Readers who’ve read Charles Dickens’s novel, A Tale of Two Cities, will already be familiar with several of the characters in H.G. Parry’s glorious reimagining of that novel, A Far Better Thing. Lucie Manette and her tragic father, Dr. Manette, appear. Charles Darney shows up from time to time. Unlike in Dickens’s novel, however, Sydney Carton takes center stage in Parry’s. And also, unlike Dickens’s novel, this one adds fae, other worlds, magic, and changelings to the already exciting scenes of courtroom drama and revolution.
Sydney Carton lives a lackluster life in London. He’s bright but morose. He’s hardworking but refuses to pursue any ambitions. Unless you know Carton’s secret, he seems baffling. He could do so much more with himself than drink his life away working for another lawyer. His secret is a doozy. Sydney Carton is a changeling. The fae can find him anywhere he might go and force him to do their bidding. We actually meet Sydney while he’s on one of those errands: fetching human bones from a resurrection man to give to the fae. This isn’t weird at all to Sydney (it’s actually one of the less odious things they ask him to do); what’s really weird to Sydney is when, the next day, he runs into the person the fae left in his place. Sydney comes face-to-face with his changeling, Charles Darnay, in the middle of a courtroom. Worse, his changeling is on trial, accused of being a French spy. Sydney’s quick mind manages to get the charges dismissed.
Meeting Darnay and the Manettes (who are friends of Darnay) throws Sydney completely off his stride. Sydney can’t help but grow entangled with the charming Manettes, especially Lucie, whose face always reminds him of a lost loved one. Further complicating things, one of the detested fae shows up to press Sydney into service for its own terrible schemes. Parry gives Dickens a run for his money in terms of complicated plots and I had a blast following all of the twists and turns. Even though I expected that the plot would roughly follow the shape of A Tale of Two Cities, Parry had me guessing the entire time about what would happen next. For a few chapters, I even hoped that Carton would be able to escape the destiny Dickens limned for him originally.
It’s been a while since I last read A Tale of Two Cities and I remember enough of that book that reading A Far Better Thing sometimes feels like I’m seeing events from the other side of the stage. Parry absolutely knocks my socks off with the things she does backstage of A Tale of Two Cities. In Dickens, Sydney pops up here and there where he’s needed. Dickens’s novel mostly sticks with the Manettes and Darnay. In A Far Better Thing, the reverse is true. We get to see what Sydney is up to as he races around, trying to keep Darnay and the Manettes out of the clutches of the Defarges and the Committee of Public Safety (they need a lot of saving) while also trying to thwart his fae tormenters. This book is a wild ride.
I suggest that readers who are interested in reading A Far Better Thing at least read a good summary of A Tale of Two Cities. It would be better to read the original novel, so that you’ll catch the allusions to Dickens. I know that Dickens can be heavy-going for some readers, but A Tale of Two Cities is one of his more tightly composed and exciting books. It’s my personal favorite work by Dickens. Madame Defarge (the original version) still gives me the willies. Sydney Carton shines in both stories, and I fell in love with his character all over again in A Far Better Thing.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.