Magic's Child

Young Adult novels are so much better now than I remember them being when I was an actual young adult. I recall reading some S.E. Hinton, but not much else.

The "Magic or Madness" series by Justine Larbalestier is one of the best fantasy trilogies I've read; YA or not. All of the books are well-paced, exciting, and feature well-drawn, believable characters.

The story focuses on 15-year-old Reason Cansino who discovers very suddenly that magic is real. More than that, she is a magic user. In the word of the books, however, magic is a double-edged sword. Use it and it will shorten your life; but if you don't use it, you'll quickly go mad. For the most part, we watch as reason figures out how to use her magic, and how she avoids other magic show more users who would steal her magic so they could lengthen their own lives.

Besides Reason, there's a whole host of supporting characters, some who wield magic, some who don't, but all who lend their support in making this an exciting story.

I would pay heed to the Young Adult label and would share this with kids who are at least in their teens, as there are some plot elements that might raise uncomfortable questions from a younger reader. But once your kids (or you) have finished the Harry Potter series, this is a great series to pick up next. show less

Review for the trilogy.

I enjoyed the trilogy. It is indeed about magic, but in common with many YA novels, it's as much or more about the issues that youth face: Adults letting them down, the kids exploring sexuality and romantic feelings, and making important decisions about who they are going to be as adults.

Here, the protagonist ("Reason") is confronted with the understanding that her mother, who has slipped into madness, has been lying to her, and that her madness is related to her rejection of their family's magic. But the magic comes at a cost, too -- most obviously, its use drains its users life away, little by little. But also at a cost to the user's humanity and ethics, which becomes more apparent over the course of the show more trilogy.

The pacing of this trilogy was interesting: Classically the first novel in a trilogy sets up the conflict, the middle sustains it, and the last resolves it; the middle sometimes seems boring. Larbalestier managed something a little different: The first novel built the conflict, and was a novel of discovery; the second novel led to the high conflict; and the third novel resolved the conflicts.

The fundamental story is engaging and well thought out; the characters are likeable. I enjoyed the family drama, which was real, without being too movie-of-the-week. The prose throughout the entire trilogy was probably the weakest point for me: It was competent but never delightful, and felt labored, massaged. As if it was rough, then edited so thoroughly that it felt almost committee-like. I think Larbalestier is maybe still finding her own voice.

Nevertheless, I'd be happy to recommend this trilogy to young folks. show less

It's a strange thing how, once an author gets a big idea, they start wanting to expand on it and make it bigger and bigger. Only, it gets too big and runs away with the author. It certainly seems, to me, to be the case for Phillip Pullman, and, I fear, to a certain extent, for Justine Larbalestier. This final book doesn't have quite the same magic (yep, pun intended!) of the first book. However, I did rather like the lack of "neatness" in the way it ended - Tom's ultimate decision seemed far more realistic than the more predictable alternative. And I still love the whole way magic is conceived in these novels, not to mention the writing style. I wonder what made Larbalestier use maths as a basis for magic, given that she is not show more mathematical herself? It seems a very unusual choice. But it is so perfect, I'm just glad she did have that vision.

Oh dear, have just seen there are two more Larbalestier titles - hmm! show less

I liked this series! Something about its style was really unique to me, had kind of a candid realism that I liked. I think what I mean by that is that lots of things I didn't expect happened, and also that things didn't always sound pleasant.I personally felt the series got less gripping as it went on, especially after it got all kooky at the end of book 2, but maybe my taste for kooky magic is still developing. But it felt like it lost some urgency the more powerful its characters got. A fantasy paradox?These books felt good though, in the writing. It feels good when she describes cold weather, and when characters start kissing. I'm excited that Larbalestier is putting all the cool stuff she seems to know into books like these.

This is a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy - Reason, now gifted with the powers of her immortal ancestor, becomes less and less human as she becomes intoxicated by magic. All of the magic uses are faced with stunning new options - to become and inhuman part of the magic, or to give up magic forever and become normal people again.
I thought the characters were weaker in this last book, I didn't buy into the romance, or the motivations of Sarafina or her father. And the ending seemed like a Hollywood bid for further books.
I'd give this to fans of the first two.

While the first book in Justine Larbalestier’s Magic or Madness trilogy was slightly sinister, the second two books (Magic Lessons and Magic's Child) were more along the lines of slightly tedious. The first book had set up a consistent and intriguing account of magic use and consequences, which I found fascinating enough to want to explore more. I read all the way to the end of the series, but was not sufficiently impressed to be recommending this series to other people. Unfortunately, instead of developing her ideas with the same degree of rigour and originality that seemed indicated with their introduction, Larbalestier continued with inconsistencies and implausibilities. Even the plot twist at the very end was unsupported by what show more had gone before. On the up side, while the first two books made laboured, self-conscious use of Australian slang, the language in the final book seemed more natural. show less

I was really pleased by how much I enjoyed Magic's Child. This is a really good book, so good that it actually made me like the first two books in the series more, as I look back on them.

I think some of my pleasure in Magic's Child comes from how complicated the story becomes and how unexpected the ending was for me. Without giving too much away, I really appreciated Larbalestier's willingness to turn her characters' lives so upside down.

http://archthinking.blogspot.com/2009/06/review-magics-child.html