January 23, 2023
Greed, magic, and prejudice fuel political machinations in screenwriter Peckham’s thinly built fantasy debut. Furious 14-year-
old Tell and cheerful 12-year-old Wren belong to the People of the Black Glass, so named for the vein that burrows through the mountain on which their remote village is perched. Things grow dire when the siblings’ father is blinded in his remaining eye while carving out a slab of the valuable material, which is mined as the community’s sole income source. Their father is given 30 days to heal, after which he’ll be sent up the glacier to die and the children will live with other families. Given the thin sheet of “sorcerer’s glass” by his father, Tell undertakes the perilous trek to the city of Halfway, accompanied by Wren and faithful mule Rumble; there, they plan to sell the glass to the most powerful and wealthy sorcerer they can find. But the duo soon encounters a secret, bloody coup that threatens to rend Halfway and endanger their people, and must form a shaky alliance to help them navigate a hostile city. Surface-level characterization mires observations on class, intergenerational trauma, and wealth disparity in this brutal, plot-heavy adventure. Characters default to white. Ages 10–14. Agent: Jodi Reamer, Writers House.