(no subject)

[skygiants]

I reread A College of Magics recently, which I loved all over again, although also I had forgotten how very weird it is, pacing-wise.

A reminder/recap: A College of Magics is the one about a young duchess from a Ruritanian country who gets shipped off to British magic college by her half-wicked uncle, and then brings her best and most extremely British school friend with her to deal with her complicated Ruritanian politics and also fix some magical danger while she's at it.

Last time I read the book I thought it was like a three-volume novel, with school as the volume and wacky road trip as the second and Ruritanian politics as the third; on a reread, though, it's almost more like a two-volume novel, with the college hijinks very strangely divorced from the rest of the story. Like, Faris makes a whole bunch of friends, and has some teacher-mentors, and does some schoolwork, and after the first hundred pages precisely NONE of this is relevant except for one single friendship. The meat of the book is Faris and her Best British Friend Jane and her Hot Competent Bodyguard Tyrion having a fairly epic trans-continental adventure.

And it is pretty epic! The pacing stuff is actually just a sidenote to what I really want to talk about, which is the legitimately tragic ending.

Like, okay -- what struck me this time, even more than the pacing, is how much Faris' love for her duchy is the central, driving passion of the novel. Faris loves her land and her people more than ANYTHING, and in the end she has to lose that.

And I mean, it's nice that she gets to keep her feelings for Tyrion and they get a workable although DEEPLY WEIRD happy ending. I ship it, I'm happy for them! (I am also still stuck on how many body issues Tyrion is going to have, being stuck in the new middle-aged body of a person he hated! SO MANY BODY ISSUES!)

But she loses Galazon. I think that's one of the most legitimately huge sacrifices I've seen the protagonist in a YA novel deal with -- and honestly, losing Tyrion would have been much less tragic in the long run. Because Tyrion is nice, but Galazon is a core part of who she is. Losing Tyrion doesn't make her a different person. Losing Galazon does.

So . . . yeah. DISCUSS.

As a sidenote, I am really curious now about Menary and Agnes and their childhood, because there's a whole lot hinted there that we don't see, and that Faris doesn't really care about because she doesn't like either of them. BUT I CARE. Agnes seems to both care about her sister and be afraid that what happened to her is going to happen to her baby; I want to know more about that!

(I also love how mad Faris is about thinking that her hated uncle's baby is actually really adorable. SPLENDID BABY. OH FARIS.)

Comments

[ceitfianna]

I recently read this book and yes, it left me with a weird feeling as well. There were so many great ideas and concepts in it but I think it would have worked better spread out more.

[skygiants]

I mean, don't get me wrong, I really like College of Magics! It's one of those books where I think the flaws are one of the things that makes it more interesting than if it had been perfect, if you know what I mean.

[ceitfianna]

I liked it as well, it just wasn't what I expected.

Vague spoilers for the end below?

[betony]

Oh, I loved this book! I remember, the first time I read it, being SO DISAPPOINTED that it wasn't the lulzy magical college adventure it started off as in the first seventy or so pages, not to mention that most of the Greenlaw characters sort of...were never mentioned again? Not that Jane isn't fun enough to make up for their absence! I just liked them, too, and I thought they were being set up for bigger parts than they really were.
(Also, YES--I want to know all about Agnes and Menary and their relationship with each other and their father....and Brinker and Faris, before the novel begins....and the first Prosperian....and oh dear, I think I am already adding this novel to my Yuletide request shortlist :)
But re: the end--I agree completely. It didn't much help that I shipped Faris/Galazon, so to speak, far more than Faris/Tyrion, and that his explanation for the, ah, transfer and not mentioning that kind of important detail for days?/weeks? (either way, a significant amount of time IIRC) never made much sense to me. But that aside, for once a Super Special Destiny comes with consequences, and Stevermer never gives Faris an easy out (with the exception of the deus ex machina above), for which I would love this book for even if it weren't delightful to begin with.

Re: Vague spoilers for the end below?

[skygiants]

Yeah, I liked the rest of the Greenlaw characters too! I was actually hoping we might see them in the sequel, because I would have LOVED a book about how ain't nobody messing with Jane and her clique, but alas, it was not to be.

