Chronicles of Whetherwhy: The Age of Enchantment
The Chronicles of Whetherwhy series, Book 1
Anna James
Flamingo Books
Fiction, MG Fantasy
Themes: Magic Workers, Schools
***+
Description
On the island of Whetherwhy, everyone has a little magic, each influenced by the four seasons, from
the creation of spring through the learning and revelation of summer, transitions and transformations
of fall, and destruction and endings of winter. But only a few are enchanters, with power rooted in all
four seasons. Enchanters can weave powerful spells from the threads of Whetherwhy's magic, even creating
lifelike "Tangle" creatures of pure magic, and must learn to control their gifts properly lest things go
terribly awry. Some even rise as far as the queen's personal retinue! That is why, at age thirteen, all
children are tested to reveal their particular season of magic, and enchanters are whisked off to
Thistledown Academy in the capital of Stormgrove.
Juniper Quinn wants none of that. She loves reading about adventures in books, but doesn't think she has
it in her to do great things... so only her twin brother, Rafferty, knows that she has enchanter magic.
She'd much rather stay in their small town of Honeyvale with their bookbinder family than go off to a
big city like Stormgrove, away from everyone she knows and loves - and besides, everyone seems to think
enchanters are arrogant snobs looking down on the rest of Whetherwhy. But there's no tricking the
testers, so - like it or not - she's soon on her way to Thistledown. Here, she learns it's not so bad
being an enchanter. She might even get to enjoy it... but from the start there are secrets and dangers
afoot, starting with an attack on the way to the academy itself that robs her of her magic.
Rafferty, meanwhile, has never lived apart from his sister. But when she's taken away, he realizes that
he wants to see the wider world himself, and what better place to start than Stormgrove? He applies to
various printers and gets accepted as an apprentice in a bindery not far from Thistledown. What a great
way to start an adventurous life, and how surprised Juniper will be to find her twin brother right next
door in the big city! But being away from his family for the first time exposes him to a different
Whetherwhy than he knew, a place where enchanters are distrusted, inequality is rampant, and secret
societies seek to level the playing field. Soon, he begins to wonder which side he's on - and if he can
still trust his own twin sister, now that she's a Thistledown student on the other side of the academy
walls.
Review
I mostly got this because the second book in the series intrigued me; I liked the concept of the
"Tangles", magical constructs with lives of their own (with their dark counterpart "Knots"), and it
looked light and whimsical. But at some point it simply did not deliver on its best promises, staying
in the shallow end of a concept that kept teasing at deeper and more interesting waters.
It starts out as just what it promised on the cover, a fun and somewhat whimsical fantasy adventure,
and if it isn't exactly original, it has that worn-in-shoes comfortable familiarity of tropes done
decently. Juniper and Rafferty Quinn are decent enough characters for the story and world they inhabit,
twins who share everything except their magic; while Rafferty is a strong spring mage, using his
creative gifts to embroider beautiful designs for the family's bookbinder business, Juniper struggles
to hide the enchantment powers that she knows will separate her from her loved ones and thrust her into
a life she doesn't feel ready to live. It doesn't help that their own father makes a comment about
enchanters being stuck-up snobs (before he knows about her gifts), and others in Honeyvale agree with
him. But when her powers are revealed, everyone comes together in support and doesn't say a bad word
about enchanter magic again, so that little plot point fizzles out... the first of many hints at
greater conflicts and prejudices that gets lip service but little to no actual page presence or
follow-through. The reader is told more than once that enchanters are an elite class of people, viewed
as considering themselves better than the average Whetherwhy citizen with their smaller magics... but
we barely ever see people in Whetherwhy actively using their magic anyway, and we never see enchanters
actually treating people bad (or people being treated poorly as a direct result of enchanters
existing). The classism that exists is a little clunky and is the sort that seems like it would exist
even without magic at all, tied to wealth more than magic itself, enchanters being so rare that you
just don't get whole families of them; Juniper has two classmates from wealthy families, neither of
whom built their wealth solely on enchanters, one of them being a spoiled snob and the other embracing
Thistledown's efforts to teach students to do most everything without magic or even servants,
including gardening and mending and cleaning. How are students from this system coming out as the
uppity snobs that everyone complains about (save the few who started out that way)... or why is
everyone so jealous of powers we only really see used in moments of danger? There's talk of
increasing numbers of "Knots" (malevolent free-roaming magical constructs that are the result of
misfired spells or other magical accidents), but they seem too rare and random to really account for
the resentment that drives so much of one half of the plot.
Anyway, while Juniper is dealing with the academy and the theft of her magic, Rafferty sets out on his
own big adventure, and soon finds himself pulled into a dark conspiracy of anti-enchanter agitators. At
first, they seem not so bad: surely they're just studying magic and enchantment on their own, and if
there really is a way to share powers so those with less get a little more, is that so terrible? Maybe
he can be close to his sister again... but he also starts to listen to the wrong voices and takes her
prolonged silence in response to his letters the wrong way, thinking she's becoming elitist like
everyone seems to think all enchanters become as they develop their magic. He has a fellow apprentice,
Jessy, and both are pulled into the secret Papercut Society via an exceptional plot convenience that
only crops up once Rafferty is in town... which is odd, as Jessy has been an orphan for much longer
than he's been there and the coincidence that drags them in involves the deaths of her parents. It's
like she was sitting there twiddling her thumbs waiting for a main character to show up and kickstart
her adventure. In fact, too much of the plot starts to feel like people and events were sitting around
waiting for the Quinn twins to come along in order to start moving. I understand there's going to be
some level of plot convenience in many stories, but it started feeling like a bit of a stretch, even
for a title aimed at younger readers.
The ending leaves a few questions dangling for future volumes, but by then I was no longer interested;
it was all too shallow and glossy and neat, a smothering hug of an overprotective storyteller bound
and determined not to let anything too perilous reach little ears. There's even a dragon for quite
literally no reason that needed a dragon. I am an absolute sucker for dragons, but when even I just
shrugged my shoulders after its brief appearance - after the characters made a point of being amazed
that one even existed when they've been gone so long that even Whetherwhy, the isle of magic,
considers them mere myths, only for everyone to dismiss it the moment it was out of sight, no attempt
to follow up with the person who apparently captured or smuggled it into the city, no questions, no
lingering hint of it as an ongoing threat, no nothing, like young toddlers whose concept of object
permanence is not yet fully formed - that's a waste of a dragon.
By the end, I found the story just plain lacked the sparkle and punch to even keep it at a four-star
Good rating. Characters never really surprise or change much, plot points are telegraphed with the
subtlety of a jackhammer, and it wraps up too neatly (yet not neatly at all given all the
unacknowledged issues and questions that should be dealt with but aren't). There's real potential and
some nice descriptions of the magic and world, but James just bubble-wrapped it too much, shying away
from any of the truly dark and interesting bits that would've kept me satisfied and reading
onward.