Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. Her ebullient wordplay (the crucial eleventh world is both elven and devilish) her humor both slapstick and satirical and her prestidigitation with ideas should delight her fans (the wicked Dright says, "I put them into the form which is easiest to deal with " and, as Jones adds, "Like everything he said, this was full of other meaning").Ĭhainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.Įvery four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Never simplistic, Jones rarely creates a wholly good or wholly evil character. Christopher learns much more than magic-including how he appears to others and what those others are behind their masks, magic and otherwise-as well as loyalty and compassion. Meanwhile, back in 12A, he becomes the Chrestomanci's ward and heir and discovers how he has been used by the evil forces-just in time to make some clever, and daring, rescues. Exploring other worlds, Christopher is made the dupe of illicit smugglers of dragon's blood and mermaid parts. Christopher (who appears as a full-fledged magician in Charmed Life, etc.) is here an apprentice with access to an array of parallel worlds: in one (12B, recognizably ours), technology began its vigorous growth in the 14th century in Christopher's (12A), a complex system of available magic seems to be as luxuriant and fascinating (or daunting) as technology is in 12B. An incredibly inventive fantasist inundates the reader with a cascade of magic, so artfully deployed that it never threatens to weigh down her buoyant story.
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