It's been awhile, but sometimes I like to profile an author whose books I've really enjoyed. This one may be a little out there for those of you who read this blog regularly. Naomi Novik is a fantasy writer whose stories are rooted in fairy tales and magical myths. I first discovered her several years ago when I read her stand-alone novel Uprooted, and it remains my favorite of her work.
series. I wasn't familiar with the legend of Romania's school of black magic called Scholomance, but Novik takes a few elements of her story from it. In the first book, A Deadly Education, El is in her junior year. In this world, young wizards are constantly being attacked by malefeceria, monsters that want to eat them for their mana. Mana is the magical energy that all sorcerers use. The school gives the students a 1 in 4 chance of surviving to adulthood (much improved over the odds outside the school) where they are much better prepared to protect themselves. El's great-grandmother prophesied that she would become a great dark wizard and destroy the world and El is determined not to fulfill the prophecy. I like El because she is grumpy and surly and unfriendly, but still determined to do the right thing, even to her own detriment. I finished the second book, The Last Graduate, this week and the ending was SHOCKING! Now I have to wait an eternity for the last book in the series to be released.
