Magic Lessons by Justine Larbalestier
Dec. 2nd, 2007 04:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
"The rules of physics had been broken. Magic was real."
For fifteen year-old Reason Cansino and her friends Tom and Jay-Tee, magic is an unavoidable fact of life - one that carries a high price.
Reason, Tom and Jay-Tee have already learned about the terrible choice they must make: use their magic gifts and die young, or let their magic lie dormant and go mad. But many more lessons lie ahead. For Tom, it's time to find out what he is truly capable of, while Jay-Tee must face the consequences of abusing her magic. It's Reason though, who begins to unlock the secret knowledge that could save them all - or destroy them completely.
Having really enjoyed Magic or Madness, I had high hopes for Magic Lessons and whilst the second in this trilogy has the same high standards of writing that characterised the first, it was nevertheless slightly disappointing. There were two reasons for this. Firstly, the focus is still on world-building, this time with the new element of Raul Cansino, an ancestor of Reason's who everyone had presumed dead but who has become something inhuman and is controlling access through Esmeralda's door with New York, pouring his own magic into the Cansino's and appearing to have chosen Reason for something. Whilst world-building was a strong element in the first book, there is nevertheless some repetition of what we already know as to how magic works and what it's consequences are without adding a whole lot that's new. It's also a little frustrating to see Reason so slow on the uptake at times, particularly with regard to what Raul can do.
Secondly, the fact that there's so much attention to worldbuilding means that once again, there's not a great deal of plot and I felt myself waiting for something to happen. In fact, it was something of a relief to see Jason Blake come back on the scene, someone who clearly knows something about Raul but who is back to his dastardly tricks of stealing magic, thereby making himself unreliable. Larbalestier does focus on the crush that Reason has on Jay-Tee's brother Danny and ironically, this was for me one of the weakest parts of the book because of what happens between them. Without wishing to give too much away, I could see the pregnancy storyline coming a mile off and couldn't understand why the 18 year old, sexually active Danny wouldn't have some contraception on him or wouldn't even think about the consequences the next day. It is possible that there is a magical reason for all this and I am hoping that this is something that will come out in the final book in the trilogy, but for it to work Larbalestier will need to come up for an explanation as to why magical 'dead zone' Danny would have succumbed.
There were elements that I liked - Labalestier pulls no punches with what is happening to Jay-Tee, who finds herself having used up too much of her magic and facing a very early death. I also liked the way she handled Tom's realisation that Esmeralda has lied to him and stole some of his magic - it's a nice set up that helps to reinforce Esmeralda's moral ambiguity. I'd have liked to see more of Jason Blake, particularly as he risks being a two-dimensional villain unless we get some kind of additional element to his character. I'm also in awe of the way in which Labalestier skillfully slips between Reason's strong first person voice, and a third person narrative for Jay-Tee and Tom, giving all of them their own viewpoint. It's a difficult thing to pull off, but she makes it very natural.
The Verdict:
It doesn't have a lot of plot to it, which I find disappointing. The world-building remains strong and Larbalestier's writing is excellent. However, I'd query whether there is enough story here to actually sustain a trilogy and would suggest that this would have been better served as being split between two books.
For fifteen year-old Reason Cansino and her friends Tom and Jay-Tee, magic is an unavoidable fact of life - one that carries a high price.
Reason, Tom and Jay-Tee have already learned about the terrible choice they must make: use their magic gifts and die young, or let their magic lie dormant and go mad. But many more lessons lie ahead. For Tom, it's time to find out what he is truly capable of, while Jay-Tee must face the consequences of abusing her magic. It's Reason though, who begins to unlock the secret knowledge that could save them all - or destroy them completely.
Having really enjoyed Magic or Madness, I had high hopes for Magic Lessons and whilst the second in this trilogy has the same high standards of writing that characterised the first, it was nevertheless slightly disappointing. There were two reasons for this. Firstly, the focus is still on world-building, this time with the new element of Raul Cansino, an ancestor of Reason's who everyone had presumed dead but who has become something inhuman and is controlling access through Esmeralda's door with New York, pouring his own magic into the Cansino's and appearing to have chosen Reason for something. Whilst world-building was a strong element in the first book, there is nevertheless some repetition of what we already know as to how magic works and what it's consequences are without adding a whole lot that's new. It's also a little frustrating to see Reason so slow on the uptake at times, particularly with regard to what Raul can do.
Secondly, the fact that there's so much attention to worldbuilding means that once again, there's not a great deal of plot and I felt myself waiting for something to happen. In fact, it was something of a relief to see Jason Blake come back on the scene, someone who clearly knows something about Raul but who is back to his dastardly tricks of stealing magic, thereby making himself unreliable. Larbalestier does focus on the crush that Reason has on Jay-Tee's brother Danny and ironically, this was for me one of the weakest parts of the book because of what happens between them. Without wishing to give too much away, I could see the pregnancy storyline coming a mile off and couldn't understand why the 18 year old, sexually active Danny wouldn't have some contraception on him or wouldn't even think about the consequences the next day. It is possible that there is a magical reason for all this and I am hoping that this is something that will come out in the final book in the trilogy, but for it to work Larbalestier will need to come up for an explanation as to why magical 'dead zone' Danny would have succumbed.
There were elements that I liked - Labalestier pulls no punches with what is happening to Jay-Tee, who finds herself having used up too much of her magic and facing a very early death. I also liked the way she handled Tom's realisation that Esmeralda has lied to him and stole some of his magic - it's a nice set up that helps to reinforce Esmeralda's moral ambiguity. I'd have liked to see more of Jason Blake, particularly as he risks being a two-dimensional villain unless we get some kind of additional element to his character. I'm also in awe of the way in which Labalestier skillfully slips between Reason's strong first person voice, and a third person narrative for Jay-Tee and Tom, giving all of them their own viewpoint. It's a difficult thing to pull off, but she makes it very natural.
The Verdict:
It doesn't have a lot of plot to it, which I find disappointing. The world-building remains strong and Larbalestier's writing is excellent. However, I'd query whether there is enough story here to actually sustain a trilogy and would suggest that this would have been better served as being split between two books.
