Skin Hunger, by Kathleen Duey (Book One of A Resurrection of Magic)
This is probably the best YA fantasy I've read all year: complex, compulsively readable, beautifully plotted, emotionally intense, and intelligent. I highly recommend it.
It begins somewhat uninspiringly, in the usual medievaloid vaguely-English landscape, with a village girl with a talent. That is Sadima, who can communicate with animals but must keep her talent a secret since magicians are, apparently, all frauds, and one of them was involved in the death of her mother.
Her story alternates with another one which is seemingly unconnected: in a time when magic is easily available to the wealthy, a rich man's despised son is packed off to the wizard's academy. Without any onstage gore or theatrical sadism, this is the single darkest portrayal of the fantasy standard, the school of magic, that I've ever encountered.
A great deal of the pleasure of reading this book involves slowly piecing together the connections between the two stories. One of the most important ones, not made clear within the book itself until about a third of the way in, is given away on the cover; I suggest that you read the book without reading the inside or back cover first.
Though it ends on a cliffhanger of sorts, I found it to be a very satisfying read on its own, and the structure of the first book is so cleverly and carefully thought-out that I would be very surprised if the subsequent books were disappointing.
Run! Run! Buy it now: Skin Hunger (A Resurrection of Magic)
Massive spoilers below, only read if you've already read the book. Spoilery comments welcome; don't read those if you haven't read the book.
Though we don't know the details of how and why the future and the horrible magic school came about, the basics seem easy to extrapolate:
Franklin stayed with Somiss to try to ameliorate his horribleness (FAIL, Franklin!), and Somiss brought magic back to the world with the help of his cadre of traumatized street kids, and they used magic to stay alive all these years. The brutality of the academy seems completely unnecessary; I guess that starvation and solitude worked for Somiss, so he figures that's what everyone needs. Plus he probably gets off on it. EW.
The big question is, what happened to Sadima? I hope she's off training her own secret academy of mixed-gender, non-traumatized wizards.
I loved the talking to various body parts. It was so weird, yet convincing precisely because it was so weird.
I wonder if magic actually did improve the world? Horrible poverty and injustice without war is better than horrible poverty and injustice without war. Still, I suspect that all it did was add new and different types of cruelty and exploitation.
It begins somewhat uninspiringly, in the usual medievaloid vaguely-English landscape, with a village girl with a talent. That is Sadima, who can communicate with animals but must keep her talent a secret since magicians are, apparently, all frauds, and one of them was involved in the death of her mother.
Her story alternates with another one which is seemingly unconnected: in a time when magic is easily available to the wealthy, a rich man's despised son is packed off to the wizard's academy. Without any onstage gore or theatrical sadism, this is the single darkest portrayal of the fantasy standard, the school of magic, that I've ever encountered.
A great deal of the pleasure of reading this book involves slowly piecing together the connections between the two stories. One of the most important ones, not made clear within the book itself until about a third of the way in, is given away on the cover; I suggest that you read the book without reading the inside or back cover first.
Though it ends on a cliffhanger of sorts, I found it to be a very satisfying read on its own, and the structure of the first book is so cleverly and carefully thought-out that I would be very surprised if the subsequent books were disappointing.
Run! Run! Buy it now: Skin Hunger (A Resurrection of Magic)
Massive spoilers below, only read if you've already read the book. Spoilery comments welcome; don't read those if you haven't read the book.
Though we don't know the details of how and why the future and the horrible magic school came about, the basics seem easy to extrapolate:
Franklin stayed with Somiss to try to ameliorate his horribleness (FAIL, Franklin!), and Somiss brought magic back to the world with the help of his cadre of traumatized street kids, and they used magic to stay alive all these years. The brutality of the academy seems completely unnecessary; I guess that starvation and solitude worked for Somiss, so he figures that's what everyone needs. Plus he probably gets off on it. EW.
The big question is, what happened to Sadima? I hope she's off training her own secret academy of mixed-gender, non-traumatized wizards.
I loved the talking to various body parts. It was so weird, yet convincing precisely because it was so weird.
I wonder if magic actually did improve the world? Horrible poverty and injustice without war is better than horrible poverty and injustice without war. Still, I suspect that all it did was add new and different types of cruelty and exploitation.