MAGISTERIUM is just the type of novel that I love! The kind
where
the author creates an imaginative world filled with mystery
and wonder. Part of the reason I love reading science
fiction and fantasy novels is the whimsy of discovering a
world that either doesn't exist in our reality or one that
doesn't yet exist. MAGISTERIUM combines both the science
fiction and fantasy aspects seamlessly into a page-turning
story that is difficult to put down.
As we begin the story, we get a peek at the technology,
gadgets, and city infrastructure in a future Earth that is
society created by MAGISTERIUM author Jeff Hirsch. Our
heroine is Glennora Morgan or Glenn for short. She is an
incredibly intelligent sixteen year old girl who dreams of
getting into the deep space travel program in school in
order to go to 813, an Earth-like planet where a science
outpost exists.
The obstacle in her way is her scatterbrained yet brilliant
scientist father. Ever since Glenn's mother disappeared
when she was six years old, her father spends all of his
time either in his basement laboratory or workshop tinkering
with an invention he calls "The Project." Glenn is saddled
with the task of making sure her dad eats and cares for
himself due to his singular obsession with working on The
Project. Ultimately, Glenn has learned to rely only on
herself and takes comfort in pursuing science for its facts
and reasoning.
In Glenn's future earth, there is a border dividing
civilization, otherwise known as the Colloquium, and a place
called The Rift, which is supposedly a barren wasteland due
to a great explosion that killed millions of people and
destroyed the land. Glenn's school mate Kevin believes that
the government has created a conspiracy regarding the true
nature of The Rift. When Glenn's father finally completes
his mysterious Project, Glenn is certain that he has lost
his mind. Her father believes that his Project will help
them go into the Rift and find Glenn's missing mother.
Soon, Glenn's father is arrested by the Authority and Glenn
and Kevin are on the run, and the only way left for them is
to head into the ominous Rift. They discover that world has
been greatly misinformed about the true nature of what
exists beyond the border to the Rift, for the world is
divided between a technical one and a magical one, and both
sides would like nothing more than to overpower the other.
MAGISTERIUM is a young adult novel, but is so intelligently
written that I didn't feel as if I was reading a book for
younger people. There is a romance that develops between
the two main characters of Glenn and Kevin, but it is sweet
and very appropriate for the age group. By the end of the
book, there is room for a sequel and I do hope that Jeff
Hirsch decides to continue sharing this engrossing world
with us. One of my favorite themes in the book is the almost
spiritual sense of thinking that all things are
interconnected or a single piece of fabric woven from an
infinite number of threads. "His prose is addicting and he
weaves his words as if he is spinning his own threads of
magic"!
In the twenty-second century, Glennora Morgan's father has
been working on a project that will allow him to penetrate
the Rift border and retrieve Glennora's mother; but now that
he has succeeded the Authority is suddenly trying to kill
them both, and Glennora and her friend Kevin must flee into
the Magisterium to escape them.
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