The Silver Glove

The Sorcery Hall Trilogy #2

by Suzy McKee Charnas

A New York City teenager teams up with her sorceress grandmother to protect her mother from her new boyfriend, an evil wizard bent on stealing people's souls

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction

176 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Suzy McKee Charnas, a native New Yorker raised and educated in Manhattan, surfaced as an author with WALK TO THE END OF THE WORLD (1974), a no-punches-pulled feminist SF novel and Campbell award finalist. The three further books that sprang from WALK (comprising a futurist, feminist epic about how people make history and create myth) closed in 1999 with THE CONQUEROR’S CHILD, a Tiptree winner (as is the series in its entirety).

Meanwhile, she taught for two years in Nigeria with the Peace Corps, married, and moved to New Mexico, where she has lived, taught, and written fiction and non-fiction for forty five years. She teaches SF from time to time, and travels every year to genre conventions around the country and (occasionally) around the world.

Her varied SF and fantasy works have also won the Hugo award, the Nebula award, the Gigamesh Award (Spain), and the Mythopoeic award for Young-Adult fantasy. A play based on her novel THE VAMPIRE TAPESTRY has been staged on both coasts. STAGESTRUCK VAMPIRES (Tachyon Books) collects her best short fiction, plus essays on writing feminist SF and on seeing her play script first become a professionally staged drama in San Francisco. Currently, she’s working at getting all of her work out in e-book, audio, and other formats, and moving several decades’ worth of manuscripts, correspondence, etc. out of a slightly leaky garage and sent off to be archived at the University of Oregon Special Collections. She has two cats and a gentleman boarder (also a cat), good friends and colleagues, ideas for new work, and travel plans for the future.

Reviews

[Auntie M · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not sure if I read the first book, but it's fine to start here. This is a simple kid's book about a little girl with magic. The characters are well-written, but it was a little too YA for my tastes.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dated but fun
A great example of the YA fantasy genre in the Susan Cooper vein.
IF ANYONE WANTS TO READ THIS, LMK & I'LL SEND IT TO YOU

[Conan Tigard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story takes place fairly soon after the end of The Bronze King. Valentine has dropped her nickname of "Tina" because she feels it portrays her as a little girl and has picked up "Valli," which she feel is more mature. I notice that this also this also parallels the story, as the storytelling has matured somewhat and is more complex.

Whereas the first story in the Sorcery Hall trilogy was pretty good, I found I liked this story much better. What I didn't see was any magic by Valentine. We learned that she has powers in The Bronze King and I was hoping to see more of them in this story. But that doesn't really happen. She does do a few magical things with the silver glove her grandmother sends her, but she really doesn't learn how to use her new powers. I would have liked to have seen this. The plot line in this story is enjoyable and easy to follow.

The Silver Glove by Suzy McKee Charnas is an interesting tale of a teenage girl struggling with new powers while fighting to keep her family together. The story moves along at a good pace and gets quite exciting whenever the Claw is on the prowl.

What I really want to know is when are we going to learn more about Sorcery Hall. What is the Hall? Do wizards go there to train? All we learn in this book is that it is under attack. Who is attacking it...and why? Will Valentine get to go there? I am hoping to find out the answers to all these questions in the final book of the Sorcery Hall trilogy, The Golden Thread.

I rated this book a 7½ out of 10.

[Catherine Mustread · Rating 2 out of 5]

Valentine and her sorceress grandmother try to protect her mother from an evil wizard. Grades 4+

[Arlene Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I could remember this series better. I liked it, but no memory of it.