This uninspired sequel to 2007's Small Magics
continues the adventures of 18-year-old Thomas Flarety, a student at the prestigious Royal Academy of Learning who has the unique ability to see magic and the rare talent of using it. The tyrannical leaders of the Church of the High Father call his abilities witchcraft, and Flarety soon faces a difficult decision: use his talents to help a northern duchy under attack from magic-wielding raiders, thereby marking himself and his friends as enemies of the Church, or stay in school and do nothing as hundreds of innocents die. Though some action sequences toward the novel's conclusion are well developed and engaging, the uneven pacing, trite characterization, and drab world-building make this a pedestrian adventure fantasy at best. (May)
