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Schooled in Magic #1
Schooled in Magic
Emily is a teenage girl pulled from our world into a world of magic and mystery by a necromancer who intends to sacrifice her to the dark gods. Rescued in the nick of time by an enigmatic sorcerer, she discovers that she possesses magical powers and must go to Whitehall School to learn how to master them. There, she learns the locals believe that she is a "Child of Destiny," someone whose choices might save or damn their world ... a title that earns her both friends and enemies. A stranger in a very strange land, she may never fit into her new world ...
...and the necromancer is still hunting her. If Emily can't stop him, he might bring about the end of days.
...and the necromancer is still hunting her. If Emily can't stop him, he might bring about the end of days.
357 pages, ebook
First published February 25, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 271 reviews
March 14, 2014
One of the worst books I've ever read.
Most of the ideas are copied from Harry Potter - there is a defense against the dark arts class led by a grizzly one eyed teacher, a magical creatures class, a headmistress that is stern but really kind once you get to know her, a game like quidditch but worse... it just keeps going.
The author refers constantly to other peoples work. I'll find an exact quote later (on my phone), but things like this are said every other chapter: "...like Harry Potter only..."
Scattered throughout the book are digressions that have nothing to do with the story. Usually they have to do with how other authors would make a mistake at this point of the story.
Since the author is probably reading this, and I have nothing personal against him, I'd recommend this: find a harsh editor and listen to them. The premise was fun, but execution was poor. Take the time to imagine and create and be truthful to your characters. Borrowing others work without understanding the purpose just hurts your story.
Most of the ideas are copied from Harry Potter - there is a defense against the dark arts class led by a grizzly one eyed teacher, a magical creatures class, a headmistress that is stern but really kind once you get to know her, a game like quidditch but worse... it just keeps going.
The author refers constantly to other peoples work. I'll find an exact quote later (on my phone), but things like this are said every other chapter: "...like Harry Potter only..."
Scattered throughout the book are digressions that have nothing to do with the story. Usually they have to do with how other authors would make a mistake at this point of the story.
Since the author is probably reading this, and I have nothing personal against him, I'd recommend this: find a harsh editor and listen to them. The premise was fun, but execution was poor. Take the time to imagine and create and be truthful to your characters. Borrowing others work without understanding the purpose just hurts your story.
November 2, 2014
*Please read in movie-trailer voice!*
"From an author who doesn't give a crap about grammar comes a story
about Harriett Potter, a teenage girl from the 21st century. Sucked into a medieval world where magic solves everything (apart from indoor plumbing) and noone ever has sex, she enrolls at Hogwarts and sets out on a quest to bring all the advantages of modern life to this world (except indoor plumbing), including pollution and global warming, while fending off the advances of Slim Shady, the evil necromancer, and discovering that she is cleverer and more powerful than Dumbledore himself (even though she only got average grades in school at home)."
At first I was quite sceptical, as the premise of the book is quite obviously adapted from Harry Potter. Then the book sucked me in and left me quite satisfied (apart from the grammar mistakes).
"From an author who doesn't give a crap about grammar comes a story
about Harriett Potter, a teenage girl from the 21st century. Sucked into a medieval world where magic solves everything (apart from indoor plumbing) and noone ever has sex, she enrolls at Hogwarts and sets out on a quest to bring all the advantages of modern life to this world (except indoor plumbing), including pollution and global warming, while fending off the advances of Slim Shady, the evil necromancer, and discovering that she is cleverer and more powerful than Dumbledore himself (even though she only got average grades in school at home)."
At first I was quite sceptical, as the premise of the book is quite obviously adapted from Harry Potter. Then the book sucked me in and left me quite satisfied (apart from the grammar mistakes).
October 20, 2015
I DID IT! It took over two months, but finally I made it through this badly edited nightmare of a novel without any likeable characters or a complex world view.
Others have already mentioned that this girl-comes-to-a-magical-world-and-learns-magic-novel is a Harry Potter knock-off, but that isn't even the worst thing. It fails on basically all levels. Character building, world building, satire, commentary, basic science.
It really fails on gender issues:
Where do I even start.
We've also stopped desertification, good news, everybody:
And basically everybody is either a magical creature or white.
Oh and the author overuses several words so much it hurts. "Studying" is one of them.
Well, I made it.
Others have already mentioned that this girl-comes-to-a-magical-world-and-learns-magic-novel is a Harry Potter knock-off, but that isn't even the worst thing. It fails on basically all levels. Character building, world building, satire, commentary, basic science.
It really fails on gender issues:
Emily nodded in understanding. Most transfiguration spells were configured to avoid causing mental damage, because the long-term effects of mind manipulation could be dangerously unpredictable. In this case, if a girl became a boy, she’d still think of herself as a girl on the inside, presumably also being attracted to other boys. Her lips twitched; it was quite possible that she–he–would become homosexual, at least by the strict definition of the term. And vice versa for a boy who became a girl. Actually, if the boys back home could have been put into female bodies for a few days, it might teach them a valuable lesson. They’d picked on weaker boys they’d accused of being homosexual, even though Emily had known that those weaker boys lusted after girls too.
Where do I even start.
We've also stopped desertification, good news, everybody:
Back home, they’d managed to stop deserts from advancing,
And basically everybody is either a magical creature or white.
She looked over at Alassa as she sat down beside her, studying her jaw. Alassa had always been pale–skin color didn’t seem to matter in this world, but Alassa had almost been albino�
Oh and the author overuses several words so much it hurts. "Studying" is one of them.
Well, I made it.
March 31, 2020
This book was a complete mishmash of other fantasy books and ideas plus lots of implications which gave me headache.
Due to the great number of comments which I read about this book being a copy of Harry Potter, I'd prepared myself for it, or I thought I did. I told myself to be patient, don't care much about a book not having original ideas and read it only for fun; but when I actually read it, I couldn't believe my eyes! Not only the whole story frame was a exact copy of Harry Potter, but the writer also used the exact events, personalities, characters, hobbies, creatures, items in the shop,etc. And stillthe protagonist claims that the Harry Potter series suffers from lack of imagination! Seriously? 😐
The protagonist also blushes at least one time in each page which is really annoying.
One of interesting points was that the main character was devastated after killing a disgusting creature Who was going to kill her, but she didn't feel anything special after killing one of her favourite tutors and murder of over 200 student and teachers! I as a reader also didn't feel anything, because the author failed to create an emotional connection between the characters and the readers.
I just like the attitude of introducing scientific discoveries in a world of magic which to be honest is stupidly primitive.
Due to the great number of comments which I read about this book being a copy of Harry Potter, I'd prepared myself for it, or I thought I did. I told myself to be patient, don't care much about a book not having original ideas and read it only for fun; but when I actually read it, I couldn't believe my eyes! Not only the whole story frame was a exact copy of Harry Potter, but the writer also used the exact events, personalities, characters, hobbies, creatures, items in the shop,etc. And stillthe protagonist claims that the Harry Potter series suffers from lack of imagination! Seriously? 😐
The protagonist also blushes at least one time in each page which is really annoying.
One of interesting points was that the main character was devastated after killing a disgusting creature Who was going to kill her, but she didn't feel anything special after killing one of her favourite tutors and murder of over 200 student and teachers! I as a reader also didn't feel anything, because the author failed to create an emotional connection between the characters and the readers.
I just like the attitude of introducing scientific discoveries in a world of magic which to be honest is stupidly primitive.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 2, 2015
more like 4-4.5 stars but the series was so addicting I had to give it 5.
first things first...Harry Potter
The 1st book really got me hating on it because of this. Not only because it DID rip off Harry Potter but also because it constantly said how Harry Potter missed this, lacked this, didn't go more into detail, or outright saying it was stupid - *not a direct quote* "it's stupid in Harry Potter to have such taboo on the death curses when the simplest spell can kill someone"
I have to give the author credit for being right, albeit in a douchey way. Be nice to J.K. Rowling, Chris. He did have a lot of similarities. Magical Creatures class, the child of destiny/legendary guy, bully from prominent family who offers the great opportunity to be his/her friend, wannabe quidditch called Ken (where the MC asks hilariously if they use brooms and another character just talks about how stupid that scenario is...I know you wanna be your own book Nutall but stop it. STOP IT.), and a bunch of other stuff I completely forgot after 4 more novels.
