![]() ![]() The story follows Galadriel “El” Higgins, a tremendously powerful sorceress with an affinity for world-destroying dark magic who’s spent her school career fighting her worst impulses-and at times the school itself-to choose the path of light. Full of monstrous creatures (known as “mals”) constantly trying to eat them alive on their way to class, the students must make uncomfortable, often class-based compromises to live until graduation, as the rich kids with better access to power and weapons take advantage of the less fortunate and the kids who don’t come from established enclaves make all manner of moral trade-offs to survive. Yet, if there is any series worth dipping your toe pack into this particular subgenre for, it is Naomi Novik’s Scholomance trilogy, a compelling and morally complex saga about a magical school that trains up young witches and wizards by requiring them to fight for their lives from the moment they arrive. Let’s just say it’s not a surprise that a lot of people have decided to simply read other things. After all, rightly or wrongly, most of them still exist in the shadow of the Harry Potter franchise, and given everything that has happened in the real world since that fictional one concluded, well. Many fantasy fans these days likely have some understandably mixed feelings about stories set in magical boarding schools. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |