Customer Reviews
I’m not one for half stars, but I think I would give this one 3.5 stars. This was a meandering, delightful read that focuses more on the people instead of the storyline. Anatole is quirky, and it is in that vein that he tells us of his life, at some 400 years old. We learn of his friendship with the Princess and the new scribe. I liked how meandering and often amusing their conversations were.This was more historical than fantasy, but I found it an engaging read.
I received a digital advance copy of The Magician of Tiger Castle by Louis Sachar via NetGalley. The Magician of Tiger Castle is scheduled for release on August 5, 2025.Anatole is The Magician of Tiger Castle. He hasn’t been all that successful lately, so when the king instructs him to develop a potion that will ensure his daughter will marry for the sake of an alliance, forsaking the apprentice scribe she has recently fallen in love with. Anatole must choose between betraying his kingdom or the princess he loves like a daughter, or better yet, he must find a way to save them all.This is the first adult novel by Sachar (the author of Holes). The fairy tale vibe is heavy here, both in story elements and the way they are presented. It has the feel of a middle grade novel, despite being clearly written for adults. Overall, the fairy tale feeling worked for me, with the exception of the resolution. While we see where the characters end up, the story itself felt as if it just ended with many threads dangling, before we jumped ahead to see the happily ever after. For Anatole specifically, I felt his storyline remained loose and unended, which may have been intentional, but didn’t land for me.Throughout the story, we have many typical fairy tale friends (kings, princesses, scribes, magicians, etc.), but many of them are shifted in a way that keeps them from feeling like caricatures. Despite living in a fairy tale, they all have a certain amount of depth.Overall, The Magician of Tiger Castle is a cozy adult fairy tale that fans of The Princess Bride would enjoy.
A royal magician in the mid-1500s is tasked with saving his kingdom in a last-ditch effort to also save his career. When the princess and heir to the throne is promised to a prince from a much stronger kingdom, the king orders the magician to brew a potion to make the princess fall in love. The problem? The princess is already in love with a kingdom underling. Newberry Medal-winner Louis Sachar, known for his quirky, delightful books for middle grade and young adult audiences, releases his first novel for adults in the equally quirky and delightful novel The Magician of Tiger Castle.Anatole is the royal magician in the kingdom of Esquaveta, which has been struggling for a while. King Sandro has looked for ways to boost the kingdom’s economy, and Anatole promises to make significant contributions toward that end. His latest venture? Turning black sand into gold. So far, it isn’t going that well.King Sandro decides a political alliance can help with Esquaveta’s financial woes and promises his only daughter, the Princess Tullia, to Prince Dalrymple of Oxatania. Never mind that Dalrymple is two decades older than Tullia; she’s expected to do her royal duty for the betterment of Esquaveta. Tullia, however, is conflicted. She’s fallen in love with the new scribe, Pito, who has absolutely no prospects of making his own economic situation better, never mind an entire kingdom’s.Even though Anatole hasn’t made any serious strides toward the financial health of Esquaveta, he’s the only choice King Sandro has to change Tullia’s mind. King Sandro demands that Anatole create a potion that will force Tullia to fall in love with Dalrymple. Anatole is torn; he’s known Tullia since she was a child and thinks of her as a surrogate daughter. More than that, he’s listened to the way she talks about Pito, and their love is strong and pure. How can he destroy it?Yet Anatole also has his own wellbeing to consider, so he comes up with a compromise that he believes will satisfy everyone involved. He knows he can’t tell anyone the true nature of the compromise, but he thinks it’s the best option given the situation. It requires him to go out on a limb with his magic, but if Tullia and Pito can go out on a limb with their love then he can surely do this for them. What he doesn’t anticipate—at all—are the consequences of his ministrations. His solution takes him, Tullia, and Pito on an adventure unlike any other.Author Louis Sachar brings his trademark wit and whimsy from his middle grade/young adult novels to his first book for adults. Anatole is an incredibly likable protagonist. Readers will be charmed right away by his cluttered workshop, his earnest efforts at saving the princess, and his selflessness while also battling self-doubt. Sachar’s decision to start Anatole’s story in present-day Italy will keep readers turning pages as much as his story in the mid-16th century will.Some readers might feel like the title of the book is more of a tangential connection to the plot itself. The novel does, in fact, include a castle and a tiger; while the castle is described in detail, readers might be forgiven if they forget the tiger from time to time because of more pressing matters on the page. That Sachar is able to make readers forget the tiger altogether is testament to his talent as a storyteller. There are so many other wacky elements in this fairy tale for adults that the tiger adds to the colorful backdrop, always there but not always immediately noticed.The book’s ending might disappoint some readers, which goes right back to Sachar’s ability to craft an engaging tale. It’s a wonderful story that feels like it comes to an end too quickly. The final chapters could have benefited from a little more definition, especially for those readers who want reassurances that what they’d hoped for most had happened. The fuzzy edges might seem somewhat off-putting to some.Nevertheless, readers who enjoy dabbling in fairy tales and fairy tale-like novels will definitely want to check this one out.