BUT you have to hand it to Nutall to think out a complex society even if it's a little cliche. He makes his characters think about the consequences and make their decisions seem completely reasonable and thought out. Nutall brings in the questions nobody thinks off.
first things first...Harry Potter
The 1st book really got me hating on it because of this. Not only because it DID rip off Harry Potter but also because it constantly said how Harry Potter missed this, lacked this, didn't go more into detail, or outright saying it was stupid - *not a direct quote* "it's stupid in Harry Potter to have such taboo on the death curses when the simplest spell can kill someone"
I have to give the author credit for being right, albeit in a douchey way. Be nice to J.K. Rowling, Chris. He did have a lot of similarities. Magical Creatures class, the child of destiny/legendary guy, bully from prominent family who offers the great opportunity to be his/her friend, wannabe quidditch called Ken (where the MC asks hilariously if they use brooms and another character just talks about how stupid that scenario is...I know you wanna be your own book Nutall but stop it. STOP IT.), and a bunch of other stuff I completely forgot after 4 more novels.
BUT you have to hand it to Nutall to think out a complex society even if it's a little cliche. He makes his characters think about the consequences and make their decisions seem completely reasonable and thought out. Nutall brings in the questions nobody thinks off.
August 3, 2016
Schooled in Magic, by Christopher Nuttall, is the first of a YA / fantasy / coming of age series that now reaches 10 books. I give this book 4 stars; I give the series 5 stars overall. I recommend it because of the action heroine with plenty of agency and great imaginary world building.
The premise: Emily, a young woman, is pulled from modern Earth to an alternative world with medieval-like features, due to a mistake as to her identity by a bad guy. Rescued within a day/chapter by a wizard, she is promptly dispatched to a special school, Whitehall, for young but untrained magicians. [Not everyone in the society has magical talent, and everyone's is different in scope or strength.] Run like a combination coed boarding school / performing arts academy / vocational school, each student takes courses each year in 6 or 7 of 15+ magical disciplines.
As with any school, there are: mean and bad, mean and knowledgeable, unapproachable, wise, so-so, and mentor-ish teachers. Bullies and pranks � using magic. Turning someone into a toad is � not unthinkable. Pranks at Whitehall can literally kill. Best friend(s). Roommates and dorm proctors. The students are human, mostly, but include others who we might label gorgons, et al. Cliques. Students who detest each other yet are forced to work together to pass, or both will fail. Too much homework, and punishments (not a focus) for slacking off or bad behavior. Areas that are out-of-bounds. Boring courses: History of Magic!
Emily arrives at the school on the back of a dragon. As anyone who was once young knows, anything that sets you apart from other students can cause � distrust, angst, fear, or hero-worship. It did. On top of all the usual things that might roil a young person’s life, forces for evil outside the school know she’s there. Then, too, her knowledge of how-to-do-things a la 21st century Earth gives her all sorts of ideas about how to “improve� the Allied Lands. Guess what: people in power generally oppose change.
Why I like it: Emily has lots of agency. She acts, and usually she thinks before she acts. She learns from her mistakes. Smart. She is written well, so that I care about her and what happens to her next, and later I care about the students who gradually accumulate around her.
The imaginary world is very well developed, both in this initial book and as the series develops. Magic is not treated as a generic, one size fits all, process. That is, what it takes to create potions (alchemy) successfully, requires a different set of skills from those needed to heal a person, or to create a spell � or to use magic on a battlefield, which is one subject Emily begins in this book.
I am not a fan of short stories. I like to know everything about a character and her world. This series satisfies that need.
While this is a series, each book resolves the major plot line, so there are no cliffhangers.
Look, why I suggest Schooled in Magic is not because, by itself, it is terrific. I reread it to write this review. 4 stars. Nuttall’s writing and proofing have improved considerably since it was written. There are too many glitches. There are many references and some similarities (about the school) to Harry Potter; fortunately, these vanish quickly in the next books. (Potter, book one, is better than Schooled, book one.) The story jumps around a bit too much. However, if an author has a whole world of stories / adventures for the hero/heroine, it is necessary to plant some plot seeds early on that will germinate later in the garden / series.
No sex or anything close.
The premise: Emily, a young woman, is pulled from modern Earth to an alternative world with medieval-like features, due to a mistake as to her identity by a bad guy. Rescued within a day/chapter by a wizard, she is promptly dispatched to a special school, Whitehall, for young but untrained magicians. [Not everyone in the society has magical talent, and everyone's is different in scope or strength.] Run like a combination coed boarding school / performing arts academy / vocational school, each student takes courses each year in 6 or 7 of 15+ magical disciplines.
As with any school, there are: mean and bad, mean and knowledgeable, unapproachable, wise, so-so, and mentor-ish teachers. Bullies and pranks � using magic. Turning someone into a toad is � not unthinkable. Pranks at Whitehall can literally kill. Best friend(s). Roommates and dorm proctors. The students are human, mostly, but include others who we might label gorgons, et al. Cliques. Students who detest each other yet are forced to work together to pass, or both will fail. Too much homework, and punishments (not a focus) for slacking off or bad behavior. Areas that are out-of-bounds. Boring courses: History of Magic!
Emily arrives at the school on the back of a dragon. As anyone who was once young knows, anything that sets you apart from other students can cause � distrust, angst, fear, or hero-worship. It did. On top of all the usual things that might roil a young person’s life, forces for evil outside the school know she’s there. Then, too, her knowledge of how-to-do-things a la 21st century Earth gives her all sorts of ideas about how to “improve� the Allied Lands. Guess what: people in power generally oppose change.
Why I like it: Emily has lots of agency. She acts, and usually she thinks before she acts. She learns from her mistakes. Smart. She is written well, so that I care about her and what happens to her next, and later I care about the students who gradually accumulate around her.
The imaginary world is very well developed, both in this initial book and as the series develops. Magic is not treated as a generic, one size fits all, process. That is, what it takes to create potions (alchemy) successfully, requires a different set of skills from those needed to heal a person, or to create a spell � or to use magic on a battlefield, which is one subject Emily begins in this book.
I am not a fan of short stories. I like to know everything about a character and her world. This series satisfies that need.
While this is a series, each book resolves the major plot line, so there are no cliffhangers.
Look, why I suggest Schooled in Magic is not because, by itself, it is terrific. I reread it to write this review. 4 stars. Nuttall’s writing and proofing have improved considerably since it was written. There are too many glitches. There are many references and some similarities (about the school) to Harry Potter; fortunately, these vanish quickly in the next books. (Potter, book one, is better than Schooled, book one.) The story jumps around a bit too much. However, if an author has a whole world of stories / adventures for the hero/heroine, it is necessary to plant some plot seeds early on that will germinate later in the garden / series.
No sex or anything close.
November 14, 2016
Finally, a book about magic where the author has put some thought into how magic might actually work! I know this may sound like a cerebral complaint, but a lot of writing involving magic is weak in that there are inconsistent rules or the writer breaks them when they get to an inconvenient plot junction, or invents a way out of the problem. The consistency and discipline of thought makes the magic in "Schooled in Magic" a lot more interesting. Nuttall is a strong character builder, also, with believable young characters (teens and twenties for the core characters, for the most part). One of the best features to the story is the main female character thinking about how technology might be used with magic, or how magic might be more effective with a knowledge of technology, and how the changes she introduces in the world she finds herself might play out economically. Interestingly, through ineffective and boring education on Earth, she is exactly as handicapped in ACTUALLY MAKING THINGS WORK as most of us would be if thrown suddenly into a vastly different milieu. Ha! No instant tech or engineering genius as part of the plot line! Highly recommended.
February 23, 2017
This really needs a careful edit pass. From mismatched parenthetical punctuation–like this - to confused capitalization (Orc/orc, goblin/Goblin), there are a lot of annoyance-level mistakes that kept bringing me out of the story. I got the distinct impression in several places that I was reading a first draft where the author changed naming conventions halfway through, but never went back to fix the earlier cases.
Aside from that, it's a decent story overall. The pop-culture references by the main character, along with her frustration in not knowing how to make the technology it seems every portal-voyager jumpstarts right away, make for a refreshing change from the usual fare. In particular, I liked seeing Emily comment on the obvious parallels to Harry Potter.
Aside from that, it's a decent story overall. The pop-culture references by the main character, along with her frustration in not knowing how to make the technology it seems every portal-voyager jumpstarts right away, make for a refreshing change from the usual fare. In particular, I liked seeing Emily comment on the obvious parallels to Harry Potter.
