The Incandescent

I didn’t fully understand what ‘The Incandescent’ was about until after I finished reading it. It’s not that the book was confusing or obscure; it was accessible, engaging and disarmingly familiar. It read like a solid, albeit conventional, fantasy about an elite boarding school for magically gifted children that is under threat from the demonic realm. The story is told from the point of view of Dr Walen, the school’s Director of Magic. She is a prominent academic specialising in the control and use of demons and their magic, and an extremely powerful practitioner in her own right.

The story was strongly grounded in Walden’s day-to-day experience of teaching in a Public School and so shaped by her understanding of herself and show more her world that I became completely immersed in her point of view, unconsciously sharing her blind spots and accepting her assumptions. Only when the action was over was I able to take a breath, look back and see what had really been going on.

Walden and her school were so realistically drawn that I felt as though I was reading a mainstream novel with the addition of demons, an elaborate system of magic, and some scary violence to add colour. Looking back, I think this was partly camouflage and partly to make it clear that we in the real world may also share Waldon’s error, although it would manifest differently.

’The Incandescent’ isn’t just an action thriller with magic-weilding heroes, duplicitous demons, talented but reckless students, and political subplots, although it has all of those. Behind all that, ‘The Incandescent’ is an invitation for the reader to think about what it means to have a self, how many of them we have, whether all of them are true and why and how they change. It stress tests these concepts by having Walen rethink who she wants to be while facing off with powerful demons who, in addition to being hungry for power, yearn to reify in our world by gaining enough complexity to develop a sense of self.

Throughout the book, Walden refers to herself as if she were mulitple people, The self who is Dr Walden, Director of Magic, the ever-present ghost of her teenage self who is still shrouded in trauma generated guilt, the Saffy Walden who was a scarily powerful controlller of demons, wooed by the CIA, and the mild-aged, mostly solitary Saffy, who is mildly bemused by her attaction to a sword-wielding, armour-wearing, Warden with scant education but a lot of focused power. Each of these selves was so well-drawn that I failed to see how fractured Walden was. Which was the point of course. It made her blind to her own hubris and the real nature of the demonic threat.

I enjoyed reading ‘The Incandescent’ and thinking about it afterwards. It’s not a fast-paced supernatural thriller. Nor is it a young magician coming of age and saving the world, School of Magic plot. It’s the story of the downfall of an accomplished woman, at the height of her powers, who has retained an ‘incandescent’ adolescent confidence in her abilities, unaware that this is the main source of her vulnerability.

I read ’The Incandescent’ because it's a finalist for the 2026 Hugo Award for Best Novel. I’m impressed with Emily Tesh’s writing, so I’ve bought her debut novel, ‘Some Desperate Glory’ (2023), which won the Hugo Award for Best Novel.

I recommend the audiobook version of ‘The Incandescent’, narrated by Zara Ramm. Click on the YouTube link below to hear a sample.

https://youtu.be/7Am6tI4OAdw?si=-FTulhdhMwjze8K- show less

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/the-incandescent-by-emily-tesh/

Emily Tesh again shows her extraordinary versatility, with a story of a queer teacher in charge of safeguarding vulnerable pupils at a magical boarding school against dark forces while securing her own back against bureaucratic enemies. This is contemporary Britain, but with demons and a professional structure for the magically talented people who control them; it’s also a Britain where our friends class and race are alive and well, especially in a school where some of the scholarship pupils are also orphans. There’s cracking emotional chemistry as well between Sapphire Walden, the damaged but still idealistic protagonist, and her love interests; and finely observed show more dynamics of how a small group of gifted teenagers interact with the outside world.

It’s brilliant stuff, and really it makes you realize how few of the well-known magic school stories, from Roke to Hogwarts to the Scholomance, tell the story from the viewpoint of the teachers rather than the pupils. (There’s Unseen University in Discworld, but it’s a third-level institution rather than school and it also seems to have very few students.) Of course there’s always mileage in a rite-of-passage story, but the children’s point of view sees only the part of the educational iceberg that is above the surface. If you see what I mean. show less

Saffy Walden is the Director of Magic at the elite boarding school - it's expensive, but they're hurting for free cash - and teaching a small group of students how to (safely) summon a demon for magical purposes. Because a bunch of free magic and teenagers can attract demons who feed on such things, there's a rather large demon nicknamed Old Faithful who has lain mostly dormant under the school. But when a summoning goes wrong at one of the classes, and Old Faithful wakes, a chain reaction begins that is going to take every ounce of expertise that Walden has, as well as some help from her talented students.

