I am drawn to fantasy, magic, and tales within Ireland so when I was given the opportunity to read the book Flint and Mirror by John Crowley, I was ecstatic. I found that instead of a log of magic, this book mostly dealt with history, which I love historical novels so that still made this interesting to me. I would have liked to know more about the main character and what made them tick, as I felt that was a bit of an oversight by the author. I would possibly like to re-read this title at a later date to see how I feel about it at that point.

John Crowley is one of the most underrated speculative fiction writers. This latest novel mines the veins opened in his brilliant Aegypt quartet. It’s a beautifully written, slow book which pays careful attention to historical detail and excellent prose. Like many of Crowley’s work, it’s a novel of subtle magic and realistic human emotions, both hilarious and heartbreaking.

I recommend this to any fans of fantasy or lovers of historical fiction (Hilary Mantel springs to mind). If you enjoy luxuriating in a slowly unwinding story and beautiful prose, this is the book for you.

I tried really hard not to DNF this novel, and pushed through past where my spidey senses were starting to tell me that this probably wasn't a book for me. In theory, it should have been: I was obsessed with Tudor England as a kid, and I've always retained a soft spot for that era of history, which is the focus point of Flint and Mirror. But, alas.

Crowley offers a faithful retelling of the conflict between England, Ireland and Spain in the 1500s, with a few magical elements added in (the titular flint and mirror, as well as the occasional sighting of the Irish sidhe). But for all a book set in a tumultuous period of history should have been exciting - especially with the addition of magic - there's a rather academic feel to the text that makes it rather dull. Characters recite names of other characters, recount battles secondhand, and occasionally ride or sail from one place to another. The reader is essentially given an account of events; there's no sense of interiority or character growth, no emotional hook that gripped me and pulled me into the story.

I do think this book would work better for others who don't necessarily need that same hook and like or prefer more omniscient storytelling, but it's very much not my style.

John Crowley’s Flint and Mirror brims with fascinating, well-crafted history. Sadly, the accompanying magic feels less essential.

The story is primarily set in 16th-century Ireland following Queen Elizabeth’s assumption of the English throne. Her father, Henry XIII (the second monarch of the infamous Tudor dynasty), had already begun England’s shift to Protestantism and conquest of Ireland. Much of its people remained staunchly Catholic, however, and Elizabeth sought to finish bringing the isle to heel.

Crowley’s protagonist is Hugh O’Neill, heir to a line of Irish royalty. Flint and Mirror tells the tale of O’Neill’s long life in a short span of pages, chronicling his early days as an English ward—brought to London under the premise that “like an eyas falcon, a young Irish lord if taken early enough might later come more willingly to the English wrist”—his rise to power in Ireland, and his eventual rebellion against his former colonial benefactors.

There’s much to admire here. Crowley relates the brutality of the occupying English forces without casting O’Neill as a wholly innocent hero. Flint and Mirror also gives a sense of larger happenings in Europe, often from unexpected vantages. (My favorite example: when a minor character watches a storm wreck wayward ships of the Spanish Armada upon a rocky section of the Irish coast. O’Neill then takes in some of the survivors—allies in the fight against Protestant England—and shelters them until the time comes to wage “the last war against … the Queen’s armies.”)

And the prose is gorgeous. Some memorable lines:

- “The Earl looked down on himself, the red curls of his breast gone gray, the scars and welts where no hair grew. The land that was himself, in all its history.”
- "With a great yawn, a gulp of morning, he awoke entirely at last.”
- “As though she were some fabulous many-walled fort, mined and breached, through the slashings and partings of her outer dress another could be seen, and where that was opened there was another, and lace beneath that.”

Yet Crowley casts Flint and Mirror as a historical fantasy without making the fantasy consequential.

The two objects in the title are magical artifacts given to O’Neill during his youth. One is of Irish origin, the other English. But despite suggestions that they might allow him to summon mythical allies to his aid or spy on his enemies, we never see him wield these powers in meaningful fashion. We’re also told there’s a larger “war in heaven” underway, but this doesn’t play out on the page either. Mostly, the magic in Flint and Mirror serves the symbolic function of explaining O’Neill’s conflicting loyalties (and perhaps doubles as a larger metaphor for Ireland’s fraught relationship with England). For similar reasons, I wish the subplot featuring an Irish woman and a creature of legend had impacted the main storyline.