October 16, 2014
After reading the first few chapters I was sceptical and even pause for a fed days, but after resuming and really getting into the story, I'm engulfed and eager to read on in book two
Shelved as 'to-buy'
May 26, 2017Such a weird book so far.
October 22, 2017
13.10.2017 - 3,5*
Ze začátku jsem byla dost skeptická (a co jsem projížděla recenze, nebyla jsem jediná). Na rozdíl od většiny mi nevadil fakt, že se celý koncept kouzelnické školy tak podobá Harry Potterovi (možná proto, že jsem nikdy nebyla až tak velký fanoušek, i když je to úžasný kousek práce). Co mi vadilo byl spíše těžkopádný začátek jako takový. Chvíli jsem měla pocit, že jsem se propadla do příběhu, který skrze hrdinku až příliš naléhal na nějaký RPG scénář. A ne zrovna povedený, popravdě, i když to, podobně jako s HP, mohla být snaha lehce si z obou témat utahovat.
Pak se ale začal děj rozvíjet a autoř přišel s neotřelými, funny nápady. Taky se začal více věnovat své magii, která byla skrze racionální síto hrdinky z našeho světa docela vtipně zkonstruovaná. A, jak si lidé stěžovali v jiných rec, škola, na které hrdinka studovala, se tolik podobala Bradavicím. A HP samotný tam byl taky dost zmiňovaný. :D
Co se poslední čtvrtiny knihy týče, ta se mi líbila hodně, nakonec to vytáhla až na to 4* hodnocení. Co srazilo jednu hvězdičku dolů - hrdinka byla z našeho světa a stále se snažila něco z našich technologií do jejího domova představit. Asi je to logické vyústění chování, ale mně to z nějakého důvodu přišlo strašně rušivé. Nebo možná jen "š貹ٲé", jelikož to je, nakonec, středověká fantasy.
Je to spíše lehký nadprůměr, než na-zadek-srážející veledílo, ale stojí za to vyzkoušet a jsem zvědavá na pokračování. :)
Ze začátku jsem byla dost skeptická (a co jsem projížděla recenze, nebyla jsem jediná). Na rozdíl od většiny mi nevadil fakt, že se celý koncept kouzelnické školy tak podobá Harry Potterovi (možná proto, že jsem nikdy nebyla až tak velký fanoušek, i když je to úžasný kousek práce). Co mi vadilo byl spíše těžkopádný začátek jako takový. Chvíli jsem měla pocit, že jsem se propadla do příběhu, který skrze hrdinku až příliš naléhal na nějaký RPG scénář. A ne zrovna povedený, popravdě, i když to, podobně jako s HP, mohla být snaha lehce si z obou témat utahovat.
Pak se ale začal děj rozvíjet a autoř přišel s neotřelými, funny nápady. Taky se začal více věnovat své magii, která byla skrze racionální síto hrdinky z našeho světa docela vtipně zkonstruovaná. A, jak si lidé stěžovali v jiných rec, škola, na které hrdinka studovala, se tolik podobala Bradavicím. A HP samotný tam byl taky dost zmiňovaný. :D
Co se poslední čtvrtiny knihy týče, ta se mi líbila hodně, nakonec to vytáhla až na to 4* hodnocení. Co srazilo jednu hvězdičku dolů - hrdinka byla z našeho světa a stále se snažila něco z našich technologií do jejího domova představit. Asi je to logické vyústění chování, ale mně to z nějakého důvodu přišlo strašně rušivé. Nebo možná jen "š貹ٲé", jelikož to je, nakonec, středověká fantasy.
Je to spíše lehký nadprůměr, než na-zadek-srážející veledílo, ale stojí za to vyzkoušet a jsem zvědavá na pokračování. :)
July 8, 2017
I'm sure that this has been there all along but I had rarely noticed it. I had just finished reading a book I had purchased from Amazon.com on my Kindle. It then said something like Before You Go and listed six or eight OTHER books that it said other people had purchased who had also purchased the book I just read. What I found interesting is that all of the titles except one were authors/books I had read and enjoyed very much. So I said to myself, how about I go look at the one title I had never heard of?
Thus I found Schooled in Magic by Christopher Nuttall. This is both the name of the first book and the name of the series. I noted that two or three books came out per year. That should have been the major clue. Yes, this is not traditionally published but rather self-published on Amazon.com. I had had varying success with self-published Amazon.com Kindle books by authors I had never heard of.
I was pleasantly surprised that I liked Schooled in Magic. A lot.
Schooled in Magic struck me as somewhat like the Harry Potter series (yes, our protagonist is sixteen and not eleven when we first meet her but she is shortly enrolled in Whitehall, this magical world's equivalent to Hogwarts) but it also reminded me of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, one of my favorite Mark Twain books. Like the protagonist in the Twain book, Emily finds herself suddenly in a medieval world.
An evil necromancer (yes, they are all evil, but still) has summoned her from Earth [where she was friendless with an abusive step-father who was always telling her that she would never make anything of herself and how stupid she was, etc. and he also was verbally abusive to her mother as well so Emily felt miserable but just short of suicidal] because she was supposed to be a Child of Destiny and a sorceress who had not yet come into her power.
It turns out that the necromancer is nowhere near as clever as he thought he was because Emily's mother's name happened to be Destiny and Emily was not even from the necromancer's planet. What was interesting is that Emily, though not likely the expected "Child of Destiny", DOES seem to have magical powers. Which, of course, she has no idea how to use, being a child of non-magical Earth.
As soon as she gets to the school, though, Emily is asking her roommates about patents and if she came up with a new idea could she be guaranteed exclusive use so she could make money. One of her roommates' father is a merchant. So she asks her roommate to send an idea home. Emily notices that the magical world is still using Roman numbers. Yes, like the Super Bowl and copyright years for movies. With the XVLIs, etc. Emily introduces her roommate to Arabic numbers. This revolutionary idea makes the Accountants Guild superfluous almost overnight because now ANYONE could do sums and keep books for their family or business.
Another idea Emily introduces is the stirrup for riding horses.
I had always had an interest in history and, in particular, in the history of technology. I remember a TV show called Connections with James Burke. The stirrup was in one episode and showed how the side which used the stirrup in war had better control of their horses, leaving the arms free to use weapons more effectively against the other side.
I also enjoyed how Emily had absolutely read all of the Harry Potter books and was very much aware she was now attending "Hogwarts". Also, like Harry, even though she was a first year student, she found herself in advanced classes like Martial Magic (yes, battle magic) because she had already made enemies, with the ideas she was sending home to her roommate's father.
Hogwarts gets attacked in the last book in the Harry Potter series. Whitehall gets attacked in this first book. (So that part has already happened.)
Schooled in Magic is a smart, funny, adventurous book with a likable female lead trying to make her own way in her new world. Emily really isn't interested in trying to go home (her guardian the white wizard doubts that would even be possible) but she does ask her guardian if he can pick up
a few textbooks from home, as Emily would love to introduce computers and other common Earth tech to her new magical world but, like most people, doesn't really know how they work.
She wishes she had a copy of the book The Way Things Work (one of my personal favorites). [I might have asked for the World Book Encyclopedia, but 30 volumes may be more than the wizard could possibly obtain.]
And I am very glad to have "discovered" the author Christopher Nuttall (who also has a space opera series I might read after the Schooled in Magic series and he has many other series as well!).
Thus I found Schooled in Magic by Christopher Nuttall. This is both the name of the first book and the name of the series. I noted that two or three books came out per year. That should have been the major clue. Yes, this is not traditionally published but rather self-published on Amazon.com. I had had varying success with self-published Amazon.com Kindle books by authors I had never heard of.
I was pleasantly surprised that I liked Schooled in Magic. A lot.
Schooled in Magic struck me as somewhat like the Harry Potter series (yes, our protagonist is sixteen and not eleven when we first meet her but she is shortly enrolled in Whitehall, this magical world's equivalent to Hogwarts) but it also reminded me of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, one of my favorite Mark Twain books. Like the protagonist in the Twain book, Emily finds herself suddenly in a medieval world.
An evil necromancer (yes, they are all evil, but still) has summoned her from Earth [where she was friendless with an abusive step-father who was always telling her that she would never make anything of herself and how stupid she was, etc. and he also was verbally abusive to her mother as well so Emily felt miserable but just short of suicidal] because she was supposed to be a Child of Destiny and a sorceress who had not yet come into her power.
