Buffy goes to Hogwarts

[mtvessel]

Jan 2021
A Dangerous Education - Naomi Novik – Del Rey, 2020
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This is a story about a group of teenagers trying to survive in a perilous environment, so I suppose it should be classified as a YA fantasy. If so, then it may be a mark of my basic immaturity that I enjoyed it rather more than either of the more "grown up" books of Novik's that I have read.

In part this is due to the setting, which is Hogwarts crossed with early-season Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The Scholomance is a cylinder-shaped school created in a pocket dimension with only a single connection - the graduation gates - to the real world. The reason for this is that young people with magical powers are regarded as a particularly tasty treat by monsters called maleficaria which can pop up anywhere in normal space but which are unable, at least in theory, to get past the wards that protect the graduation gates. But this does not mean that the Scholomance was created by its Victorian builders as a safe haven for aspiring magic users - quite the opposite. For one thing, the graduation ceremony consists of opening the gates and letting the senior year make a run for it past all the ravening monstrosities that are lying in wait. This leads to a brutal clique culture as groups of kids, often linked to the geographically-based wizardly enclaves in the outside world, gang together for mutual protection - and woe betide you if you are a bit different or lack the necessary social connections. For another, there are no teachers or other authority figures. The whole place, from the cafeteria to the library to the mobile dormitories that ratchet down the outside of the scholomance once per year, is magically automated. And the maintenance schedule is not what it should be.

Our viewpoint character on this Lord of the Flies set-up is El (short for Galadriel) Higgins, whose mother is a hippy-dippy commune dweller in Wales and whose father died in the graduation rush. She is an outsider in every way and has low expectations of surviving graduation. Which makes it all the more odd that the paladin-like Orion Lake, scion of the New York enclave, wielder of powerful battle magics, and serial saviour of fellow students from maleficaria that have made it past the ill-maintained wards, is taking such an interest in her and the band of other misfits that she creates.

So, yes, the whole thing is basically a Harry Potter satire that is also clearly angling to be a Netflix limited series, but the imagination and thought that has gone into it is impressive. The day-to-day activities of Galadriel and her friends are plausible and the mana-based magic system feels just right. I also enjoyed the serious-but-jokey dialogue and the diverse cultural backgrounds of the secondary characters. As in Novik's previous books, the female characters are cool and competent and the male ones are mostly bad or useless, but at least Orion is a sympathetically awkward teenage boy and El's interactions with him are funny and unromantic. So all in all, a lot of fun. This is "lesson one" so evidently at least a sequel is planned - it's not clear how Novik can develop the setting and characters without becoming repetitive, but it will be interesting to see her try.

Comments

[ingaborg]

Yes, I found this book well written and engaging but sadly lacking in originality or freshness. It felt like her editor / agent had said "you need to move into teen fiction" and she drew up a checklist.