To repeat, though, Crowley’s writing is beautiful—more than good enough to keep me going through the sections where I wondered whether Flint and Mirror should have been straight historical fiction. Here’s another quote to whet your appetite (a description of the Spanish sailors O’Neill rescued): “Only when they were called to war at last, given arms and armor from the hidden stores of the earl of Ulster and the lord of Tyrconnell and ordered to the south for the last battle, did they inspire fear as they went: dressed in white, as they had when they were seamen, daghaidhe duvh, dark of face, they would seem as they moved over the land to be of that black tribe of the O’Donahues that cast no shadow. Yet they went in hope to join their old ships, that were sailing again for Ireland from Spain: to join the fight against the English on Ireland’s behalf, and on the side of those who had saved them.”

Stirring stuff in any genre, and worth reading in full.

I've been reading more and more historical fiction lately, and I'm really happy that I've found time to enjoy the genre more. My latest read in this vein is Flint and Mirror by John Crowley.

Two sides are fighting the same war. The Irish seek to protect their lands, people, and way of life. The Queen and her people seek to make more of the world English. Two sides, two very different perspectives.

Hugh O'Neill is part of this war, being the Earl of Tyrone. He receives orders directly from the Queen. Yet the Irish also lay a claim on him, making him their champion.

If you like historical fiction, and more importantly, like John Crowley's writing style, then I think you're going to love Flint and Mirror. I will say that the prose pretty much won me over right from the start. It flowed so smoothly and was such a delight to read.

Flint and Mirror was a shockingly complex tale, with so many moving pieces. Despite this complexity, it wasn't difficult to follow - Crowley's writing and his characters make it easy to stay invested.

I can't really comment on the historical accuracy of any of this, not being a history buff. But I did enjoy those elements and would like to think I learned something new (I hope?). I would love to hear what others have to say on that count.

Some books are fantasy in a historical setting; some are historical fiction with a fantastical element. Flint and Mirror, by John Crowley, reads like a true historical account of a world that happens to have magic in it, just as much as it has guns and crowns and contracts.

The slightly stylized prose is, clearly, deliberate, and for so few pages it’s an ambitious book. But that same style, though successful in creating what I’m assuming is the intended tone and lens, makes for a rather dry, dull read at times. There’s a lot of history packed in here and given roots of folkloric magic, but it’s by no means an easy read. Go in with expectations set accordingly and the reward is worth it, with a fascinating blend of truth and fantasy and occasional bouts of hazily lyrical prose - but it took a while for my reading muscles to warm up to a style I’ve largely put aside since grad school.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Books for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was really intrigued by the premise for this book, but ultimately I may not have been the right audience for it. I was really interested to read about a character torn between his English fosterage and Irish heritage, and adding the folklore element to it piqued my interest even more. Unfortunately I found the writing style to be very slow and difficult to parse. It's hard to say that this book moves slowly, because events do unfold quickly, almost too quickly, to the extent that I was quite confused at times about what was happening and who certain characters were. That might just be my own failing, but I don't think that the author did a great job of engaging the reader. It was a strange mix of styles. At times, it read like a nonfiction book, with the narrator rattling off big chunks of historical events at a time. Then we would briefly zoom in for a closer look at what was happening with Hugh, and years would have passed and left me kind of wishing we could see more of him. I think I ultimately struggled because I couldn't connect with Hugh as a character. I felt that the narration kept all of the characters at arms-length to the extent that I'm not really even sure how to describe Hugh as a character. I wanted to get to know the character more personally, but I felt very disconnected from Hugh and from events in the book. I also remain confused as to how the mirror and flint each work. I really would have liked to have seen more of that. Maybe I just missed something. I wasn't really convinced by Hugh's feeling of obligation or devotion to the Queen. That was a big gap in understanding for me. There may be certain readers who are more in sync with this style. For me, it didn't work. That being said, I occasionally found the prose quite beautiful and moving, and I wish I had been able to enjoy that more. Ultimately, I couldn't find enough grounding or purchase to stay invested.

