meganbmoore | A College of Magics by Caroline Stevermer (Reply)

In a turn of the century Europe different from our own almost only in that magic exists, eighteen-year-old Faris Nallaneen is the heiress of the Duchy of Galazon. Her uncle, Brinker, however, has no intentions of turning the country over to her any sooner than he has to, and is only too happy to obey her late mother's wishes and send her away to school. She needn't worry about coming home for the holidays. The feeling is mutual.

So off Faris, more than a bit of a hoyden and with no intentions to do anything but speak her mind, goes to Greenlaw College, a finishing school that teaches, among other things, magic. There, she meets Jane, a young Englishwoman at school until her father finds someone to marry her off to, Menary, the daughter of the King of Aravall, a country that claims Galazon as a holding, and a country some think Faris has a claim to, and Tyrian, a bodyguard sent by Brinker. More to keep her from coming home than to make sure no one kills her.

The book is very, for lack of a better word(and I say that because I feel I should have one) charming, and it and it's characters tend to be very clever, sometimes a bit too much so, and is written in a style similar to that of the times, but not so much so that it's unapproachable to modern readers. It's also written as a three volume novel of the times, and even contains some gothic elements: Volume 1: young woman sent to strange place and faces mysterious opponent who wants her dead. Volume 2: young woman returns to childhood home and faces a mysterious uncle who wants her lands, and people sent to kill her. Volume 3: young woman sent to mysterious place and faces a dastardly suitor.

Then there's the approach to magic. Most of the time, magic occurs without any attention whatsoever being drawn to it. In fact, when Faris uses magic, she usually doesn't even realize what she's doing. The only time attention is really drawn to it is when Faris's use of it is pointed out to her, or in Jane's sheer delight at it. This, I think, is a large part of what makes the book work, except for one part: the magic is never really explained, it just...is. Most of the time, that works, but sometimes it does. For example, can everyone use magic, or just some people? From the way it's talked about, it seems that most schools for the upper classes teach it, but Faris doesn't believe in magic until Jane shows it to her. Also, it seems the students aren't taught magic until their last year, at which point, they become fully trained. This strikes me as odd somehow. Then there's the wardens. We're told that the four wardens are crucial to magic, yet we're never told what they actually are or what they do. As that plays an important in the second half of the book, I can't help but think it really should have been explained better.

All told, it's a pretty good and well done book, and somehow manages to be creative and original by being minimalist in its fantasy and reimagining elements. I have to say though, that, while I haven't read much YA fiction, the resolution to the romance isn't quite what I'd expected(though not in terms of that world...the fact that women in 1900~ seem to be able to hold powerful political positions makes the societal elements cause no blinks on my radar.) Then again,

rachelmanija's YA angst awards contained a lot of things I'd never except to find in YA fiction, so I should probably rethink that.

ETA: So, apparently, this was originally released as mainstream fantasy, and was just remarketed as YA. Pft. And here I thought I was slowly but surely expanding my teeny weeny YA experience.