Gotta love a fantasy school story, and this is very much in that vein but for adults, with the main character an admin rather than a show more student. She has real affection for her students, and even in her late 30s not above making a few mistakes and misjudgments of character. There's a sapphic love interest (Walden is bi), and an interesting & consistent take on what magic could look like in a world similar to our own. Despite the stakes, it was somewhat slow paced which is the main reason I'm knocking it down to 4 stars. show less

Delightful. Reminds me a little of Scholomance, without being like Scholomance at all. Love that it's centered on teaching and on the neverending day-to-day of adulthood in a boarding school. Love that the main character is brilliant at her job and not so brilliant at peopling. Love that this keeps the lives of teenagers at the center of it and is still mostly about the lives of adults. I also love that the fundamental message is about making mistakes and learning from them. The magical system is fascinating, the nostalgia is intense, the beauty of a teacher's love for her school is pretty glorious, and let's hear it for a bisexual main character.

Advanced Reader's Copy provided by Edelweiss.

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed this on ebook from the library.

Thoughts: I really enjoyed this a lot. The characters are intriguing as is the world. This is very much a "day in the life of" type of story with some fantastic elements thrown in. Previous to reading this I also read Tesh's Greenhollow Duology and "Some Desperate Glory" and absolutely loved all of those books. I didn't love this book quite as much because it feels a bit slow at parts.

Doctor Walden is the Director of Magic at Chetwood school. She is an incredibly powerful magician but loves teaching and ends up wrapped up in a lot of administrative work. When a top student accidentally causes a demon incursion, it is up to Walden to save the show more school. However, Walden has secrets of her own, and who is going to protect her from herself?

This was very well done, and much of the book is about a very sought after and highly capable woman trying to make her extremely busy life work day to day. She has a lot of responsibilities in teaching, administration, and magical security and works very long days. However, even she has her limits, and when she hits them she is intrigued by the woman who steps up to support her.

I loved the world here; this has very dark academia vibes. There is magic in this world and demons, the demons like to infest technology and are drawn to other magic which makes powerful magic school like Chetwood tricky to secure. I loved the characters as well; they are all complex and intriguing to read about.

The only slight weakness for me was that the day to day vibe of the book got a bit slow at points. Don't get me wrong, there are amazing and fantastical things that happen in this book. However, a lot of this is about Walden getting through each busy day without a disaster, and while that was part of the point of the story, it did get slightly repetitive. There is definitely a theme of work-life balance throughout. Walden loves her job, but it is her life. She doesn't even really realize that maybe there should be more to her life than her job until things get to a breaking point.

This was very well written and very engaging. Tesh is definitely a go-to author for me and writes books that are entertaining, intriguing, emotionally engaging, and thoughtful.

My Summary (4.5/5): Overall I really enjoyed this book a lot. This is the day to day life story of an accomplished and magically powerful woman interspersed with some rather intense demonic incursions. The tone is witty and practical. There are some parts that feel a bit slow compared to the rest of the story, but I really did love every aspect of this book. I am looking forward to the next story from Tesh. show less

Brilliant idea—a magical school book focusing on a teacher, with the students having their adolescent crises in the background. And I loved the execution as well. The heroine is deeply committed to helping children/teenagers grow up. Magic is well-known and many people who are talented end up doing other things because there’s also technology and magic can be dangerous; magical children can cause demonic incursions. I don’t want to be too spoilery but it’s a strong recommend, especially if you like the Scholomance or the Goblin Emperor (for competent people trying to do the right thing).

There's something very Harry Potter about this book, in the manner of a fix-it fanfic: the protagonist is a teacher (because kids who grew up with HP are that age now), but she's bisexual (check) and not a transphobe (check that box via throwaway line), and she has a lot of tattoos (check), and she definitely isn't racist (check), and also the star students are a mix perfect enough to make it unto the school brochure: privileged kid and scholarship kid, tragic backstory with easy street, and absolutely for sure they are not all white. the school is still here, ancient and moody; cute minor magics abound; we even have Draco Malfoy In Leather Pants.

