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"!