Scholar of Magics, A (Hardcover)

Beautiful Jane Brailsford isn't a teacher at Glasscastle--no woman would be allowed such a role--but she is does teach mathmatics at a rival university in France. She's in England on a mission central to the world's future. The warden of the West has refused to take up his position and the entire world is spinning toward disaster. Her task, set by the new warden of the North, is to persuade him to take up his post. If she can even find him. Because the new warden is Lambert's roommate, the two form an uneasy alliance.

Author Caroline Stevermer puts her emphasis on world-building and the subtle interplay between characters. Jane and Lambert share an attraction that neither knows how to relate to in the world of Victorian manners and morals. Even as they try to determine what is keeping the warden from taking his job and what is wrong with the Agincourt project, their attentions are distracted by romance. Lambert's fascination with Jane is overshadowed by his fascination with Glasscastle itself--a university where Americans, especially working-class Americans like himself, would never be admitted.

A SCHOLAR OF MAGICS is a leisurely journey through a time when manners mattered, when a woman's virtue could still be ruined, and when the vast speed of thirty-five miles an hour was almost unthinkable.

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Plus, a very finely drawn and grown-up romance that is (saints preserve us!) chaste! What a refreshing change to have virtue lauded and not mocked. It's hard, well really almost impossible to find a fantasy or science fiction novel (let alone a romance novel) in which the main characters' romance is both historically realistic and exciting to read AND doesn't rely on near pornographic episodes of lust to keep the story moving. I applaud Stevermer for her writing skills in this. Lesser authors shy from writing about true love sincerely. It was also touching to read of the married Brailsfords' domestic tranquility that was also neither denigrated nor viewed sarcastically.

On the whole, A Scholar of Magics felt more "real" to me than did "A College of Magics." More grounded in experience and personal feeling than her other books. Perhaps it's because Glasscastle is set in England rather than College's Galazon, the imaginary country of the first novel, and also the literary quotes that frame the chapters are from real literature, not imaginary books as in many fantasy novels. I particularly liked how she pulled out the quote from C.S. Lewis to begin the novel, about ever seeking and bringing others to one's true country. I would be interested in reading more about why she chose to use quotations from the play that she did and how it sparked her imagination to take the novel in the direction that it did.

I have read a lot of fantasy, both the literary stuff and the common commercial pulp and despite the time lag between novels Stevermer is an author worth waiting for and holding on to.

Suitable for high school and up, no profanity or improper situations to worry about and the magic used is neither occultic nor frivolous. The villains are villainous but not frightening, and the danger is tense but never gruesome or violent. Highly recommended. Enjoy!

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