It turns out that the necromancer is nowhere near as clever as he thought he was because Emily's mother's name happened to be Destiny and Emily was not even from the necromancer's planet. What was interesting is that Emily, though not likely the expected "Child of Destiny", DOES seem to have magical powers. Which, of course, she has no idea how to use, being a child of non-magical Earth.
As soon as she gets to the school, though, Emily is asking her roommates about patents and if she came up with a new idea could she be guaranteed exclusive use so she could make money. One of her roommates' father is a merchant. So she asks her roommate to send an idea home. Emily notices that the magical world is still using Roman numbers. Yes, like the Super Bowl and copyright years for movies. With the XVLIs, etc. Emily introduces her roommate to Arabic numbers. This revolutionary idea makes the Accountants Guild superfluous almost overnight because now ANYONE could do sums and keep books for their family or business.
Another idea Emily introduces is the stirrup for riding horses.
I had always had an interest in history and, in particular, in the history of technology. I remember a TV show called Connections with James Burke. The stirrup was in one episode and showed how the side which used the stirrup in war had better control of their horses, leaving the arms free to use weapons more effectively against the other side.
I also enjoyed how Emily had absolutely read all of the Harry Potter books and was very much aware she was now attending "Hogwarts". Also, like Harry, even though she was a first year student, she found herself in advanced classes like Martial Magic (yes, battle magic) because she had already made enemies, with the ideas she was sending home to her roommate's father.
Hogwarts gets attacked in the last book in the Harry Potter series. Whitehall gets attacked in this first book. (So that part has already happened.)
Schooled in Magic is a smart, funny, adventurous book with a likable female lead trying to make her own way in her new world. Emily really isn't interested in trying to go home (her guardian the white wizard doubts that would even be possible) but she does ask her guardian if he can pick up
a few textbooks from home, as Emily would love to introduce computers and other common Earth tech to her new magical world but, like most people, doesn't really know how they work.
She wishes she had a copy of the book The Way Things Work (one of my personal favorites). [I might have asked for the World Book Encyclopedia, but 30 volumes may be more than the wizard could possibly obtain.]
And I am very glad to have "discovered" the author Christopher Nuttall (who also has a space opera series I might read after the Schooled in Magic series and he has many other series as well!).
February 28, 2017
It's the school-based magic story that schools other school-based magic stories (or thinks it does), Schooled in Magic! This book dares to do what others like it have rarely done before: give an in depth look on the criteria of magic and how it works. How's it handled? Well, let's take a look.
The story is of a young nerd named Emily. Emily is sad because she has a verbally abusive stepdad and a constantly drunk mom and hates school because it doesn't teach her anything useful. Quite out of nowhere, Emily is zapped away from her terrible nerdy life when she is kidnapped by an evil Necromancer who wants to kill her because she's a supposed Child of Destiny, who is to bring great change in the world. Emily is saved by another wizard named Void, and is sent to Whitehall, a school of magic where she learns the skills needed to survive the Necromancers, and maybe leave an influence on the world herself.
Okay, first off, you know those smart kids back in school who liked to prove to everyone else how smart they were by blathering on and on about smart stuff they knew even if it didn't have anything to do with what you were learning? This is kinda like that. Oh, don't get me wrong. This book is very smart. A lot of thought went into it, the process of spells, the delicate process of alchemy, the multitude of ways things can go wrong, it's all thought out very well. The problem is that this book knows how well it's thought out. There's this tone in the book that just sounds like it thinks its better than everyone else who's tried this context before, and goes into detail about who it's so much better than them. It comes off as a bit arrogant.
Speaking of arrogant, let's have a little chat about Emily here, shall we? For someone who is perfectly happy about being brought to a strange new world, she sure does complain about it a lot. She says she can't be this Child of Destiny because she can't do anything for the world, but she's constantly thinking up ways to change the world by introducing basic numerical systems and stirrups and stuff like that. I just get the feeling that she finds the medieval nature of this new world almost beneath her and she longs for things she had before, even if she never wants to go back. It's not like she's mean or ungrateful, just that she doesn't seem to want to fit in with this world, but make the world fit to how she wants it. I wasn't crazy about her.
Then there's the fact that this book is wordy! 75% of the time if felt like I was reading an instruction manual for something I could never possibly make ever. The "class" sections of the book take up the brunt of it and they go into so much detail that it feels like I'm back in high school doing assigned reading in a textbook. News flash: Most people don't read text books for fun! They read them because they have to! These magic instructions, while indeed well thought out, just go on so long you almost have to be reminded that there's actually a plot to this thing.
Emily's nerdy nature also leads to a crap ton of references in this book. She brings up Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, and so on and so forth. These wouldn't bother me except that they're everywhere! Now, sometimes it works okay, like her naming her Martial Magic team the Redshirts and then acknowledging that that might be a bad omen. That's fine. But when you're in the middle of the big climax of the book, lots of crap is happening, mass hysteria and this girl stops right in the middle of an intense moment to stop and reflect for two paragraphs on something stupid in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Time and place, girl. Time and place! Also, she brags so often about how much better she is compared to Harry Potter, I wanted to put this book down and read the entire Harry Potter series again out of pure spite!
The story is of a young nerd named Emily. Emily is sad because she has a verbally abusive stepdad and a constantly drunk mom and hates school because it doesn't teach her anything useful. Quite out of nowhere, Emily is zapped away from her terrible nerdy life when she is kidnapped by an evil Necromancer who wants to kill her because she's a supposed Child of Destiny, who is to bring great change in the world. Emily is saved by another wizard named Void, and is sent to Whitehall, a school of magic where she learns the skills needed to survive the Necromancers, and maybe leave an influence on the world herself.
Okay, first off, you know those smart kids back in school who liked to prove to everyone else how smart they were by blathering on and on about smart stuff they knew even if it didn't have anything to do with what you were learning? This is kinda like that. Oh, don't get me wrong. This book is very smart. A lot of thought went into it, the process of spells, the delicate process of alchemy, the multitude of ways things can go wrong, it's all thought out very well. The problem is that this book knows how well it's thought out. There's this tone in the book that just sounds like it thinks its better than everyone else who's tried this context before, and goes into detail about who it's so much better than them. It comes off as a bit arrogant.
Speaking of arrogant, let's have a little chat about Emily here, shall we? For someone who is perfectly happy about being brought to a strange new world, she sure does complain about it a lot. She says she can't be this Child of Destiny because she can't do anything for the world, but she's constantly thinking up ways to change the world by introducing basic numerical systems and stirrups and stuff like that. I just get the feeling that she finds the medieval nature of this new world almost beneath her and she longs for things she had before, even if she never wants to go back. It's not like she's mean or ungrateful, just that she doesn't seem to want to fit in with this world, but make the world fit to how she wants it. I wasn't crazy about her.
Then there's the fact that this book is wordy! 75% of the time if felt like I was reading an instruction manual for something I could never possibly make ever. The "class" sections of the book take up the brunt of it and they go into so much detail that it feels like I'm back in high school doing assigned reading in a textbook. News flash: Most people don't read text books for fun! They read them because they have to! These magic instructions, while indeed well thought out, just go on so long you almost have to be reminded that there's actually a plot to this thing.
Emily's nerdy nature also leads to a crap ton of references in this book. She brings up Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, and so on and so forth. These wouldn't bother me except that they're everywhere! Now, sometimes it works okay, like her naming her Martial Magic team the Redshirts and then acknowledging that that might be a bad omen. That's fine. But when you're in the middle of the big climax of the book, lots of crap is happening, mass hysteria and this girl stops right in the middle of an intense moment to stop and reflect for two paragraphs on something stupid in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Time and place, girl. Time and place! Also, she brags so often about how much better she is compared to Harry Potter, I wanted to put this book down and read the entire Harry Potter series again out of pure spite!
March 26, 2019
Okay, So I think I can give this 3 to 3.5 stars but I can easily see how someone can give it 1 star (strange but read on).
If you liked Harry Potter you may hate this book. This book takes so much from Harry Potter you may find yourself not liking it based on that alone. Basically, this book is not original. I loved the Potter books and they were the books that got me into reading. I had to get past the Harry Potter knock-off parts of this book before I could even think about liking it. So if you can get past the fact that it is a try on the Potter books 2.0, you may start to like it. A person of this world transported to a world filled with magic is a very appealing start to a story. The person is then sent to a school for magic, that is a formula that has worked for the Potter books and it is appealing in this book as well. After I finished this book I reached for the second book right away, so as I do have some major issues with things in this book I will continue with the series. So there you have it, it is not original but you may find yourself liking it anyway.