This is the latest novel from acclaimed author, John Crowley, whom I believe is one of the absolute finest writers that has ever been a part of the SFF genres. I was generously given an ARC copy by Tor/MacMillan books ahead of its April 19th release.

Flint and Mirror is, as the cover suggests, a mix of history and magic— taking the form of an alternate history novel that has understated fantasy elements. The setting is 16th century England and Ireland, as the Tudor Conquest rages on. Territory is claimed, wars are fought, men are lost and heritage is compromised. However, these wars have unlikely participants that are obscured by mankind’s reluctance to acknowledge the supernatural.

As with all of Crowley’s books that I’ve read thus far, the prose is immaculate. I don’t think there are many writers in SFF that are on his level as a stylist, and I have no problem including him among the upper echelon of wordsmiths like Wolfe, Le Guin, Lafferty and Harrison. For those interested in history, Crowley’s research of the setting, time period, people and politics is incredibly well done, and those interested in more subdued, subtle fantasy will enjoy this immensely. Fans of Crowley will, of course, not be disappointed.

Thanks to Tor-Forge/Macmillan and NetGalley for the eARC.

After really looking forward to this book, and being excited about another novel from John Crowley, I am sorry to say that this was a DNF at about halfway through.

The book was not quite what I expected. Instead of being a true fantasy, it was more of a historical novel with fantastical elements. It reminded me somewhat of Nicola Griffith's Hild.

The pace of the plotting was somehow very slow and very fast at the same time. Pages and pages would be devoted to a single period in Hugh's life, and not much would be going on -- and then you turn the page and it's suddenly 10 years later and he's on his second wife and what the heck just happened??

The flint and mirror of the title were also not what I expected. After receiving one from a bard and the other from Doctor John Dee, Hugh appeared to be connected through them to faery and Queen Elizabeth. However, the connection seemed to be only one way, and all of the instruction and influence Hugh believed he was receiving through them seemed to be all in his head. (Perhaps there is a bigger revelation about these items later in the book that I didn't get to?)

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Macmillian Tor/ Forge for an advanced copy of this historical fantasy novel.

To understand the Irish is to understand that what they say might not be what they truly mean. Many of the pithiest comments can be blessings and a curse, sometimes at the same time. Ireland has long been of two minds on many things, north and south, religion, those that want to rule, and those content to rule under another. And magic. John Crowley in Flint and Mirror uses real characters, real events and some of the Sidhe, the fairy folk, in a novel based on history and fact and magic in a divided Emerald Isle.

Hugh O'Neill son of Matthew O'Neill is a pawn to both the Irish and the English who wish to control Ireland. Considered the Earl of Tyrone, London plans to use Hugh to control the nobles and by proxy control Ireland. As a sign of their trust, and control, Queen Elizabeth I advisor John Dee gives young Hugh a mirror of dark obsidian. To the Irish and more importantly the Sidhe, Hugh is The O'Neill, the Chief of the Tír Eoghain, and is given a piece of flint one night in the company of a blind poet as a sign of their bond and alliance. Many battles are fought, plots, counterplots and murders abound in a battle of control for the island.

An interesting book based on real historical figures and events, with a nice touch of the supernatural mixed in. The writing style is what I can only call remote, which I enjoyed, but I understand if other readers do not. Hugh seems almost to know what is going to happen, good, bad, or indifferent in advance. Mr. Crowley is a skilled writer, and never losses the narrative, even though a tremendous amount of things happen in this short novel. There are battles, lots, murders, lots of plotting, but again the writing makes it seem more history than fiction, events happen, and we move on. Hugh as a character is upfront most of the time, yet remains mysterious and acts like he knows where the play might take him. The supporting cast is well developed but go by quickly as the focus stays on Hugh.

Being Irish, and yet not knowing much about Hugh O'Neill, the Earl of Tyrone, I found a lot to enjoy and to learn about the era and the machinations involved. I have liked many of John Crowley's earlier works especially the Aegypt series, and Little, Big was also quite good. This is a different kind of historical fiction, one with a bit more fantasy, but still quite good. Recommended for fans of Morgan Llywelyn especially her early works,and Kenneth Flint and Gregory Frost.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor publishing for providing an ARC copy of this novel.

