A College of Magics

Rating:
Summary: A most elegant example of the three volume novel.
Review: There is just something so elegant and civilized about this book. I was well into it by the time I realized that it was a "woman's novel", and by then I didn't care. The atmosphere reminded me of the 19th century British and French novels that I enjoyed in school. I am rather amazed that a contemporary can recapture the gentility and civility of a world gone by. Of course, it is a world with a twist. Here you have a Victorian(or is it Edwardian?) world with its obsession over steam engines and empires, while simultaneously acknowleging the existance of magic and occult forces in that world. It seems a most elegant and reasonable balance, neither too mechanistic, nor too metaphysical- a civilized balance. This book is part mystery, part swashbuckler, and part gothic. All of it is clever and filled with true wit.

Rating:
Summary: Worth more than one read
Review: This book has the unusual quality of never quite letting you know what time frame you're in. It was done so perfectly that i hardly noticed it happening and once I did it gave the book that magical quality one wants from a fantasy. The story is about a girl who gets sent away to school far from her homeland so that her uncle can rule while she's gone. The school she is sent to is not an ordinary one but a school where one goes to become a witch. Once she leaves school the story continues with how she deals with her uncle and the enemies she has made. She is accompanied by a number of supporting characters that make this story what it is. This book is one that will stay in your mind for quite a while after finishing. The only thing i didn't like about this book was that when the story was over i still wanted to know more.

Rating:
Summary: just downright bad
Review: This book is my idea of a bad book. I love to read so much that I never thought I would see myself write those words. As far as I know, ANY book is better than this one(with the exeption of A WIZARD NAMED NELL, but that was because it had no originality whatsoever.) (...)One more thing, I am a firm believer in the fact that you can judge a book by its cover, but this is an exeption. It LOOKS like a good book, but be warned: DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK UNLESS EITHER YOU DO NOT PLAN TO READ IT OR YOU HAVE NO OTHER CHOICE!
My cousin and I were both fooled by this books' intresting plot and neat cover. I just hope no one else will be as stupid.

Rating:
Summary: Nice Read
Review: This is a good book, and it's long..so you probably won't finish it in a day, but that's good because the story of Faris, Duchess of Galzanon, will last longer. Faris is sent to GreenLaw College to learn magic, although you can't practice it there, but her uncle Brinker sends for her to return to Galzanon...There are exciting things that happen at college, on her way home, and thereafter for Faris, Jane, Tyrian, Reed, etc...This is a good book. I wouldn't recommend for kids under 14/15 because it's probably too difficult for them to read. After all, it's about a college, not an elementary/middle school.

You won't be dissapointed if you like Harry Potter, Edge Chronicles, Bartimaeus trilogy, etc.



Rating:
Summary: Hoping for more to follow
Review: This is a lovely book. Faris is sent away to school, and sorely misses her beloved country. The story of her education, her leaving the school, and what she does to save her beloved duchy of Galazon is part fantasy, part history, and wholly worth reading. I've re-read the book several times, and by now the characters have lodged in my brain. I liked this one so much I bought an extra copy to give to a friend. Be a friend to yourself; buy yourself a copy now

Rating:
Summary: Mixture of Love and Magic
Review: This is one of those books that you have the feeling the author just put the word Magic in the title to get a fantasy reader's attention. The actual magic in the book is touched upon, but to me the book focused more upon the love of Faris and Tyrian. It seemed to me to drag in places, as though the author was really stretching to make it longer for some reason, and in other places she seems to rush and skim over areas (particularly when discussing the whole 'warden' issue), some of which are quite important. My favorite part of the entire book was definately the end, I'd say it's worth putting up with the minor unpleasantries simply for the ending, it's just masterful and stunning, not at all what I'd predicted.

Rating:
Summary: Phenomenal Review
Review: _A College of Magics_ has common themes and characters for a YA novel. Although the main characters are college students, I'd say the target audience is high school students, or possibly junior high. Faris Nallaneen, underage Duchess of Glazon and student at Greenlaw College, is the character readers are supposed to identify with. She's too tall, awkward, lacking in social graces, and only a so-so student. The movement of the book is that Faris eventually finds her place in the world as an adult, and (since this is a fantasy novel) discovers she has great magic powers previously unknown to her. Faris also overcomes her rival (and distant relative) Menary Paganell. In a nonfantasy Menary would be the head cheerleader-shallow, childish, vain, totally self-centered, and sexually aggressive. Jane Brailsford is another student more successful than Faris-sensible, self-confident, cool-headed, and completely knowledgeable about worldly matters like clothes. However, Jane befriends and educates Faris.

Faris begins the book in considerable conflict with her Uncle Brinker, Regent of Glazon. Faris suspects Brinker doesn't want to vacate the throne on her majority. After considerable confusion and drama, Faris learns the common YA lesson that relatives aren't as evil as teenagers think. True, Brinker is dishonest and intentionally irritating-but their relationship is resolved after a fashion. On a more cosmic scale, Faris is assigned to use her magic powers to heal something vague called "the rift" in the city of Avaris, capital of the Pagenells' kingdom. This is closely paralleled by healing rifts in political and family relationships-the Nallaneens and Pagenells quarreled over sovereignty issues in a previous generation.

The book's extreme wholesomeness is also very YA. There is no sex more intimate than a kiss (and only a couple of kisses). (Admittedly the book is set in an alternate Edwardian world, and Edwardian noblewomen weren't supposed to have premarital sex.) The value of responsibility is often stressed. Faris is even held up by a highwayman who turns out to be a former childhood playmate. This gives the author the opportunity of explaining that a ruler who imposes taxes that subjects can't possibly pay, drives them to crime.

In the end conditions are set up for Faris to finally marry the man she loves-and she doesn't. No believable reason is given. I suspect the author wanted to keep her options open for a sequel about Faris . (_Scholar of Magics_ is not it, the connections are only peripheral.)