-- Caveat that i'm American and definitely do not live at a classic exclusive British show more boarding school, and maybe all this is entirely normal across the pond -- but here, it comes off as wish-fulfillment, and a particularly pernicious kind, because it feels so unaware.

Or half-aware. Edging on aware, and then flinching away.

Like -- at one point, the main character has a very polite very British argument about the cost of the school, which is £50,000 annually, plus "uniform, sports kit, events, extras, the annual ski trip --"

-- which the protagonist dismisses as unimportant, because really, she can't change the world herself, and anyway, they do give scholarships, and can't we change the topic now? It's so tactless to discuss money!

(Only rich people think it's tacky to talk about money. The rest of us have no other choice.)

And that's the point of view that undercurrents the entire book, making all of it feel like a response to an argument the author herself has actually had, one that apparently has dug into her deep enough for her to write an entire book to respond, while simultaneously rolling her eyes because really, I'm only a schoolteacher, which she is, and she works in a system that seems very much like the one she writes about, presumably while also telling herself that her own role is the best she can do -- There aren't many jobs for people like me in the state [school] system.

And yes, of course, the author is right: there are few jobs for Classics nerds (which the author is). Yes.

But this is all so unreflective. Where else could I go? asks the protagonist, who decided to study an arcane and obscure and largely unimportant aspect of magic, who decided to turn down other job offers, whose entire life has been propped up by a system of privilege. Well, you could work in a wee shop, couldn't you?

Not that I think Walden (or Tesh) would serve society better by working in a wee shop -- but she seems to think that the people who do that for a living simply never thought of studying and getting scholarships and going to a lovely old school in the countryside with flying buttresses or whatever, that they just didn't manage things correctly.

There's an entire damn conversation about this topic, the aforementioned, with a character Laura, who says -- "This exists? This is real? ... Why didn't I have this? And the answer is I didn't have these sense to be born to parents with more money than God."

To which the protagonist/author says, apparently in full sincerity, "I promise you, God has a lot more money than [this school.]"

I'd like to think that Tesh is making a clever comment here about the blindness of privilege, but I think the joke's on her.

DNF at 64% because the urge to shake everyone until their teeth rattled would simply not leave, and i have better things to do than play shifgrethor with scum.

* finished, because apparently I do not

edit to review:

This book took on a very different form and tone around 80% of the way through, and it became what Tesh (apparently) actually wanted to write about. Unfortunately, she didn't bother to re-write the rest of the book when this became clear to her, or maybe she never realized it. Whatever.
She is in love with her boarding school (as an institution, as a home, as a shelter, as a place of complication and change and growth), and she loves it despite the nastiness in it.

Okay.
Great.

I mean, I'm not posh enough to relate to this, but that's fine, because Tesh is very very painfully self-aware of her own posh-ness, not in a way that leads her to change or think critically about it, you understand, just lots of aware, which means that it's ... not enough.

Over and over again, this book is Not Enough. It wants to be enough, it should be enough, it's smart and sassy and nerdy in the right way and it has oh! so much heart -- and it begins -- and it flinches -- which is a cardinal sin for an artist, I think. It can't talk about sex, it can't talk about romance. It can't talk about gin or pyjamas or even goddamn tea without the flinch.

And once you start to see it, you can see it everywhere. All the times Tesh hesitates at the doorway and changes the topic to how beautiful and old and charming and well-decorated the boarding school is -- which happens after sex, after kissing, after tea, and in repeatedly, in the middle of the final epic battle. She wants to have her cake and eat it too, does Tesh, and she's so obsessed with the cake that it nearly works.

Except that cake is for eating. You can't keep it all alone forever, immaculate. It'll spoil. And unless you actually understand where Walden is coming from, unless you know where Tesh is coming from, which is a very peculiar set of circumstances and a very deep-rooted denial of being aware of those circumstances, you'll likely find all of this appalling.

Unless you're one of those people who still enjoys Harry Potter, I guess.

Ugh. show less