First Published: 1994

Rating: Average

"Faris Nallaneen arrived at the gates of Greenlaw on the same day winter did."

I picked up Caroline Stevermer's A College of Magics some years ago for one reason. The front cover blurb by Jane Yolen promised that it was "a large step up...from Harry Potter."

Having finally read Stevermer's sizeable tale within the last few days, I have to say I respectfully disagree with Yolen. Readers who pick up A College of Magics expecting it to be like Harry Potter will be sorely disappointed; the boy wizard hadn't even reached print when Stevermer's book was published in 1994. The similarities are there, but are few in number, and the books are so utterly different in style, tone, and plot that comparing them will only lead readers to believe that A College of Magics is something it's not.

In the Edwardian era, Faris Nallaneen, Duchess of Galazon, has been sent away to Greenlaw College by Brinker, her regent and uncle. Homesick and forced to stay at the college year-round by Brinker, she gets her wish to go home when she is expelled, along with Menary, her arch-enemy and the daughter of the king that holds Galazon in his domain. But there's a catch--the Dean of the College asks Faris to pay a call to the mysterious Hilarion in Paris on the way home, and when she does, she's told that she's the Warden of the North and must mend the rift in the magic of the world.

Accompanying her on her quest are friend Jane Brailsford, former student and current tutor at Greenlaw; Reed, a servant of her family's household who has been sent to bear her back home again; and Tyrian, Faris's mysterious bodyguard. Dodging assassination attempts and trying on new clothes, they make their way to Galazon to find it much changed. And as much as Faris wants to stay and help her people, she's dead-set on doing what she set out from Paris to do—fix the tear in the fabric of the world.

It's a good read, but more of a romance with a bit of fantasy sprinkled in than vice-versa. Faris's time at Greenlaw is over by the time the first third of the book has passed, and we never really learn how magic works or what role it plays in the world Stevermer has created. All this makes Faris's appointment as the Warden of the North seem unimportant, since we have no idea what that role entails.

A College of Magics is written in a style befitting of the period it's set in and has a couple of historical in-jokes that won't make sense to anyone who hasn't studied the era. But the story's biggest flaw is the plot. By turns hurried and drawn out, the story picks up characters and plotlines that seem interesting but drops them in short order without explanation. When the story finally gets to where it's going, it ends up so surreal that it's hard to tell why what happened happened--or how and why it happened, for that matter.

The meandering of the plot results in a lack of urgency. I never really cared about any of the characters except for Tyrian (and then only because I'm a sucker for mysterious stoics) or their ultimate goal because at times they didn't seem to care about what they were doing themselves. Fans of historical fantasy might enjoy this venture into the magic of the early 1900's, as will anyone who enjoys snappy dialogue, which is what keeps the story afloat at those times when it starts to drag. Ultimately, though, A College of Magics is disjointed and comes to an unsatisfying conclusion after 468 pages of reading that is not exactly light.

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