I’m DNFing this at 32% of the way in. I hate to do it, I really do, but I am bored to tears reading this book. Flint and Mirror is written the way a particularly dry text-book is written. Everything is described matter-of-factly — there is little to no imagination used in the language. Now this might be because a great deal of actual history is used in this novel, but that doesn’t excuse the book being drier than the Sahara.

Flint and Mirror takes place back around the mid-1500’s during Queen Elizabeth’s reign. The Irish clans are fighting to keep their land, while Elizabeth and England are fighting to take Ireland for their own. Very little magic is weaved throughout that I saw during 32% of the book, but it is there.

There are little interspersed scenes of actual conversations between characters, but these are few and far between. The bulk of the book as far as I read, is just told to you. Very little showing or experiencing the actions at hand, just told as flatly as possible. Each paragraph is enormous, and sentences drag on and on before they get to the point. It’s possible that’s just how John Crowley’s work is, but whatever the reason, I did not enjoy how Flint and Mirror was written.

There are battles in this book! Mentions of fae-like creatures. Murder! Plots and schemes. By all accounts, this book should have been action-packed; it should have been a page turner. Despite all of that, all I wanted to do was put it down, so here I am, putting it down.

Flint and Mirror comes out April 19, 2022.

I genuinely wanted to love this book, but while the writing was excellent, and characters were interesting, it was missing... something? Crowley's prose always makes for worthwhile reading, but the book itself felt a bit confusing for me. That said, I really do love the idea of finding magic everywhere, but again, not my favourite book.

Despite his Aegypt quartet being an absolute favourite of mine, I've not read an enormous amount of John Crowley's other novels – and until now, all of those were from before rather than after that grand achievement. I think perhaps the way he finished that sequence wrapped around a sense that he'd moved into non-fantastical material and gave me a sense that he'd made the dread passage to respectability? But Gardner Dozois' last anthology featured a wonderful Crowley story that I took at the time for an Aegypt out-take, yet realised, as soon as I saw this book on Netgalley, must in fact (or in addition?) be a fragment from here. And indeed, one of Aegypt's key players, Elizabethan occultist John Dee, has a guiding role here too. As do others of his era – Philip Sidney (though his father looms larger) among them, not to mention Elizabeth herself. But what could very easily have been a simple historical novel also finds a little space for the little folk, even if they are not here quite as Crowley depicted them in what many incorrect people consider his masterpiece, Little, Big – and nor is this Dee quite the Dee of Aegypt. Or maybe they are, and he is, and it's simply that none of them look quite the same to this book's protagonist, Hugh O'Neill, who goes from child in Ireland to old man in Rome by way of a heyday in which he is simultaneously a noble in two clashing cultures, the O'Neill to the Irish and Earl of Tyrone to the English. For this is a story of colonialism, the two items of its title being magical artefacts which reify the double-consciousness of someone from a colonised people who is also, in part and at times, a piece of the apparatus of colonisation. O'Neill is a real historical figure too, though not one I really know (which said, I'm not sure I knew Dee before I read Aegypt far too young), and if I have a certain reflex suspicion of books by Americans in which the brave, mystical Irish resist chilly, perfidious English invaders, Crowley complicates the situation enough that you'd be hard pressed to take this altogether for propaganda. And, let's face it, even if it were, he still weaves enough of a spell with his prose that I'd probably have gone along for the ride anyway, even if it would have ended in a rude awakening on the cold hill's side. Which, as with Aegypt, is a key theme here; finding a place for magic in history, making it the most plausible explanation for some of the odder details, only to snatch it away at the last. Which makes for a powerfully elegiac effect, but always leaves me wondering - what might Crowley have wrought if he could only commit more wholeheartedly to enchantment?

I requested a digital copy in order to sample the prose on my phone (since I don't have a eReader) before requesting a physical copy for review. I will update Netgalley once I read & review a physical copy.

My review will be based on the physical ARCs I read.