John Crowley

Readers searching for the high magic of epic fantasy may be disappointed, but those looking for small magics within a broad scope of history (in a similar vein to the work of Guy Gavriel Kay) will be enthralled by Crowley’s (“The Ægypt Cycle”) alchemy of uncanny magic, ancient science, and tragic history.

By the mid-1830s, one-third of the Irish population depended on the potato for 90 percent of its food...