Review of A Far Better Thing by H.G. Parry

As I started reading A Far Better Thing, I feared I might have to DNF it. That would be a shame, as I hate doing so with eARCs from NetGalley. Fortunately, after a few chapters, something shifted. H.G. Parry hooked me, and I was extremely invested in this tale of faerie changelings during the Reign of Terror.

Sydney Carton was switched at birth with a changeling, and now he exists as a mortal servant to the faeries. He was allowed to train as a barrister, but from time to time, the faeries send him on tasks that range from acquiring mortal remains to switching out babies with changelings. He despises his existence and loathes his masters, yet there is no escape. Or is there? When a faerie conspires to have Sydney cross paths with his own changeling, it sets off a chain reaction of events that will have far-reaching consequences for Sydney, his allies, and all of faerie. Oh, and the French Revolution is happening too.

Parry spends very little time establishing or describing the setting. I don’t visualize things when I read, but I do enjoy reading scene description, and if I didn’t know we were in the middle of the eighteenth century, I would be hard pressed to tell from the narration. In the same way, though this book is split across London and Paris (with a little time in faerie), the two cities don’t feel any different.

I also didn’t like Sydney at first—he’s a bit of a sad sack—and so that didn’t dispose me well to the beginning of the book. Now, I know this is based loosely on A Tale of Two Cities (which I haven’t read yet), but that’s only more reason why the pressure is on to reify your setting with as much verve as Dickens.

I was just reading on, hoping it would get good.

It got good.

Specifically, the plot turned into one of political intrigue within the faerie court. Plus, I was worn down by Sydney’s irascible refusal to give up and his irrational conviction that one day perhaps he could win himself free of his faerie servitude.

In the end, I can’t say I adored this book. The plot’s pacing, the dearth of description that I noted above, the way it took me so long to warm up to it … A Far Better Thing is far from one of my favourite reads of the year. But it ended up being a decent enough tale.