[Book Review] - The Last Magician - Lisa Maxwell

In The Last Magician, ancient magic is almost extinct and few are those who still have an affinity with it. These are called Mageus and survive by hiding who they are. But in addition to living in the shadows, they are prisoners in Manhattan. Any Mageus that enters the city becomes a victim of the Order, the organization that created Brink.

Brink is a kind of border that only allows Mageus to enter the city, but those who dare to try to leave will have their magic drained, something that eventually ends up leading the Mageus to death.

Esta is an apprentice to Professor Lachlan, an old Mage who adopted her, created and trained her to be a thief of magical artifacts. The goal was for her to become a perfect thief and for her magical affinity to only improve her skills.

Now, Esta has received its final mission! She must go back in time and steal the Book, a magical artifact that has disappeared and is believed to contain the Order's secrets and a likely way to destroy Brink. The only clue she has is that the Book may have been taken by a Mage.

Thus, Esta travels to the year 1902 in order to fulfill her mission, but for that, she needs to infiltrate the Dolph Saunders gang and go unnoticed before the Order.

The Last Magician is a book that piques your curiosity right from the start, as several characters are presented in scenes from different years and you want to understand how everything connects.

Lisa also writes in a way that we have very characteristic personalities and that made me care about everyone. Despite the strangeness at the beginning with names so peculiar and of different nationalities, you gradually connect with the characters without any doubts about who they are. Another point that impressed me is that writing is touching in sensitive moments, as it makes you care about the death of characters you met briefly.

Esta's first contact with one of the characters gave me the illusion that the book would lose focus and embark on a novel, but it doesn't. This may be possible in the future, but it will be gradual without the famous and disgusting "love at first sight".

Unfortunately, the author also sins! With a book divided into four parts, she creates a roller coaster of rhythm. The first part is thought-provoking, the environment extremely slow, and the end frantic.

Parts two and three are very extensive and at times have unnecessary situations making reading tiring. I believe that if the book was reorganized it would lose at least 100 pages because in some moments I had the feeling that the author did not know where to take the story.

In its final part, Lisa Maxwell seems to have been desperate to finish the book, raising the pace of events. The problems of the characters intensify, secrets are discovered, everything runs towards the solution, and on the hook for the next book in a few pages.

Several elements made me like the book: the system of spells, gangs, and time travel. However, due to the negative points presented, it can be noted that it is not without flaws. I am curious about the next volume, but I confess that I am afraid that it has this inconstancy of rhythm becoming extensive and tiring as the first volume.