A Scholar of Magics

Although this is the sequel to A College of Magics, I don’t think you necessarily need to read them in order. However, I would advise it so that you have some of the concepts of the world explained in depth before you hit A Scholar of Magics.

The draw of A Scholar of Magics is certainly the characters. The cast is different from the first book (except for Jane, who’s allowed to take center stage), but all of the characters are fun, likable, and enjoyable to spend time with. Jane continues to be wonderful, and Lambert is a nice addition. He provides the outsider’s perspective to magic and Glasscastle.

Where A Scholar of Magic faltered was the plot. I found it predictable and not at all suspenseful. When the Big Bad was revealed, the show more protagonists were all shocked, but I’d guessed it the first time they’d met him. Really, shouldn’t they have at least had some questions regarding him? If they drew a Venn Diagram and looked at the overlap, he’d be smack dab in the center.

While there’s not a whole lot of depth to it, sometimes it’s nice to relax with an enjoyable book like A Scholar of Magics. I’d recommend it for anyone looking for a lighter read.

Originally posted at The Illustrated Page. show less

Not as good as A College of Magics, and a bit slow to draw me in (especially slow to create any interest in the male lead, an American sharpshooter falling in love with an English magical university), but great good fun. The love story (I mean, not the one between Man and College, one between two human characters) is sweet in a background-y, awkward-nice-people-digging-on-each-other sort of way.

But seriously, are we not supposed to suspect the villain from, like, first sight? What are the other characters thinking?

Jane Brailsford is one of my favorite characters in Caroline Stevermer’s A College of Magics. In A Scholar of Magics, Jane returns, bringing her cool sense of logic and fashion to Glasscastle University when more than magical studies are underway.

A full witch of Greenlaw and friend to Faris Nallaneen, warden of the north, Jane is no helpless female. Set in an alternate Edwardian England, Jane is no stranger to motorcars, magic, and intrigue. When the warden of the North sends Jane on a quest to Glasscastle to convince the truant warden of the west to take up his duties, Jane finds herself embroiled in a magical plot of global proportion.

Inviting herself for a stay in her brother’s home, he being a fellow of the exclusively masculine show more Glasscastle University, Jane meets Samuel Lambert, American sharpshooter-cum-research subject and roommate of Glasscastle fellow Nicholas Fell–the reluctant warden of the west.

Jane has a talent for getting into trouble and this time is no exception. When Fell’s study is looted by a mysterious man in a bowler hat, Lambert and Jane decide to follow a trail that leads them ever closer to danger and discovery.

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Whereas A College of Magics was a sort of female bildungsroman, A Scholar of Magics is definitely an adventure.

I found that the sequel was a lot more fast-paced than the first book in the series, but this is understandable given that the first book documents Faris and Jane’s school years, while the sequel takes place over the course of a few days.

Much of the novel is taken up with Lambert’s thoughts concerning Glasscastle and his position as an American outsider, but his insights were interesting and often gave way to heated discussions with Jane or Fell.

Overall, I like Scholar even more than I like College, which is not something that I say very often when it comes to sequels.

Gricel @ things-she-read.org show less

It was good but it didn’t capture me the way the first book–A College of Magics–did. This book takes us, and Jane, to Glasscastle, where Jane naturally gets involved in something big. It was a fun book, with banter and danger and Jane being Jane and I very much enjoyed it. I wasn’t prepared to have a male character take center stage but I liked Samuel, I liked seeing Jane, Glasscastle, and England through his American “cowboy” eyes.

Oh, this book was just as much fun as the first book in the series "A College of Magics". There is heaps of satisfying silliness.
I was amused by the way the male side of magic, represented by the Glasscastle University, was based on the idea of harmony - a property usually stereotypically given to women's magic.

This is lighter than the first one, which I liked better, but centered around the faculty of a men's college rather than the students of a women's college, so I enjoyed that a bit less. However, I did quite appreciate the importance of chant at Glasscastle.

Jane Brailsford, who we met in book 1, is one of the viewpoint characters in this book, which I couldn't tell from the blurb; and I therefore liked the book better than I expected to from its description.

This book might well have been titled “Pride and Prejudice Goes to Hogwarts”. Set in Edwardian England, the action takes place mostly at Glasscastle University, a college of magic. Samuel Lambert, American lately of a Wild West show, is there temporarily as they do tests of accuracy with various guns as they develop a new weapon. Jane Brailsford (excuse me, *Miss* Jane Brailsford), graduate of Greenlaw university in France (which, gasp, is a magical school for women) is there, ostensibly visiting her brother, Robert, who works at the University. But Jane has ulterior motives, as do almost everyone else in the story. Things get complicated rapidly, as assailants walk unseen past guards, people are kidnapped right and left, a don of show more the university turns out to have the potential of vast magical power- and is resisting taking that power, and the universe has a rift in it. Things move along at a brisk pace, and the tale is told with humor.

This is a sequel tale (A College of Magics is the first volume) and it’s set to spin off more. I look forward to them. show less