(no subject)
A Scholar of Magics is probably a more coherent book than A College of Magics, but it doesn't hit so many of my personal fictional buttons - there's not nearly as much ladyfriendship or dorky schoolgirl hijinks, the drama is not as dramatic, and it's a bit less full of ladies crankily and competently saving the day.
On the other hand, it does have cranky minor-character undergraduates accidentally saving the day while pursuing their professor to just GRADE THEIR PAPERS ALREADY, THEY NEED THEIR GPA, which is almost as good!
Also it has the fabulous Jane coolly being fabulous as she relentlessly mocks the all-boy's British magical college to which she has come On A Mission From Faris, and a new awesome character in Sam Lambert, who is basically the most adorable gun-toting rugged Wild West cowboy ever to appear in a work of fiction. Sam's an obviously incongruous figure in this book, a sharpshooter who's been hired by aforementioned very upper-crust British magical college to help them with developing a Mysterious Weapon by demonstrating his Sharpshooting Skills, and - okay, one of the romances of the story is Jane/Sam and it's extremely cute, but the other main romance of the story, and arguably the more important one, is Sam/University. Sam just wants to broaden his horizons, guys! He loves books and has a secret fondness for the opera, and he enjoys telling very straight-faced tall tales with absolutely zero swagger, and people are constantly patting him on the hand and telling him he's a lamb and he is like "a lamb? really? D:" and I laughed every time. Basically he is a sweetheart, and, okay, I apologize to half my flist here, but I sort of sympathized with his quiet despair at the inevitability of always, always being offered another cup of tea.
So I did love Sam, and I did also love Sam and Jane - Caroline Stevermer is an author who is really good at showing the way that long road trips wear on people, by the way; a romance that survives six cranky, sulky hours in the car with inadequate directions is a romance that may indeed last! - but all the same I missed Faris, and the mixture of quiet good sense and WILD RURITANIAN MELODRAMA that characterized the end of the last book.
I also now desperately want a crossover with the Chrestomanci books. I mean - Jane and Christopher. Jane and MILLIE. It would be glorious!
On the other hand, it does have cranky minor-character undergraduates accidentally saving the day while pursuing their professor to just GRADE THEIR PAPERS ALREADY, THEY NEED THEIR GPA, which is almost as good!
Also it has the fabulous Jane coolly being fabulous as she relentlessly mocks the all-boy's British magical college to which she has come On A Mission From Faris, and a new awesome character in Sam Lambert, who is basically the most adorable gun-toting rugged Wild West cowboy ever to appear in a work of fiction. Sam's an obviously incongruous figure in this book, a sharpshooter who's been hired by aforementioned very upper-crust British magical college to help them with developing a Mysterious Weapon by demonstrating his Sharpshooting Skills, and - okay, one of the romances of the story is Jane/Sam and it's extremely cute, but the other main romance of the story, and arguably the more important one, is Sam/University. Sam just wants to broaden his horizons, guys! He loves books and has a secret fondness for the opera, and he enjoys telling very straight-faced tall tales with absolutely zero swagger, and people are constantly patting him on the hand and telling him he's a lamb and he is like "a lamb? really? D:" and I laughed every time. Basically he is a sweetheart, and, okay, I apologize to half my flist here, but I sort of sympathized with his quiet despair at the inevitability of always, always being offered another cup of tea.
So I did love Sam, and I did also love Sam and Jane - Caroline Stevermer is an author who is really good at showing the way that long road trips wear on people, by the way; a romance that survives six cranky, sulky hours in the car with inadequate directions is a romance that may indeed last! - but all the same I missed Faris, and the mixture of quiet good sense and WILD RURITANIAN MELODRAMA that characterized the end of the last book.
I also now desperately want a crossover with the Chrestomanci books. I mean - Jane and Christopher. Jane and MILLIE. It would be glorious!