(;ksjfddsPLEASE DO, do it for me, my shortlist is so long and I need other people to request all the things I desperately want!)

Hahaha oh my God the big misunderstanding at the end. I mean, in a way it's kind of hilarious that he's all "I thought you would just somehow KNOW! Because it's true love!" Because HOW THE HECK WOULD SHE KNOW. I did enjoy the subversion there. But yeah, I shipped Faris/Galazon more than ANYTHING, but it's also such a genuine-feeling sacrifice -- of course she has to lose it.

Re: Vague spoilers for the end below?

[thistleingrey]

Yes! I like what I remember of Scholar, but it would've been nice to see more of Greenlaw. And definite yes to Faris/Galazon, the fallout of which is not really something Scholar cares about, as I (dimly) recall.

Re: Vague spoilers for the end below?

[skygiants]

Yeah, I enjoyed Scholar too, and Jane and Sam were both charming and delightful to spend time with, but I missed Faris and Jane-and-Faris enormously.

[lacewood]

I love A College of Magics. I distantly recognise the love as being maybe kind of irrational, because it's actually a PRETTY WEIRD book, AND YET I LOVE IT. I suspect a lot of my love is because it IS so strange and yet it's what makes the book fascinating - Faris in all her Faris-ness, the fact that she gives up Galazon, that she can go home but she can never truly go home again, and that this will change her but in the end, it's not going to break her? And the feeling that there are so many other things happening off the page, and all the other characters have their own stories that we're just not hearing, even Evil Uncle Brinker.

The ending with Tyrion cracks me up though, because he's SO GRUMPY and A LITTLE BIT TERRIFIED but he's Tyrion so... hey, he'll figure it out eventually. XD

Oh man, now I totally want to see the sequel where we actually watch watch Faris be a Guardian (rather than via vague hearsay from Jane) and scandalise everyone with Tyrion, oh my god.

[batyatoon]

I likewise love this book, despite its weirdness.

[skygiants]

The weirdest books are the greatest books, basically.

[skygiants]

IT'S SO GREAT THOUGH. I am in full agreement, the weirdness is a huge part of what makes it so delightful! It's not really a story you can predict in any way, which I think is part of what makes it feel so engrossing -- because there's so much going on beneath everyone's surface beyond what Faris sees, which makes them of course feel that much more real.

Fanfic! FANFIIIIIIC. I really want to know why no one has written this fic yet, because it's SO NECESSARY.

[lacewood]

Haha, it's so true about the unpredictability. I certainly would not have predicted that halfway through the climax Faris would be KIDNAPPED BY REVOLUTIONARIES, FLIRTED WITH, and then have to turn down an invitation to take over Galazon's annoying neighbour duchy because she has to save the world (also NO ONE WOULD EVER PREDICT TYRION. I feel this is scientific truth.)

There's really enough plot for an entire trilogy, but somehow it works because look, Faris really isn't interested in these shenanigans, okay, she just wants to go home to Galazon, IS THAT SO MUCH TO ASK (yes)

I imagine we're all intimidated by the thought of following up on Stevermer's particular brand of madness. But SURELY someone out there is equal to the task.

[skygiants]

I think from the moment Tyrion had ill-advised sex and subsequently TURNED INTO A TRAUMATIZED KITTEN, I was like ". . . I have no idea where this book is going. AND I LOVE IT."

[azara]

I loved this book, but did find the direction it took a bit strange.

It's a long time since I read it, and what I remember best about it is that quite a small thing threw me out of the story. Greenlaw College is such an English name, but it turns out to be in France, not in England at all.
But why is it called Greenlaw? niggled at me for the rest of the book.

Also, the Poland/Slovakia/Hungary/Romania area where Galazon is supposed to be located is too far south of me to have any 'northern' resonances at all, so someone from there ending up as the Warden of the North strikes comes across as a bit odd.

[skygiants]

Haha, I totally forgot the college turned out to be in France! It's always been in England in my head -- everyone there is so tremendously British.