Idea's/quotes/statements from this book/series that are not unique and looks to be taken from others or repeated over and over.
1. So many from harry potter I will not list them all.
2. A new idea is compared to a newborn baby (in almost every book)
3. Schooling and exams in our world are useless (in almost every book)
4. Stupid magic users are killed early (in almost every book)
5. Computer programmers would be experts at magic spells
6. Do or do not, there is no try. (Yoda)
I don't mind pop culture in books at all but it looks like the author tries to take these statements and ideas as if they are his own.
There are others but can't think of them right now, but these are just some examples of quotes and concepts that are rehashed over and over in almost every book. This shows me that the author is not only reusing other peoples ideas but reusing his own as well.
If you liked Harry Potter you may hate this book. This book takes so much from Harry Potter you may find yourself not liking it based on that alone. Basically, this book is not original. I loved the Potter books and they were the books that got me into reading. I had to get past the Harry Potter knock-off parts of this book before I could even think about liking it. So if you can get past the fact that it is a try on the Potter books 2.0, you may start to like it. A person of this world transported to a world filled with magic is a very appealing start to a story. The person is then sent to a school for magic, that is a formula that has worked for the Potter books and it is appealing in this book as well. After I finished this book I reached for the second book right away, so as I do have some major issues with things in this book I will continue with the series. So there you have it, it is not original but you may find yourself liking it anyway.
Idea's/quotes/statements from this book/series that are not unique and looks to be taken from others or repeated over and over.
1. So many from harry potter I will not list them all.
2. A new idea is compared to a newborn baby (in almost every book)
3. Schooling and exams in our world are useless (in almost every book)
4. Stupid magic users are killed early (in almost every book)
5. Computer programmers would be experts at magic spells
6. Do or do not, there is no try. (Yoda)
I don't mind pop culture in books at all but it looks like the author tries to take these statements and ideas as if they are his own.
There are others but can't think of them right now, but these are just some examples of quotes and concepts that are rehashed over and over in almost every book. This shows me that the author is not only reusing other peoples ideas but reusing his own as well.
May 27, 2019
So bad. So very, very bad. I can only guess that "Christopher Nuttall" is a pseudonym for a 50 year old woman who is horrible at pretending she's a 16 year old girl. This book seriously reads like some kind of Mary Sue fanfic written by a bitter old lady who never got over the fact that she didn't receive an invitation to Hogwarts. The character is not believable, the thoughts are not believable, the actions are not believable, and frankly I lost it over a 16 year old girl heading up to the Dean of Students and demanding to know how to patent double-entry accounting. Because teenage girls are all about that accounting life, yo. I forced my way through 285 pages through sheer stubborness of refusing the let the book beat me, but had to give up when Emperor Palpatine tried to get Luke to join the Dark Side. I really hope that I didn't spend any money on this one. Since I found it in the depths of my Nook when I was looking for something else, who knows.
PS: Someone needs to tell the writer of this drivel that the frequent references to the world of Harry Potter only made me wish I was reading something else.
PS: Someone needs to tell the writer of this drivel that the frequent references to the world of Harry Potter only made me wish I was reading something else.
June 13, 2017
JK Rowling should sue. This is 90% Harriet Potter and 10% ALL teh other fantasy epics.
We have a "child of destiny". A magic school with almost a direct one for one with Hogwarts. Evil magicians and dark wizards. Sprinkle in a bit of LOTR so you can have the fey, Orcs and Goblins and you don't get a derivative piece of YA fiction, you get a copy. I put it down in anger a few times thinking how much of an ass can an author be to actually try to rewrite Potter and in doing so, actually mention Harry Potter muliple times? A big one. Hariet aka Emily, spends most of her time trying to figure out how to introduce technology and science her new magical world, as in a word processor and double book accounting systems. And BRAS yall. I. can't. even. Just no. No. Nope.
We have a "child of destiny". A magic school with almost a direct one for one with Hogwarts. Evil magicians and dark wizards. Sprinkle in a bit of LOTR so you can have the fey, Orcs and Goblins and you don't get a derivative piece of YA fiction, you get a copy. I put it down in anger a few times thinking how much of an ass can an author be to actually try to rewrite Potter and in doing so, actually mention Harry Potter muliple times? A big one. Hariet aka Emily, spends most of her time trying to figure out how to introduce technology and science her new magical world, as in a word processor and double book accounting systems. And BRAS yall. I. can't. even. Just no. No. Nope.
March 28, 2019
Rating 4.0 stars
This was a good book. Emily is a 14 year old taken from earth to another world to be used as a sacrifice in a necromancers plan for unlimited power. Why Emily you might ask? Because the necromancer needs to sacrifice a Child of Destiny in order to gain his power and his minions brought him Emily. There is one small problem though, Emily's mother's name is Destiny. So while she is a literal child of destiny, is she a figurative child of destiny? She is saved by a rouge magician just before the sacrifice. Emily finds out she has potential for magic and the rogue magician, Void, enrolls her in a school to help her learn. It seems it isn't possible or is incredibly dangerous to try and return Emily to the world in which she comes from, so she is stuck in this world for at least the foreseeable future.
Emily gets enrolled in Whitehall School for magic and immediately rumors start to fly about her being a child of destiny. She doesn't know this world very well, she has strange ideas, and nobody can figure out where she comes from. This new world has middle ages technology and a feudal system to go along with it. It is the kind of society that everyone knows their place in society from the moment they are born.
While I did enjoy the story I thought the author went a little halfway in his writing. In the beginning, the description for the magic system was surprisingly complex. Every spell needed parameters in order to work. If an magician wanted to lift a pencil from one table and move it to the other, there were all sorts of complex parameters that needed to be defined in order to make the spell work. Things such as how high the pencil will rise, how fast, which pencil or all pencils. So even for such simple spells it could be very complex. Later on in the book, Emily is able to come up with fairly complex spells on the fly. That seemed a little incongruous.
Emily also came from a very different world with much more advanced technology, but since she was only a 14 year old girl she didn't really know how those things worked. She knew about gunpowder but not how to make it. She knew about the dewey decimal system but not how to implement it. There were so many things she knew was possible but she didn't know how to actually implement it. Then at the end she came up with a couple of spells that seemed way to complicated to develop without an insane amount of scientific knowledge
It seemed like everything was going just a little too fast for Emily as well. She was given tons of books to read and an insane amount of classes. At the same time she was using a spell to be able to read and write, but also had to learn the language because the spell would only last for a few months. She also had to learn how to survive in this brand new world without giving away that she wasn't from this world. Even the most gifted student in the world would have a problem doing half of that.
Those issues are the main reason I didn't give this book 5 stars. It still was a pretty good book. I liked the pop culture references even though the Harry Potter ones were getting a little much toward the end. I liked Emily and her friends and I did like all the simple concepts that she introduced into this world that had already made a huge impact.
This was a good book. Emily is a 14 year old taken from earth to another world to be used as a sacrifice in a necromancers plan for unlimited power. Why Emily you might ask? Because the necromancer needs to sacrifice a Child of Destiny in order to gain his power and his minions brought him Emily. There is one small problem though, Emily's mother's name is Destiny. So while she is a literal child of destiny, is she a figurative child of destiny? She is saved by a rouge magician just before the sacrifice. Emily finds out she has potential for magic and the rogue magician, Void, enrolls her in a school to help her learn. It seems it isn't possible or is incredibly dangerous to try and return Emily to the world in which she comes from, so she is stuck in this world for at least the foreseeable future.
Emily gets enrolled in Whitehall School for magic and immediately rumors start to fly about her being a child of destiny. She doesn't know this world very well, she has strange ideas, and nobody can figure out where she comes from. This new world has middle ages technology and a feudal system to go along with it. It is the kind of society that everyone knows their place in society from the moment they are born.
While I did enjoy the story I thought the author went a little halfway in his writing. In the beginning, the description for the magic system was surprisingly complex. Every spell needed parameters in order to work. If an magician wanted to lift a pencil from one table and move it to the other, there were all sorts of complex parameters that needed to be defined in order to make the spell work. Things such as how high the pencil will rise, how fast, which pencil or all pencils. So even for such simple spells it could be very complex. Later on in the book, Emily is able to come up with fairly complex spells on the fly. That seemed a little incongruous.
