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Practical Exercise
Adara Triskittenion has been admitted to the school of her dreams, Dorrance Academy, the premier magical research university of the Commonality of the Timeless. Her Become a faculty member and stay forever. Her family, House Triskittenion, the Hall of the Three Kittens, still has claims on her time. For most of the year she has books to read, courses to ace, but first that trivial test of combat magic skill, the Practical Exercise.
Readers are perhaps familiar with fictional magical academies allegedly modeled after English Public (meaning private, boarding) Schools. Dorrance Academy is not one of these places. Dorrance resembles an American research university, except that the 'science' majors are fields of sorcery.
A minor authorial As it happens, your author is also a research scientist, a retired physics professor. Once upon a time, many decades ago. I was a student at America’s Dorrance Academy, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I have woven into the tale a fair piece of advice on how to succeed at such a school. If you are headed off to such a place, please keep my advice in mind. You may correctly assume that some of the modest vignettes are lightly disguised real occurrences, including 'construction line' and 'personal self-aggrandizement'.
Readers are perhaps familiar with fictional magical academies allegedly modeled after English Public (meaning private, boarding) Schools. Dorrance Academy is not one of these places. Dorrance resembles an American research university, except that the 'science' majors are fields of sorcery.
A minor authorial As it happens, your author is also a research scientist, a retired physics professor. Once upon a time, many decades ago. I was a student at America’s Dorrance Academy, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I have woven into the tale a fair piece of advice on how to succeed at such a school. If you are headed off to such a place, please keep my advice in mind. You may correctly assume that some of the modest vignettes are lightly disguised real occurrences, including 'construction line' and 'personal self-aggrandizement'.
436 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 1, 2022
3 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 10, 2023
Compelling world-building and a fun story
One of my favorite short stories interesting Fantastic Schools series turned out to be part of a novel-length story. Adara Triskittenion (and despite the name this is not a Cordwainer-Smith-ish story) is a freshman at Dorrance University, a kind of magical MIT crossed with the worlds of Amber.
Adara dreams of pure magical research, not growing into her House's militia leader, but House politics won't leave her alone. Duels, war, politics, family crises, all interrupt the equally challenging adventures of a back-country girl in a big city university. Fans of novels with capable sensible heroes, ala Dick Francis, will appreciate this one.
Truly one of the more distinctive "magical college" books.
One of my favorite short stories interesting Fantastic Schools series turned out to be part of a novel-length story. Adara Triskittenion (and despite the name this is not a Cordwainer-Smith-ish story) is a freshman at Dorrance University, a kind of magical MIT crossed with the worlds of Amber.
Adara dreams of pure magical research, not growing into her House's militia leader, but House politics won't leave her alone. Duels, war, politics, family crises, all interrupt the equally challenging adventures of a back-country girl in a big city university. Fans of novels with capable sensible heroes, ala Dick Francis, will appreciate this one.
Truly one of the more distinctive "magical college" books.
August 9, 2023
You've read the Eclipse-Series by the same author? Then you already met Adara, the heroine of this story - who plays a minor but important role in "Airy Castles all Ablaze". This is the story of her education at Dorrance Academy -which is comparable to a Highschool or University in our world. Only, it concentrates on magic. All kinds of magic. So, thats the frame. Now add to it some unfriendly politics, a battle with an illegal battle-machine, one abduction and one invasion (among some other things) and you get a very entertaining story. Highly recommended!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 15, 2022
George Phillies has produced a few unusual heroic fantasy books. He does not follow popular tropes, he creates new ones.
"Practical Exercise" is, at first blush, about a girl studying in a magical university. Groan, another female Harry Potter, right? Wrong.
We begin classically with the arrival of Adara, the main character, at Dorrance Academy, which is loosely modeled after the author's alma mater, the MIT. Through small, impressionist touches, we discover the world, without the brutal info dump that makes a lot of high fantasy novels feel tedious. As a game designer, Phillies gives us an elaborate, well thought-out setting. And quite an interesting world it is.
Humans all practice magic. People who don't are, well, not really human, right? So magic users don't feel too bad exploiting these "unmen". Not Adara, though: her House doesn't discriminate against unmen, which turns out to be a controversial attitude.
She also has a problem with bullies. She quickly makes powerful enemies. The confrontation escalates to the point where there are several attempts against her life. These great action sequences are interspersed with quieter moments of academic life. Adara also visits her House estates, and it becomes clear that great forces are moving against her family and country.
