Larbalestier, Justine: Magic's Child
Magic's Child
Writer: Justine Larbalestier
Genre: Young Adult/Urban Fantasy
Pages: 291
I told you that I'd probably read something a little light and fun before jumping back into Kay Kenyon's A World Too Near, and I was right. Magic's Child seemed like the perfect fit because it's a book that ends the trilogy and wouldn't leave me wanting for the next installment. I was really happy with both Magic or Madness and Magic Lessons, so I was looking forward to seeing how the conclusion would turn out.
Spoilers ahead, and I should make one thing VERY CLEAR about this trilogy: it's not wise to read these books out of order. They could stand alone, but let's be real: each book takes place minutes after the previous book ends. These are NOT the kind of books you read out of order. In all actuality, Larbalestier's trilogy could be easily published as an omnibus and you'd really never know they'd originally been three books.
That said...
Like I said, this book takes place just moments after Magic Lessons ends. It was a little disconcerting, actually, even though I should've been expecting it. For a while I was wondering the point of it all, but time is a major factor with these books, particularly with Jay-Tee, who was THISCLOSE to dying in the second book. After all, it's magic or madness, and the more you use your magic, the closer you are to dying.
The final installment has Reason struggling with her new magic and the fact of her pregnancy. All of this is complicated by the social worker who pops in for a check-up, a subplot that I wish could've had more consequence/relativity to the plot than it did. Reason can't sleep because every time she does, she sees the "real" world of magic, where magic is revealed as gleaming pinpoints of light. And every time she eats, she vomits, a sign that we first think is morning sickness, but isn't (can't be, since she's so barely pregnant). Reason's body is changing, and once she starts moving in and out of the real world of magic, the more she changes to magical eyes. She glows, she looses all of her hair, and her eyes and skin tone transform into a beautiful bronzy color. She doesn't need to eat or sleep and she can't feel: temperature, emotions, nothing.
Reason's losing touch with her humanity, while Jay-Tee is getting reacquainted with hers. She almost dies again, but Reason manages to save her by breaking the threads of magic. Great for Jay-Tee because she doesn't have to worry about dying young or going mad, but bad because she realizes her whole life was based on magic, and now she doesn't have it anymore. It's a touching subplot, because Jay-Tee doesn't do much in this book but come to grips with who and what she is now, and also, she falls for Tom.
Tom falls for her too. And that's pretty much all he does in this book, save for tell his sister the truth about his magic and in the end, decide to keep the magic rather than be saved from it. Neat conflict for his decision, but all and all, he wasn't a major player in the story.
Even Esmeralda was a minor player in this book. She tagged along while Reason sought out her mother, who was taken by her grandfather Jason Blake. Esmeralda offers Reason her magical strength when Reason needs it most, but other than that, there's nothing for this character. Which is sad, because the character was so complex and fascinating.
But we did get Jason Blake again, and we learned a little more about him and the Cansino family as a whole. Jason cares about nothing but magic, and reveals that emotional attachments mean nothing, because in the end, you'll steal magic from other users (like your family) in order to stay alive. The expansion of this idea, of mothers and sons and fathers and daughters loving and betraying each other all to stay alive was a really cool one, but at that point, I found myself suddenly wishing this book were dark fantasy so the real repercussions could be explored. Because ultimately, Reason understands magic for what it is: greed.
Magic-users don't wield magic. Magic wields the user. It drives the user and makes them self-centered, self-serving. But not everyone turns greedy or bad. Tom explains it best: It's like if you get rich. Money makes lots of people not good people. They get greedy and worry about losing their money and how to make more and they go all evil (281-282). And in Reason's case, she's rapidly reaching the point where she's BECOMING magic, where she'll never emerge from Cansino's world and she won't care about the friends and family she has, let alone the fate of her kid.
The good is that Reason makes a sacrifice, and she brings her family down with her. Her realizations drive her to cure whoever wants to be cured (like Tom's mom) before cutting her own magical threads, which because her family has special Cansino magic, somehow, cutting hers means cutting her family's too. No, don't ask me the logic behind it, because I can't explain. It works well enough in the book, but it's a rather sudden explanation, provided once more by Jason Blake, who always seems to have the answers people are looking for at all the right times, which got a little annoying in this book.
The bad, aside from sudden revelations that don't make total sense (see above) or do but are a little unsatisfying (it was Old Man Cansino drawing Reason and Danny together--he wanted Reason pregnant so he could bestow his magic on her and the child, which not only DOESN'T make sense, but is more than a little creepy). I wasn't pleased with the resolution of Jason Blake. After losing his magic, he just disappears, and save for Tom receiving an anonymous package of keys and addresses to magic doors, we don't know what happened to him. I like the rather realistic touch of Reason, Mere, and Sarafina struggling to all live together and deal with their mistakes, but it flew by in summary, which is a shame, even though for the target audience, not much more was really needed.
Reason's baby having normal magic was nice touch at the end, and I'm glad Tom still had the magic to see it. However, it opens up the "world" for another set of books, maybe focusing on Reason's daughter, Magic. I'm with Tom on the name--it might be cute in terms of a family reminder, but it still makes me cringe.
It's a good book, but out of the three, I think it's the weakest. The strongest, ironically, is the second, Magic Lessons (second books have a bad rap for being the weakest in a trilogy/series). I think Magic's Child suffered a bit from having too much to wrap up and tie together. Everything happened really fast, but not necessarily in a way that made causal sense. Still, it's quite the enjoyable trilogy, and I still intend to hold the premise driving the books as a shining beacon of how to make a really cool magic system that has consequences. In fact, given what I learned from this book, it really makes me want to explore a similar idea in an adult, dark fantasy novel, but that's a long way off from what I'm writing now. ;)
Recommended? Definitely, but do yourself a favor and start with Magic or Madness, because like I said earlier, these aren't books you can really enjoy out of order.
Next up (I promise!): A World Too Near: Book Two of the Entire and the Rose by Kay Kenyon