I just finished A Princess of Roumania an enjoyable fantasy read that gets far away from the usual elves and dwarves. England destroyed by tidal wave, a great powers struggle between Romania, Germany, and Turkey, unreliable magic, and Victorian technology and rich with plausible heroes and villains. In addition to this detailed and inventive staging, it sprised me by being much more literary than these books typically are, feeling more like a contemporary adult fiction than a fantasy novel. Although quite different in tone and a bit less entertaining than Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, something about A Princess of Roumania strongly reminded me of that book.
I am grateful to Henry of Crooked Timber for turning me on to the White Tiger series of which A Princess of Romania is the first book. The remainder of the series is The Tourmaline, The White Tyger, and The Hidden World.
