A Scholar of Magics (A College of Magics) (Hardcover)

by Caroline Stevermer (Author) "Samuel Lambert, all too aware of his responsibilities as a guest, saw with dismay that there were loose bits of tea leaf in the bottom..." (more)
Key Phrases: long journey over water, new warden, wild talent, Miss Brailsford, Nicholas Fell, Agincourt Project (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
In this sequel to Stevermer's charming fantasy of manners, A College of Magics (1994), set in an alternate Edwardian age, Jane Brailsford, the indomitable and fashionable sorceress from France's Greenlaw College, hooks up in England with handsome American sharpshooter Samuel Lambert. The sorcerous Fellows at Glasscastle University have recruited Lambert to perform field tests for a magical weapon. Jane has been charged with compelling Lambert's roommate, professor Nicholas Fell, to assume the mystical duties of the warden of the west. Fell, though, detects a disturbance in the music of the spheres that he believes he must rectify before accepting the wardenship. Unknown others, however, also have designs on both Fell and the wardenship. While the plot is mostly inconsequential, the descriptions of life at Glasscastle University, together with the sheer zest of the characters for magic, truth and fashion, make this a sweet, if slow, magical romance. This is the perfect read for those who enjoy taking ambling walks in orderly alternate worlds where calling cards and starched collars still help make a man.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
The sequel to A College of Magics (2002) takes place in the same magical, Victorian-Edwardian Britain, and shows yet again that Stevermer is a worthy follower of Jane Austen for wit, of Dorothy Sayers for suspense and erudition. Samuel Lambert, sharpshooter, formerly of Kiowa Bob's Wild West Show, has been invited to Glasscastle University to contribute his shooting skills to the secret Agincourt Project. At first, things are somewhat dull, especially since he isn't supposed to drink even beer. But then the provost's modish sister, a magician, comes to town, and Samuel becomes hip-deep in spies, auto chases, mysterious assailants in bowler hats, and you-name-it. This emerging series will likely draw readers from across a very wide spectrum of the fantasy and alternate history audiences, including--indeed, never forgetting--the adult readership for the adventures of the boy named Harry. And Stevermer is fast rising to a place in fantasy comparable to that of prolific fantasist for children and adults Diana Wynne-Jones. Frieda Murray
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (April 15, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765303086
• ISBN-13: 978-0765303080
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #903,025 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Riproaring read, June 29, 2004

By	Woodbuckley (Australia) - See all my reviews

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.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Victorian fantasy unlike anything else, very worthy read, May 19, 2004

By	LeeAnn Balbirona (Washington state) - See all my reviews

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!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An alternate-Edwardian romp, October 16, 2004

By	Elisabeth Carey (Lawrence, MA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.