Justine Larbalestier's second novel, Magic Lessons, the sequel to Magic or Madness from 2005, is reviewed in "The Washington Post this week (second item down).
"Larbalestier's portrayal of magic as a curse is a refreshing alternative to the conventional depiction of young wizards as a lucky elite. A rigorous, almost science-fictional emphasis on the mechanics of magic (Reason interprets magic as a branch of mathematics) shapes the often amorphous subject matter into a fascinating discipline."
And keeping it in the family, Larbalestier's husband, Scott Westerfeld has his novel Blue Noon, the third in his Midnighters series, also reviewed in the same column.
"Possessing the hip rhythms and dark humor of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer,' the creepy eldritch frissons of an H.P. Lovecraft or Fritz Leiber novel, and the dissonant outcast camaraderie of Brian Vaughan's comic book series Runaways, Westerfeld's trilogy blends pure wish-fulfillment with hard-edged physics. Unafraid to bring this invented world crashing down about his characters, Westerfeld unleashes a succession of heart-juddering climaxes right up to the very end."
