Fireworks and Darkness

Fireworks and Darkness was first published in Australia on 1 May 2002 by Angus & Robertson in trade paperback format.^[3] In 2006 it was re-released in mass market paperback format.^[4] Fireworks and Darkness won the 2003 Davitt Award for best young-adult novel and was a short-list nominee for the 2002 Aurealis Award for best young-adult novel but lost to The Hand of Glory by Sophie Masson.^[5][6]

Set in Ostermark, an analogue of 18th and 19th century Vienna, the book follows the story of Casimir, son of Simeon Runciman, a political activist and firework maker. Magic exists and is known in Ostermark, but is heavily restricted or outright forbidden.

Magic in the world of Ostermark is an unnatural and risky practice that involves manipulating causality to alter events in ways that suit the magician, but which always have a price. During the opening events of the novel, Casimir falls from a scaffolding to his death, but is saved by Simeon’s magic, who reveals himself to be a former magician in the process; it is revealed that in order to save Casimir’s life, another young boy somewhere in the world simultaneously died to preserve balance.

Casimir’s peaceful life is upended when his father vanishes following this event and an old rival of Simeon’s determined to destroy him arrives in the city. In searching for his father and trying to clear his name, Casimir becomes embroiled in a political conspiracy involving Ostermark’s ruling royal family, who accuse him of not just being a magician but being involved in his father’s anarchist political activities.