Emily Tesh: The Incandescent

 

The next Hugo nominee. Dr. Walden is the director of magic in a boarding school whose curriculum emphasizes magical arts. It is a pretty expensive place to study, but there are many students with scholarships there, because a young person with powerful gifts for magical abilities may be - and is - very dangerous for themselves and others who are untrained. As the concentration of magical skills in a small area is very appealing to demonic powers, the school has many wards and mechanisms to prevent demons from entering it and possessing students. The world has a demonic level which can be accessed by skillful individuals, and it is especially strong in the school area. There are also guards, demonfighters, marshals, patrolling the premises. The book is set in the modern day; there are mobile phones, cars, and game systems. And intricate electronics attract demons for some reason. Dr Walden is passionate about the school, its safety, and her students, and the students give her high esteem. 

There is a severe intrusion caused by students who thought they could control a demon but instead encountered a much more powerful one than they bargained for. Dr Walden manages to save the situation. (She herself started a similar situation when she was a student at the school, and that time things didn’t go as well). Dr Walden has a secret - a demon that has been captured in a tattoo on her hand, which she can use in a tight situation. The chief marshal raises serious concerns when she learns about the tattoo and the demon which is contained in it. She is, however, moved out of the school in the investigation following the intrusion - just after Dr Walden connects with her and they were planning a romantic date together. Afterward, the chief marshal is fired because someone had to be blamed for the incident. But a contractor, mysterious and arrogant but handsome Mark Daubrey, starts overseeing the safety of the school. And the demonic activity seems to be increasing…

A pretty nice book, but it was not without problems. It was pretty episodic, and pacing felt a bit uneven - almost like it would have been an old-school fixup novel consisting of several shorter works. The writing wasn’t quite as good as in some of the other nominees, and the romance parts felt somewhat cringe for some reason. The book was told in the third person, but the viewpoint was always Dr. Walden’s. And it felt a bit strange that Dr. Walden, the main and viewpoint character, was the only one almost always referred to by last name; for others, the first name was often used. Dr Walden herself was an interesting character, at the same time arrogant, so sure, too sure of herself, and lonely and somehow repressed at the same time. 

I was also expecting to learn more about the demons. They live at some kind of other level of existence, love to eat humans, especially ones with magical abilities; they aren’t “demons” in the religious sense (even though they can possess you and need exorcism to be driven out) but rather malevolent creatures which can be harnessed for menial tasks when they are young and weak. I wonder if that is the reason they are so angry? That aspect wasn’t explored at all. 

416 pp.