Summary
A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking is a 2020 young adult fantasy novel by Ursula Vernon, under her pseudonym T. Kingfisher. It was first published by Argyll Productions.
Synopsis edit
When teenage bread wizard Mona discovers a corpse in her family's bakery, it triggers a chain of events that leads to her managing the city's defense against military assault, with the aid of animate gingerbread men and her familiar — a sourdough starter.
Reception edit
A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking won the Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction for Best Young Adult Novel of 2020,[1] the 2021 Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book,[2] the 2021 Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book,[3] the 2021 Dragon Award for Best Young Adult / Middle Grade Novel,[4] and the 2021 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature.[5]
James Nicoll called it "an entertaining YA diversion that will encourage younger readers to consider just how easily they might be scapegoated by an ambitious politician," and emphasized that he would "enjoy" reading a sequel.[6] Locus commended Vernon's "ability to craft engagingly quirky characters", and her portrayal of "a Pratchettian world where magic makes for a mostly amusing background, except when it doesn't."[7]
References edit
- ^ A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking at Science Fiction Writers of America; retrieved September 15, 2022
- ^ 2021 Hugo Awards Announced, by Kevin Standlee, at TheHugoAwards.org; published December 19, 2021; retrieved September 15, 2022
- ^ Locus Award Winners 2021, by Amber Brown, at WRAL-TV; published June 28, 2021; retrieved September 15, 2022
- ^ 2021 Recipients, at Dragon Con; retrieved September 15, 2022
- ^ Acceptance Remarks — 2021, at the Mythopoeic Society; retrieved September 15, 2022
- ^ Bake Me a Cake as Fast as You Can, by James Nicoll, at James Nicoll Reviews; published September 14, 2020; retrieved September 15, 2022
- ^ Adrienne Martini Reviews Random Sh*t Flying Through the Air by Jackson Ford and A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher, by Adrienne Martini, in Locus; October 2020 issue; published online November 3, 2020; retrieved September 15, 2022