After Adara vanquishes her enemies on the field, quite spectacularly, she drags the opponent's House to court. No prison walls can hold a magician, but even in the absence of prison, judgments can still ruin your reputation and your finances.
The world is intelligently constructed given the omnipresence of magic. Why invent the airplane when you can teleport? The emphasis on magic, to the detriment of physics, leads to a society where people travel great distances through various dimensions without a clue about astronomy or electricity.
Meanwhile, Adara is trying so solve a paradox famous in all academia. It has been solved on our Earth, and readers inclined to math puzzles will recognize Cantor's Diagonal Argument.
The story alternates between brutal magic fights and quieter moments where Adara solves her problems as a typical scholar should, via research and writing. The world is intelligently constructed given the omnipresence of magic and explores the implications of a society where people are almost eternal, barring violence. There is matter for many other stories here, and I hope Phillies will give us more.
"Practical Exercise" is, at first blush, about a girl studying in a magical university. Groan, another female Harry Potter, right? Wrong.
We begin classically with the arrival of Adara, the main character, at Dorrance Academy, which is loosely modeled after the author's alma mater, the MIT. Through small, impressionist touches, we discover the world, without the brutal info dump that makes a lot of high fantasy novels feel tedious. As a game designer, Phillies gives us an elaborate, well thought-out setting. And quite an interesting world it is.
Humans all practice magic. People who don't are, well, not really human, right? So magic users don't feel too bad exploiting these "unmen". Not Adara, though: her House doesn't discriminate against unmen, which turns out to be a controversial attitude.
She also has a problem with bullies. She quickly makes powerful enemies. The confrontation escalates to the point where there are several attempts against her life. These great action sequences are interspersed with quieter moments of academic life. Adara also visits her House estates, and it becomes clear that great forces are moving against her family and country.
After Adara vanquishes her enemies on the field, quite spectacularly, she drags the opponent's House to court. No prison walls can hold a magician, but even in the absence of prison, judgments can still ruin your reputation and your finances.
The world is intelligently constructed given the omnipresence of magic. Why invent the airplane when you can teleport? The emphasis on magic, to the detriment of physics, leads to a society where people travel great distances through various dimensions without a clue about astronomy or electricity.
Meanwhile, Adara is trying so solve a paradox famous in all academia. It has been solved on our Earth, and readers inclined to math puzzles will recognize Cantor's Diagonal Argument.
The story alternates between brutal magic fights and quieter moments where Adara solves her problems as a typical scholar should, via research and writing. The world is intelligently constructed given the omnipresence of magic and explores the implications of a society where people are almost eternal, barring violence. There is matter for many other stories here, and I hope Phillies will give us more.
August 5, 2022
Worldly Politics as Deadly as Academic Politics
A magical university is more satisfactory than a high school, because the problems are those of adults. The major character is more than a student because she has had to train for militia combat. And a good thing: backstabbing here is for real. It’s a long, satisfying novel.
A magical university is more satisfactory than a high school, because the problems are those of adults. The major character is more than a student because she has had to train for militia combat. And a good thing: backstabbing here is for real. It’s a long, satisfying novel.
May 24, 2023
In which Adara Triskittenion goes to a wizard college. It works as a stand-alone though it says it is book one of a series.
In a world where there's an apparently interstellar society of immortal wizards (except that they seem to regard ice ages as an indicator for all places, regardless of how many moons they have), Adara wants to study general magic and solve an age-old paradox. She comes to the great Dorrance Academy, from Outremer into the Commonality.
It involves a test of magical fighting that goes wrong, students who think memorizing lectures or homework will get them through, the treaty between Outremer and the Commonality from the last war, paper and ink, eating at restaurants, an expelled student, family conflicts, lawsuits, why her house is called "Three Kittens," and more.
In a world where there's an apparently interstellar society of immortal wizards (except that they seem to regard ice ages as an indicator for all places, regardless of how many moons they have), Adara wants to study general magic and solve an age-old paradox. She comes to the great Dorrance Academy, from Outremer into the Commonality.
It involves a test of magical fighting that goes wrong, students who think memorizing lectures or homework will get them through, the treaty between Outremer and the Commonality from the last war, paper and ink, eating at restaurants, an expelled student, family conflicts, lawsuits, why her house is called "Three Kittens," and more.
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