The Invisible College

Another great read by Jeff Wheeler! I always know what I’m getting with his books – the very specific, rather formal narrative voice (no slang here), main characters with a strong sense of moral integrity and a sense that anything is possible if they put their minds to it, and a healthy and imaginative dose of magic, in various forms.

This one was unique (as the foreword says) because McKenna, one of the two main characters, is deaf, though that really doesn’t change the way she’s portrayed almost at all. It just shapes her story. She lives in a world where you have to sing magical spells for them to act, but because she’s deaf, she can’t sing. In this world, deafness also typically relegates the disabled to the outer edges of society, but McKenna is exceptionally bright and determined, and she’s from a wealthy family, so she manages to learn to read lips and speak so well that most can’t even tell that she’s deaf, so at least this doesn’t apply. But she dreams of practicing magic, and joining the “Invisible College” of practitioners (so called because finding the entrance to the college is the first magical test). To this end, her father hires a tutor for her, Robinson Hawksley.

He’s poor, rarely eats enough, and so he looks far older than his 27 years, but he falls in love with McKenna quickly. Her family disapproves of the match, but he boldly pursues her and declares himself early enough that he wins her over.

Meanwhile, an ancient magical race called the Aesir exist in the coldest regions of the earth, where they hibernate for up to a century at a time. Every time they awaken, they wreak havoc on humanity, and attempt to destroy them. Military forces remain ever vigilant for their reawakening, though generations of humans come and go without engaging in conflict. But now, the Aesir are awakening. Professor Hawksley has an idea for an invention that may just tip the balance of power in the humans’ favor, and McKenna’s father is his benefactor–but he has to convince those in a position of power to believe him, rather than write him off as essentially an Aesir “shell” himself.

It’s very creative and an intricate plot, and part one of a series.

My rating: ****1/2

Language: none

Sexual content: none

Violence: fantasy only

Political content: none

 

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