Emily also came from a very different world with much more advanced technology, but since she was only a 14 year old girl she didn't really know how those things worked. She knew about gunpowder but not how to make it. She knew about the dewey decimal system but not how to implement it. There were so many things she knew was possible but she didn't know how to actually implement it. Then at the end she came up with a couple of spells that seemed way to complicated to develop without an insane amount of scientific knowledge
It seemed like everything was going just a little too fast for Emily as well. She was given tons of books to read and an insane amount of classes. At the same time she was using a spell to be able to read and write, but also had to learn the language because the spell would only last for a few months. She also had to learn how to survive in this brand new world without giving away that she wasn't from this world. Even the most gifted student in the world would have a problem doing half of that.
Those issues are the main reason I didn't give this book 5 stars. It still was a pretty good book. I liked the pop culture references even though the Harry Potter ones were getting a little much toward the end. I liked Emily and her friends and I did like all the simple concepts that she introduced into this world that had already made a huge impact.
July 13, 2017
Magic school + trapped in another word= Schooled in Magic.
Schooled in magic is a fairly average teen fantasy novel. Emeley our fourteen year-old protagonist finds herself from one moment to the next in an medieval word full of magic and evil necromancers. As it turns out an evil necromancer brought her over to his word thinking she is a 'Child of Destiny' and sacrificing her will give him great power. She is however saved at the last moment, but now has to adjust to a totally new world and burgeoning magical powers of her own.
Overall this was a fun but not particularly memorable novel. The world is well constructed, and the implications of magic and how this impacts people and politics stood out in my opinion. Nuttall clearly though of what this world was going to be like and lets his main character react to this. Que quite a few pop-culture and Harry Potter references (which kind of makes sense for a modern girl send to a magic school). Everything's fine so far, but where this novel loses some points is with the internal monologues. They were a bit much and needed a bit more integration in the rest of the novel.
In all this was a decent Teen/ YA Fantasy novel.
A final note one some reviews this novel has recieved.
Schooled in magic is a fairly average teen fantasy novel. Emeley our fourteen year-old protagonist finds herself from one moment to the next in an medieval word full of magic and evil necromancers. As it turns out an evil necromancer brought her over to his word thinking she is a 'Child of Destiny' and sacrificing her will give him great power. She is however saved at the last moment, but now has to adjust to a totally new world and burgeoning magical powers of her own.
Overall this was a fun but not particularly memorable novel. The world is well constructed, and the implications of magic and how this impacts people and politics stood out in my opinion. Nuttall clearly though of what this world was going to be like and lets his main character react to this. Que quite a few pop-culture and Harry Potter references (which kind of makes sense for a modern girl send to a magic school). Everything's fine so far, but where this novel loses some points is with the internal monologues. They were a bit much and needed a bit more integration in the rest of the novel.
In all this was a decent Teen/ YA Fantasy novel.
A final note one some reviews this novel has recieved.
May 15, 2018
If the author desires to promote the moral position that physical pain is the proper way to school anyone, he might consider not writing the scenario in such a manner that the ones instigating the incident were not the school administration.
The main char has been told to her face that
1) the school knew her tormentor was a bully, and cultivated this behavior
2) that they considered this valid teaching tool, in lieu of competent teaching
3) and that they lost control of the bully, leading a first week student to need to take drastic action
And instead of the school taking any responsibility for its breakdown of basic competence, ethics and pedagogy, the main char is to take teaching responsibility for her bully as well as taking her second round of physical abuse.
The main char has been told to her face that
1) the school knew her tormentor was a bully, and cultivated this behavior
2) that they considered this valid teaching tool, in lieu of competent teaching
3) and that they lost control of the bully, leading a first week student to need to take drastic action
And instead of the school taking any responsibility for its breakdown of basic competence, ethics and pedagogy, the main char is to take teaching responsibility for her bully as well as taking her second round of physical abuse.
Shelved as 'dnf'
November 29, 2024Audiobook. DNF.
Not my thing.
Not my thing.
March 13, 2015
This book could have gotten a higher score. I'm trying to avoid spoilers so I'm not as specific as I would like to be.
I'll start with what I liked because I think it is worth following the series and seeing if some of the problems improve. Because the story is actually interesting, enough so that I just purchased the second book.
The concept is a bit too Harry Potter meets Time Travel/Other World travel. But the author actually points it out, pokes fun at it, and tries to avoid to much overlap or similarities. When I was younger, reading stories like this, there was a culture gap because there were no phones or t.v.s or such items but basically, a lot of things were the same. So it is interesting reading a about a girl who grew up never having to write a paper by hand being faced with a school where everything is done by hand. The changes in parenting and what is okay and not okay has changed drastically between the 70's and 80's, when I was in school, and today. This girl is faced with a disciplinary system that is far different from what she would be used than a girl from my school years.
While a lot of books are written with teens as main characters, not all are YA books. This clearly feels like a YA book. So I find myself trying to read it that way. It was long and I didn't finish it in a day or two. Always a plus. It was well thought out although if seemed as if the author forgot what he already said a few times. And the characters interesting enough that I want to find out what happens next.
The references to pop culture were almost too much. It feels like a bad thing. But when I think about it, a person finding themselves transported to a much different world probably would be making a lot of comparisons. So while it may be a bit annoying over time, it is also probably accurate in how someone would respond. So maybe I shouldn't complain about it too much.
As to some of the problems. The author seemed to have forgotten things he said earlier in the book. At one point Emily is complaining to herself that Void never told her something that he actually did tell her. Another time, when asked who the target was, she says she didn't know. But at the time, they were basically told both of them so she could have said that, as it was what her knowledge was at the time, even if it turned out to be incorrect later.
At various points, when a scene was unfolding, the author would get repetitive in some of his phrases. It is fairly minor but a minor irritant that started to get under my skin.
The editing was poorly done. I didn't notice many problems in the first half but the second half frequently had the wrong words being used. It was as if a spell checking program was auto-correcting words but picking words spelled similarly but having a different meaning. This happens more and more as you get closer to the end of the book.
If it was tidied up a bit more, and some of the references to Emily's home world were cleaned up a little, it would get a higher score.
I'll start with what I liked because I think it is worth following the series and seeing if some of the problems improve. Because the story is actually interesting, enough so that I just purchased the second book.
The concept is a bit too Harry Potter meets Time Travel/Other World travel. But the author actually points it out, pokes fun at it, and tries to avoid to much overlap or similarities. When I was younger, reading stories like this, there was a culture gap because there were no phones or t.v.s or such items but basically, a lot of things were the same. So it is interesting reading a about a girl who grew up never having to write a paper by hand being faced with a school where everything is done by hand. The changes in parenting and what is okay and not okay has changed drastically between the 70's and 80's, when I was in school, and today. This girl is faced with a disciplinary system that is far different from what she would be used than a girl from my school years.
While a lot of books are written with teens as main characters, not all are YA books. This clearly feels like a YA book. So I find myself trying to read it that way. It was long and I didn't finish it in a day or two. Always a plus. It was well thought out although if seemed as if the author forgot what he already said a few times. And the characters interesting enough that I want to find out what happens next.
The references to pop culture were almost too much. It feels like a bad thing. But when I think about it, a person finding themselves transported to a much different world probably would be making a lot of comparisons. So while it may be a bit annoying over time, it is also probably accurate in how someone would respond. So maybe I shouldn't complain about it too much.
As to some of the problems. The author seemed to have forgotten things he said earlier in the book. At one point Emily is complaining to herself that Void never told her something that he actually did tell her. Another time, when asked who the target was, she says she didn't know. But at the time, they were basically told both of them so she could have said that, as it was what her knowledge was at the time, even if it turned out to be incorrect later.
At various points, when a scene was unfolding, the author would get repetitive in some of his phrases. It is fairly minor but a minor irritant that started to get under my skin.
The editing was poorly done. I didn't notice many problems in the first half but the second half frequently had the wrong words being used. It was as if a spell checking program was auto-correcting words but picking words spelled similarly but having a different meaning. This happens more and more as you get closer to the end of the book.
If it was tidied up a bit more, and some of the references to Emily's home world were cleaned up a little, it would get a higher score.
July 19, 2017
Ok, so I was looking for a good workout book.
