|
March 2009
Gift of the Unmage, Book 1 in the Worldweavers trilogy, by Alma Alexander
Sophy Adani has an MA in molecular biology. In 2005 she started writing Speculative Fiction. Her short fiction reviews can be read at The Fix. Her short stories appear/are forthcoming in Global Warming Aftermaths anthology, The Writer's Eye Magazine, Something Wicked, Murky Depths, Desolate Places anthology, The Book of Exodi, and Alternative Coordinates. She is currently working on revision of her novels. Sophy lives in Florida with her husband and two daughters.
Alma Alexander's Gift of the Unmage is the first book in the Worldweavers trilogy. Although the book is aimed at Young Adult readers, as the main character is a fourteen-year-old girl, the depth of the theme, the multicultural setting, and the complex plot would satisfy older readers as well. In a world much like our own but where magic is an everyday practice, Galathea Georgianna Winthrop, Thea for short, is a double Seventh, a child of parents who are also the Seventh children in their families. Thea grows up in a privileged family, surrounded by loving parents, her Aunt Zoë, and six brothers. That she grew up at all is a wonder under the burden of expectations placed upon her by birth. A double Seven is a special child, talented beyond belief, of which only a few have been born in the past. But Thea has no talent, and by age fourteen, she becomes an outsider among her peers, teased by her brothers and frustrated by her parents' disappointment. Thea is desperately afraid that her parents might send her to the Wandless Academy, and she confides in her Aunt Zoë, a nonconformist but talented mage, with whom she has a special affinity. But before her parents decide on the Wandless Academy, the ultimate disgrace for a prominent mage family, Thea's father acquires a Portal Pass, and they send her back in time to the world of the Anasazi. There she meets Cheveyo, her teacher and mentor, who is stern but gentle, demanding but patient. In the Anasazi world, surrounded by a peaceful mesa, wide skies, and the changing Moons, Thea experiences vivid dreams of her past, about the Faele, a mischievous race, and the Alphiri, beautiful but cold and mercenary aliens. Through these suppressed memories that reveal themselves in dreams, Thea learns that the Alphiri want something from her, and since they are greedy and live only for trade and profit, they will stop at nothing to get it. But the dream memories also unveil a puzzle. Whether it is a portent or a promise, the words whispered by the Faele hovering over her crib, the words: She will be able to conquer nothing, make Thea realize that she has deliberately suppressed her talents. One day Cheveyo takes her to meet Grandmother Spider, who inhabits the First World. A shapeshifter ancestral mother, ancient beyond reckoning, Grandmother Spider takes her on a tour of the worlds, through Portals, where Thea discovers many wonders and learns the depths of her own powers and the nature of the enemy that threatens her world and everyone dear to her. For the first time in her life, she learns to weave light and song together, thereby creating a Portal of her own. Thea also meets Corey the Trickster, who is in the employ of the Alphiri, and learns of his plan to betray her to them. Despite her fear, Thea gathers her courage and shoves Corey through the Portal. Back in Cheveyo's world, Thea is plagued by real doubts and uncertainties of whether she could fulfill her destiny: to rid the world of the Nothing, a malevolent entity brought by the Alphiri, an entity that eats magic and worlds that contain magic. But her enemies are not all external; she has self-doubt and insecurities, just like any other teenager, which she must face and understand — if not quite resolve — before she can tackle the larger issues of the world. Armed with Cheveyo's parting gift of a necklace with three feathers, the budding wisdom he has helped her to gain, and his faith in her abilities, Thea returns to her own world with a strategy. Because she must hide her magical powers from the Alphiri, she now chooses to attend the Wandless Academy, a school warded against magic. Thea is warmly received at the Wandless Academy, where she soon becomes friends with Magpie, her roommate. Also among her new friends are Tess and Terry, a pair of twins to whom magic is a deadly allergen, and Ben, who can smell magic but is allergic to it. The five of them take computer class together, taught by Twitterpat, a young man who soon becomes their favorite teacher. During the course of the semester, the Nothing strikes the outside world, and though it cannot gain entry to the Wandless Academy campus, the students are scared, as it kills many mages who are sent into battle. When some of their teachers are called away — as they are all retired mages — panic runs rampant at the campus. Then one day, Twitterpat must leave, so he assigns the students their work and leaves them with passwords. Terry, who is a computer prodigy, leads the class under the supervision of other teachers. By using senses unique to each of them, Thea and her friends create a virtual world, a world where perhaps the Nothing can be lured, and where it might be defeated. It is a pristine world of endless ocean, inhabited by giant whales and the people who hunt them, a world where the whales can be called by the First Song. It is in this virtual world where Thea must face the Nothing. The ending is bittersweet, one that is fraught with sacrifices, guilt, conquest, and a promise of more to come. Although Gift of the Unmage can be read as a standalone novel, it nicely sets the stage for Spellspam, Book 2 in the Worldweavers trilogy. Alma Alexander has an accessible, literary style, and what drew me in at the beginning is that Thea is an ordinary teenager who struggles under a tremendous burden of societal expectations. She makes mistakes and learns from the consequences of those mistakes. Throughout the novel, she changes and grows. Some readers may find the pacing a bit uneven, as the middle part, Cheveyo's world and the time spent with Grandmother Spider stops the plot and may diminish the urgency and danger to Thea's world, but the reader must remember that the different worlds run on different timelines. Gift of the Unmage is a seamless blend of Madeline L'Engle's Wrinkle In Time, the boarding school atmosphere of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, and lovely Native American folklore. The novel, however, also has unique flavor of its own, one that is American. I find the genre overlap particularly enjoyable; from the modern technology of computers to the Portals and the multiverse setting that borders on super high-tech, and the depths of the ancient folklore and mythologies. With her round characters and vivid descriptions of the settings, Alexander blends all these speculative elements into a highly enjoyable page-turner.
|
||
|
|
||
