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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Victorian fantasy unlike anything else, very worthy read, May 19, 2004
I disagree quite a bit with other reviewers' statements that A Scholar of Magics is not as good as A College of Magics. I think Scholar is much better overall: better development of the characters, more realistic feel to the fantasy side of the alternate Victorian England, more explanation of what magic is as defined by Stevermer's creation. 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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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Riproaring read, June 28, 2004
I could not put this down once I had started it. From the first chapter I just had to find out what would happen in this alteranate magic world of Edwardian Great Britain. Glasscastle is the University of Magic - and a very traditional, English hidebound one full of arguing highly eccentric Fellows and university politics. Samuel Lambert is a sharp-shooting American recruited by the university on a top secret weapons plan, The Agincourt Project. He is fascinated by the university and its scholarship, if not its prejudices and professors. Then Jane Brailsford sweeps onto the scene. She is a witch, a very feminist one, who is a teacher at the female magical college in France of Greenlaw. She is at Glasscastle not just to harry her professor brother Robert, but to persuade Nicholas Fell (the most eccentric of eccentrics) to take up his post as Warden of the West. The tale then takes off with great velocity, nearly as fast and enthusiastically as Jane does in her brother's motor car as she sets about her tasks. For there is more going on in England than meets the eye, there is something wrong with magic itself and Fell is determined to refuse his post until he can heal the problem. The whole magical world created by Stevermer is wonderfully realized and believable through its grounding in realities. Magic is presented as a strong part of this world without too much oohing and aahing. Then the characters of Lambert and Jane are so well presented, and so very engaging. They strike sparks off each other, but are never shrill or stupid or unnecessarily argumentative. Jane resents the stupid prejudices against women, but does not belay the point continually. She simply goes ahead regardless, but is not revoltingly feisty. The mysteries and dangerous plots are full of surprises, but not so obscure as to defy our puzzlings. There is a choice of villains and a great piece of villainy in the Agincourt weapon itself. The legend of Comus comes into the tale very magically and is woven into it. Villainy is of course defeated and Lambert is granted his desire to study at Glasscastle. I await very impatiently what will happen next.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An alternate-Edwardian romp, October 16, 2004
Jane Brailsford, a student at Greenlaw College in A College of Magics, has now been an instructor there for several years. She visits her brother Robert, a Senior Fellow at Glasscastle University, England's premier school of magic, and his wife Amy while on holiday for the first time in years, and won't quite admit that this is odd enough to need an explanation. On arriving, she meets another visitor at Glasscastle, Samuel Lambert, an American sharpshooter who has been retained by the University in connection with a highly secret defense research project. Mr. Lambert is interesting enough in his own right, but he's also staying with Nicholas Fell, another Senior Fellow, who, it turns out, is the real reason for Jane's visit. The old Warden of the West has died, and Nicholas Fell should be, must be, the new one, but he has determinedly resisted taking up the post, and rejected all efforts at communication from the other three Wardens. Why won't Dr. Fell do what he ought to do? What does the research project Samuel's involved in have to do with it-and what's the goal of the research project anyway? Who are the mysterious figures that keep walking across Glasscastle's lawn and breaking into Fell's study? And why are Samuel and Jane the only ones who can see them? A very entertaining romp through an alternate Edwardian England.
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