You see, when I go to the gym, I enjoy listening to a mindless novel (especially while I'm doing the elliptical). So I was tooling around on in my Kindle store looking for a light read with an Audible option when I came across this book. It looked interesting and was getting pretty good reviews so I decided, what the heck.
The book starts out a little weakly. The first part of the story seems rushed and there are some corny references to popular fantasy and sifi titles that that made me wonder if I hadn't gotten myself into just another cheesy young adult fantasy. But I listened on thinking, "Well, golly, I've already paid for the book. I might as well finish it." (I know what you're asking yourself and, yes, I really use words like heck and gosh and golly in my internal dialogue.)
It didn't take long, though, before I found myself caught up in the story. Although this book follows the familiar structure of so many other young adult fantasy books, it takes the development of magical abilities seriously and, unlike many books in this genre (most notably Harry Potter), it focuses on the students development of visualization skills and manipulation and direction of energy both inside and outside of herself. It kind of brings to life some of the teachings of books like .
In the end, all the characters were well developed and the book left me wanting more. I will definitely read the next book in the series, and will look for other titles by Nuttall.
February 7, 2017
I first read this book when it was posted to Spacebattles for its preview before publication. I thought that the writing quality was good, and I enjoyed the references to Potter in a similar way to reading Dresden Files. The introduction of modern technologies based on knowledge, like the abacus, our alphabet and numerical system, would be huge and cheap advantages in a world this squalid. Medieval worlds aren't great places to be, for anyone, and this series does well capturing the stench, squalor, misery, and poverty that they are really all about. Rowling never talked about the stench of animal crap in her series, but her series was for children. This is more of a YA series, and while the main character is a reluctant teenager girl, she's written by a male author well aware the girl is traumatized by an unhappy childhood and knows she would not be happily romancing people or content to be traded around like a party favor. This is quite different from certain popular female authors whose victim-girls spend their time slutting or crying or both. I ended up purchasing the following three books and audiobooks in the series and await the release of the 5th audiobook to purchase that.
February 13, 2017
Nuttall's take on a school of magic ala Harry Potter,July 27, 2016
Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from:Schooled in Magic (Kindle Edition)
Some have complained that this book is a "ripoff" of Harry Potter. No it isn't. This is Mr. Nuttall's take on a Harry Potter type story. The novel is full of references to and acknowledgements of Rowling's Harry Potter. One of my complaints about Potter is that in some of the stories he is almost an observer of events rather than a participant. That is not a problem with this novel. Despite a few missteps, I like this version better. I have now read 7 volumes of this series and can offer one minor caution: If you have strong beliefs and opinions concerning religions and theology, you will probably not like the way Mr. Nuttall handles the subjects. In fact, he has almost gotten himself to the point that he can define good and evil in the magical world only with difficulty.
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This review is from:Schooled in Magic (Kindle Edition)
Some have complained that this book is a "ripoff" of Harry Potter. No it isn't. This is Mr. Nuttall's take on a Harry Potter type story. The novel is full of references to and acknowledgements of Rowling's Harry Potter. One of my complaints about Potter is that in some of the stories he is almost an observer of events rather than a participant. That is not a problem with this novel. Despite a few missteps, I like this version better. I have now read 7 volumes of this series and can offer one minor caution: If you have strong beliefs and opinions concerning religions and theology, you will probably not like the way Mr. Nuttall handles the subjects. In fact, he has almost gotten himself to the point that he can define good and evil in the magical world only with difficulty.
February 16, 2018
Emily is going home from the library when she's abducted into another world by a necromancer who wants to sacrifice a "Child of Destiny" who has yet to master magic.
Well, her mother's name IS Destiny. . . .
A powerful sorcerer rescues her and then, because she is magically powerful and it's not easy to send her back (and he's not good at teaching apprentices), sends her off to school on dragon back.
Many things ensue. The care necessary for alchemy, the marches of Martial Magic (and the importance of considering your supply list); the difficulty of accounting, and the idea of double-entry bookkeeping and Arabic numbers; a feud with a princess, a kidnapping, and many others.
Well, her mother's name IS Destiny. . . .
A powerful sorcerer rescues her and then, because she is magically powerful and it's not easy to send her back (and he's not good at teaching apprentices), sends her off to school on dragon back.
Many things ensue. The care necessary for alchemy, the marches of Martial Magic (and the importance of considering your supply list); the difficulty of accounting, and the idea of double-entry bookkeeping and Arabic numbers; a feud with a princess, a kidnapping, and many others.
March 14, 2014
It was worth reading, I understood the approach of the author : Emily know her shit, she's a smart kid and bookaholic who understand fast what she must do to survive in this world of might and magic. She's not overpowered like some Heroes in stories i've read.
I hope there will be a second book and a third.
I hope there will be a second book and a third.
February 14, 2015
To be honest, couldn't finish completely. I stayed with it so long because I liked the premise of the book. However, the main character was so annoying and got so increasingly frustrating to the point that I couldn't read without getting angry. Too many references to Harry Potter. Too much telling and not enough showing in the writing. Needed more editing to cut out irrelevant sections.
December 25, 2020
Not bad, overall. I think I would have enjoyed this more if I had read this when I was still at school.
These days, a bit simplistic and the computer coding similes irritated me a little
2020 reread: DNF'd at about 15%. Didn't even remember that I had read this before :S
These days, a bit simplistic and the computer coding similes irritated me a little
2020 reread: DNF'd at about 15%. Didn't even remember that I had read this before :S
September 26, 2018
Note:
Phew! That was a long book for what happened. I kinda feel like I was whacked in the head with action-action-action like an episode of 24.
Phew! That was a long book for what happened. I kinda feel like I was whacked in the head with action-action-action like an episode of 24.
April 28, 2021
What harry potter should have been.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of rowling's opus, but she did get several things wrong. Her magic system is basic, her magical world is woefully ignorant... Of everything... And her primary protagonist doesn't really do much of anything in the series, other than act like a piece on a chessboard.
Some people have noted, especially in regards to this first book, that there are many similarities between this book and fictional universes. This is true. Ken is, for instance, an unabashed reincarnation of quidditch, right down to the "small golden bird" "worth enough points to make the game so unbalanced that continuing to play would be pointless." Anyone who says otherwise is, frankly, blind. But, then, quidditch needed to be reincarnated, and Ken is honestly a better game, and who cares anyway because Emily isn't instantly thrown onto the team without so much as a tryout... Or a single lesson in flying. That would be stupid.
This is the story of a girl from earth, from an abusive and broken household no less, who is thrown into a medieval feudalism that has stagnated scientifically as most of the ongoing education and research has been directed towards magic. Problems are solved with magic, magic is the currency of power.
Yes, this girl knows about Harry Potter, Dr. Who, Darth Vader... And 14th century french history... As she should. Okay, the last one is a little bit odd, especially because 16 yr old emily acts like 14 yr old emily until at least Trial By Fire... But still, there's nothing inherently wrong with a person from the modern world knowing who Darth Vader (or king louis xiv) is.
Emily's knowledge of earth will remain her ace in the hole throughout the series, and while it does lead to some (almost maddening) contradictions, I find the historical references preferable to the blind and willful stupidity of some of the characters in rowling's world. It's a good series, right up until you get tired of Emily (which you probably will have, by book 3) and even putting her character flaws aside there's a lot there.
~~~THE CONS~~~
All of that being said, I will admit that there are some glaring cons in this series, and 4 stars is generous.
1) The MC is all over the place. The MC is a 16 year old introvert who (essentially) ran away from home because her father was abusive... she spent a lot of time at the library, and as a result, she knows more about early-middle european history than most doctoral candidates with a history major. She also happens to know enough algebra to create a functional GPS system in an afternoon... and yet, the gaps in her knowledge are big enough that she can drive a steam locomotive through. Her socialization, also, is nearly nil. She knows literally nothing about modern science beyond the "science" that one might pick up from a history text-book (eg she knows that guns/steam engines/ are possible, but not really how they work.)
2) The author can be repetitive at times. Terms like "wool-gathering" and "fear yammering" are great, evocative terms that will really suck me into a story... right up until you hear that exact same phrase 3 pages later... and then 3 pages later. There's also a fairly decent amount of fluff in this series.
