The Incandescent

The Incandescent, by Emily Tesh

 Emily Tesh is one of the hosts of the excellent Eight Days of Diana Wynne Jones podcast (she's the British one), and the author of several novels.  Last year I read Some Desperate Glory, which was pretty amazing, and so I grabbed her latest, The Incandescent.

In an alternate world, magic is both an inborn talent and a skill that can be learned, but since it's not an area with a lot of lucrative jobs, magic tends to be a neglected subject at most state schools.  Chetwood School, a posh prep school, does teach high-level magic and takes in sorcerers -- children born with wild talent that need training.  Dr. Sapphire Walden is the director of the magic teaching department, and like any head teacher at a boarding school, she works all the time and lives and breathes the school. 

One thing about a boarding school with about 600 magically-inclined, half-trained teenagers is that it is a fairly dangerous place.  Teenagers, after all, don't have much sense.  And all that power sloshing around is naturally bait for the hungry entities on the other plane -- demons.  "Old Faithful" has been hanging around for centuries, and sometimes it gets through.  That's what the Marshals, and Dr Walden, are for -- keeping the school safe.

Demons are manipulative, though, and some students are vulnerable.  And how about Walden?  Maybe she is more vulnerable than she knows.

So, great story, excellent writing, really well-done cast of characters -- you can see them -- often with a wry dose of humor added in.  I don't know what spurred Tesh to write this story, but 'what if Hogwarts was more realistic and filled with actual teenagers' could have been it.  A very good read.