main characters: Elara, Finn, and the city of Havenfall. The book is fantastic at treating the city as a main character, with its own personality and ways of behaving. The high, elegant spires of the Sorcerers’ Conclave where Elara studies to become a sorceress are very different from the twisted, charm-laden alleys of the Warrens where Finn operates as a verifier and, sometimes, thief. The two areas where the story takes place and the different characters that live there strongly influence who Elara and Finn are. They are a pair of young people who are trying to find out who they are as they grow up. The plot revolves around the magical illness that is afflicting the city, and how these two point-of-view characters must travel through the various districts of Havenfall (the alchemical quarter, the ghost market, the sunken docks, etc.) in search of a cure. Thus, Elara and Finn are the main characters, but a full answer to this question must include mention of Havenfall. Their journey is a tour of the city’s soul.

shawntresha scott · Answer

So this book was from last year and I sort of remember it. I think the two main characters are Elara and Finn. So Elara is all formal magic, trained up in the proper way with the formal magic training and all that. And then there's Finn who is all street-smart and intuative, with his own brand of small magic that he uses for lock-picking and for making little tricks with his illusions. The book follows the two of them as they try to solve problems in the real world and Elara has to use her formal magic in new and innovative ways. There's also a grumpy old alchemist in the book called Barlow and then there’s this mysterious figure from Elara’s past that is sort of the bad guy for her.

I really enjoyed how the ‘small magics’ were portrayed in this book – they weren’t made out to be weaker than the formal, learned magic that Elara is so familiar with. Rather, they were shown to be different, and often more effective in a variety of situations. The partnership between Elara and Finn developed throughout the book to the point where they became lovably awkward. Their slow development from uneasy allies to trusted friends was great, and their tentative will-they-won’t-they relationship was also well done. It didn’t overwhelm the story at all, and served to bring out their character growth. (As an aside, this isn’t a deep lore-type book – the focus is mainly on Elara and Finn’s development, with a relatively small magical system that isn’t overly complex.)

Katie Wright · Answer

From a world-building standpoint, your main characters function primarily as vehicles for exposition. Because the scholar of the group is a main character, we get to learn about how sorcery works from her studies and from her internal monologues. And because the street kid is a main character, we get to learn about the underbelly of the city, about how the city’s economy functions, and about how people of all sorts of backgrounds use (or avoid) magic in their daily lives through his experiences. All of the world-building information is revealed to us through the experiences of the main characters as they try to accomplish their goals – thus we never get an info-dump. We find out how to disable a magical ward through Elara’s actions. We find out how the black market for enchanted goods functions through Finn’s actions to negotiate with black market vendors who deal in such goods. The main characters are our guides into this world and they function that way organically in the story beyond the development of their individual storylines.

Jennifer Crookston · Answer

I have to correct a common misperception here: the “real” heart of this book is Kaelen, the disillusioned former guard captain. He is not a POV character for the bulk of the book, but his actions drive the central conflict of the story. His protection of the magical artifact against his order leads to Elara and Finn being forced to team up. But then we follow the broken oath of Kaelen, once a stiff, serious character, as he slowly comes around to becoming an unlikely mentor to Finn. The rest of the story follows Elara and Finn as the two engines of the story, but Kaelen is the anchor to the story, and his sacrifice in the third act of the book affected me far more than either of the protagonists’. It is through Kaelen’s arc that this book transforms from a pleasant, fun magic romp into a real, solid exploration of duty and its appropriate sacrifices.

Who Are The Main Characters In Sorcery And Small Magics?

8 Answers

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