3) This is a "chosen one" series. In the first book, the author does something really cool, The mad necromancer, attempting to perform a dark ritual, has demons bring him a , and, demons being demons, they obey the letter of the order while twisting the spirit of the order. This leads to all kinds of confusion and uncertainty and puts tension back into the standard trope. Unfortunately, by the end of the second book (if not the first) the author has left you no doubt that Emily is, in fact, "destined" to change the world (repeatedly), defeat the necromancers, and generally Mr. Magoo her way through society, accidentally causing chaos, uprooting various dynesties, supplanting various monarchs, saving various world powers, all, either completely by accident, or while being dragged around by her hand like a little girl.
4) Age. This author has a serious problem with age. Emily is 16 years old, and has the education of a doctoral candidate and the emotional development of a 10 year old. Fair enough, perhaps, victims of abuse are often emotionally stunted and/or prone to escapism... unfortunately, almost every single character in this series has the same problem. "children grow up fast" in the nameless world. Their 14 year olds are our 18 year olds... again, fair enough. There is plenty of historical precedent for such a world, and even if there wasn't it's fiction. If the author wants to build his entire society around male-cheuvenism, who am I to argue? The problem is, as I mentioned above, this is Harry potter. Harry potter wasn't 16 in his first year, he was 12, and if EMILY was 12, rather than 16, this would be a muuch more realistic story. Instead, you have a 16 year old girl from earth, surrounded by a bunch of other 16-21 year olds from (not earth) all of whom are acting like 12-17 year olds, in a world where, supposedly, children mature FASTER. In otherwords, this is harry potter, but with sex, but if the author admitted that 12 year old girls talked about/thought about/experimented with sex on another planet where it was ENTIRELY NORMAL, people would complain, so the ages get screwed up. There is even a huge Romeo-and-Juliet trope in the 5(?)th book, where Emily consistently editorializes about teenage sex/hormones and whatnot.
5) The magic.
There are a few different schools of thought on how to make a good magic system. You can make a well defined system with rules and limitations, you can create a vague magic system where you can do essentially anything you can imagine, given enough power.
This is not a good magic system. Why? Because the author has completely failed to integrate his magic system into his world. The magic system can basically be described as HTML for dummies. No, seriously, Emily says that more than once in the first book. Every spell is essentially a (very basic) computer program. Problem is, aside from basic charms, none of the magic actually behaves like that. Again, it's harry potter all over again. People learn "spells." People cast "spells." Over the course of this series, Emily invests thousands of hours into "learning magic," "building spells from scratch," "checking and rechecking spells for errors"... and yet her favorite spell, like every other magician on the planet, is firebolt. This is not a minor quibble, either. Time and time again you'll hear that "using a wand is a sign of a weak magician" or "using a wand will stunt your growth, because you aren't being forced to learn the theory..." Its the primary reason that justifies a couple of first years mopping the floor with bad guy after bad guy. And yet? How many magicians actually will use more than 4-5 actual spells?
Honestly, I could go on, but I don't really want to. Like i said, 4 stars is GENEROUS. It's not a bad book/series, it's got some really high points, but, frankly, I'd like to see the whole thing re-written.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of rowling's opus, but she did get several things wrong. Her magic system is basic, her magical world is woefully ignorant... Of everything... And her primary protagonist doesn't really do much of anything in the series, other than act like a piece on a chessboard.
Some people have noted, especially in regards to this first book, that there are many similarities between this book and fictional universes. This is true. Ken is, for instance, an unabashed reincarnation of quidditch, right down to the "small golden bird" "worth enough points to make the game so unbalanced that continuing to play would be pointless." Anyone who says otherwise is, frankly, blind. But, then, quidditch needed to be reincarnated, and Ken is honestly a better game, and who cares anyway because Emily isn't instantly thrown onto the team without so much as a tryout... Or a single lesson in flying. That would be stupid.
This is the story of a girl from earth, from an abusive and broken household no less, who is thrown into a medieval feudalism that has stagnated scientifically as most of the ongoing education and research has been directed towards magic. Problems are solved with magic, magic is the currency of power.
Yes, this girl knows about Harry Potter, Dr. Who, Darth Vader... And 14th century french history... As she should. Okay, the last one is a little bit odd, especially because 16 yr old emily acts like 14 yr old emily until at least Trial By Fire... But still, there's nothing inherently wrong with a person from the modern world knowing who Darth Vader (or king louis xiv) is.
Emily's knowledge of earth will remain her ace in the hole throughout the series, and while it does lead to some (almost maddening) contradictions, I find the historical references preferable to the blind and willful stupidity of some of the characters in rowling's world. It's a good series, right up until you get tired of Emily (which you probably will have, by book 3) and even putting her character flaws aside there's a lot there.
~~~THE CONS~~~
All of that being said, I will admit that there are some glaring cons in this series, and 4 stars is generous.
1) The MC is all over the place. The MC is a 16 year old introvert who (essentially) ran away from home because her father was abusive... she spent a lot of time at the library, and as a result, she knows more about early-middle european history than most doctoral candidates with a history major. She also happens to know enough algebra to create a functional GPS system in an afternoon... and yet, the gaps in her knowledge are big enough that she can drive a steam locomotive through. Her socialization, also, is nearly nil. She knows literally nothing about modern science beyond the "science" that one might pick up from a history text-book (eg she knows that guns/steam engines/ are possible, but not really how they work.)
2) The author can be repetitive at times. Terms like "wool-gathering" and "fear yammering" are great, evocative terms that will really suck me into a story... right up until you hear that exact same phrase 3 pages later... and then 3 pages later. There's also a fairly decent amount of fluff in this series.
3) This is a "chosen one" series. In the first book, the author does something really cool, The mad necromancer, attempting to perform a dark ritual, has demons bring him a , and, demons being demons, they obey the letter of the order while twisting the spirit of the order. This leads to all kinds of confusion and uncertainty and puts tension back into the standard trope. Unfortunately, by the end of the second book (if not the first) the author has left you no doubt that Emily is, in fact, "destined" to change the world (repeatedly), defeat the necromancers, and generally Mr. Magoo her way through society, accidentally causing chaos, uprooting various dynesties, supplanting various monarchs, saving various world powers, all, either completely by accident, or while being dragged around by her hand like a little girl.
4) Age. This author has a serious problem with age. Emily is 16 years old, and has the education of a doctoral candidate and the emotional development of a 10 year old. Fair enough, perhaps, victims of abuse are often emotionally stunted and/or prone to escapism... unfortunately, almost every single character in this series has the same problem. "children grow up fast" in the nameless world. Their 14 year olds are our 18 year olds... again, fair enough. There is plenty of historical precedent for such a world, and even if there wasn't it's fiction. If the author wants to build his entire society around male-cheuvenism, who am I to argue? The problem is, as I mentioned above, this is Harry potter. Harry potter wasn't 16 in his first year, he was 12, and if EMILY was 12, rather than 16, this would be a muuch more realistic story. Instead, you have a 16 year old girl from earth, surrounded by a bunch of other 16-21 year olds from (not earth) all of whom are acting like 12-17 year olds, in a world where, supposedly, children mature FASTER. In otherwords, this is harry potter, but with sex, but if the author admitted that 12 year old girls talked about/thought about/experimented with sex on another planet where it was ENTIRELY NORMAL, people would complain, so the ages get screwed up. There is even a huge Romeo-and-Juliet trope in the 5(?)th book, where Emily consistently editorializes about teenage sex/hormones and whatnot.
5) The magic.
There are a few different schools of thought on how to make a good magic system. You can make a well defined system with rules and limitations, you can create a vague magic system where you can do essentially anything you can imagine, given enough power.
This is not a good magic system. Why? Because the author has completely failed to integrate his magic system into his world. The magic system can basically be described as HTML for dummies. No, seriously, Emily says that more than once in the first book. Every spell is essentially a (very basic) computer program. Problem is, aside from basic charms, none of the magic actually behaves like that. Again, it's harry potter all over again. People learn "spells." People cast "spells." Over the course of this series, Emily invests thousands of hours into "learning magic," "building spells from scratch," "checking and rechecking spells for errors"... and yet her favorite spell, like every other magician on the planet, is firebolt. This is not a minor quibble, either. Time and time again you'll hear that "using a wand is a sign of a weak magician" or "using a wand will stunt your growth, because you aren't being forced to learn the theory..." Its the primary reason that justifies a couple of first years mopping the floor with bad guy after bad guy. And yet? How many magicians actually will use more than 4-5 actual spells?
Honestly, I could go on, but I don't really want to. Like i said, 4 stars is GENEROUS. It's not a bad book/series, it's got some really high points, but, frankly, I'd like to see the whole thing re-written.
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