Emily Tesh is one of those authors that I’ve been meaning to try for quite some time and just have somehow never gotten around to. I recently got approved for an ARC (obligatory this hasn’t impacted the contents of this review, etc.) for her recently released novel, The Incandescent, so I figured this was a good place to start with her work.
Set at a boarding school that teaches magic (not a magic boarding school, it’s just one more subject for students, along with more mundane topics like languages and sciences), the book is focused on Dr. Walden, the Director of Magic. We follow her as she teaches students a discipline of summoning demons, makes efforts to protect the school from demonic incursions, and deals with her complex interpersonal relationships with the students and other staff.
I loved books about magical schools as a teenager, and I still do as an adult, but often wish there existed more of them that had mature themes. This absolutely delivers on that front—Walden is a super compelling character, and I loved reading about things from her perspective. She’s in her late 30s (please give me more fantasy books with main female characters that are not aged 16-25) and balances out a weary sort of cynicism with a genuine desire to help the students.
The school setting is also great, but it’s very English. I went through primary school in England, so I have a basic passing knowledge of how the school system there works, but I was frequently confused as to which group of students were being referenced (ages, Years, and forms are used pretty much interchangeably), so this is probably going to be even more confusing for any American readers. The plotting was a little bit odd—the first third of the novel feels almost like a prologue to the rest. This does make the middle of the novel drag on a bit, but there is a strong ending.
I really liked this and would recommend. I’ll definitely pick up more of Tesh’s work in the future.