Dangerous School Days: A Review of A Deadly Education, by Naomi Novik

There are few staples in fantasy fiction more widespread than magic school.  From ancient folklore to modern day novels, the idea of school where people can go to learn magic possesses a timeless appeal.  A place of the absolute highest learning, magic schools were once thought to be places where only the most wizened of philosophers could learn.  Modern fiction, however, draws more from boarding and high school culture.  It is a way to immediately connect a story to a younger audience which is likely currently in school, or recently graduated.  The magic school has become an incredibly mainstream and widespread concept as well, appearing in all Dungeons and Dragons settings, as well as featuring in novel series such as The Kingkiller Chronicles.  But the settings appeal extends beyond Western fiction, with many anime and manga, such as Negima! and Little Witch Academia, taking place in magic schools as well.  However, few schools of the arcane arts are more legendary than the Scholomance.

Collateral Damage: A Review of Battle Ground, by Jim Butcher

Battle Ground is the seventeenth novel in Jim Butcher’s long running series, The Dresden Files.  The previous novel, Peace Talks, only came out this past July, leaving only a two-month gap between novels.  Before that, book number 15, Skin Game, was released in May of 2014.  As one might imagine, it can prove difficult to keep an ongoing series like this interesting and fresh, especially when each novel is exclusively told in the first-person point-of-view of the main character, Harry Dresden.  At a certain point, the likelihood of burnout increases, until the author can find a way to reinvent the franchise and allow it to change.  What is interesting about The Dresden Files is that Battle Ground is actually the second such reinvention, an inevitably for something so massive.  And, depending on how far Butcher is willing to go, this may not even be the last time he makes some changes to the formula.