A College of Magics

I’ve been enjoying Stevermer’s Kate and Cecy books, which she wrote with Patricia C. Wrede, for several years. These two are quite similar in the mix of magic and a world that’s mostly like ours at an earlier time period. I have to say that, while I liked the characters and the story, the world building seemed a little odd to me. I felt very disoriented in the first book because the main character is from a country that doesn’t exist in our world but does in this world and then England showed up and I was confused. I was also confused as to their current location and the time period. But the second book retroactively cleared that all up: early 1900s, the first book is set in France, their world is quite like ours. I did wonder though, if things are different enough to have entire countries that don’t exist in our world, would Taft really be the president? I seem to remember one alternate-reality story I read where Adlai Stevenson got elected. It wasn’t a major plot point but it helped to point out that things were different there. Anyway, if you ignore the world-building and focus on the characters, these are fun stories which reminded me at times of Dorothy Sayers (especially the second).

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Another re-read. ON my first time through, I liked this but didn’t love it. This time, I really, really, really liked it. Ah, Faris! Ah, Tyrian! Ah, Greenlaw! *happy swoon* I do love a good college story, and this definitely fit the bill. I remember liking the second book even better than the first, so we’ll see how that one fares. [Oct. 2011] ( )

Picked this up as an antidote to Grossman's The Magicians, for which purpose it is recommended. Women doing things! A magical college that produces functional humans! An academic community I totally recognize! Protagonists I don't want to drown! A protagonist who undergoes change and grows the hell up and deliberately chooses political power! Seriously, I have so much love for Jane and Tyrian and Eve-Marie, and Faris gets better throughout the book, and I hope very much they all remain awesome in the sequel.

The last third or so, I kept getting distracted by how confusing the time-and-place stuff was -- where the hell is Galazon? What the hell time period is this whole thing set in? where the hell is Greenlaw, for that matter? But I can live with that. ( )

A pleasant read, though not very exciting. I enjoyed what the author wrote when collaborating with Patricia Wrede so was not very surprised at the slow progression of the tale. Really, not much happens until the second half of the book, and then it's not really "action" until the last forty pages or so. ( )

Although the title and the book description imply that this story is set at a magical girls' school in the early 20th century, that only describes the first third of the book. I really liked that part: Faris Nallaneen, the not-yet-adult duchess of Galazon, is packed off to Greenlaw College by her uncle who would prefer to run Galazon without her interference. She's understandably reluctant to attend at first, but settles in, makes friends and an enemy, maybe learns magic...and then we start the plot for the remaining two-thirds of the book, which didn't work quite as well in comparison. I don't want to spoil anything, so all I can say is that while I understood Faris' role and what she was supposed to do, I needed a clearer explanation of how she knew to do it. But I enjoyed the book overall, and was pleasantly surprised that romance, although present, did not run the plot—a welcome change from the trend nowadays. ( )

A College of Magics is a book about how school can change everything and how complex growing up and taking up the burden of your responsibilities can be. Faris doesn't wish to go to Greenlaw because her home, Galazon needs her and her uncle is sending her away. At first Greenlaw is a chore that she needs to work through but as she finds friends, she discovers how what she's learning can help her home. In the second half of the book, Faris along with her friend Jane return to Galazon and the story becomes enmeshed in politics and what does it mean to be a ruler.

The one Issue I had with College of Magics was the setting was slightly strange, it begins with a setting that seems to be in another world but soon there are discussions of real places. I had a hard time figuring out how the Europe of the book worked as it at times appeared to be the early 1900s yet there were created places. There were few points when I noticed this but it was slightly jarring.

The characters are incredibly well written and this is a book I would recommend to high school and older readers especially a student about to begin college. A College of Magics captures the strangeness of trying to fit into a new community and balance schoolwork and that magical moment when you figure out where you belong. ( )