I received an advance reader’s copy (ARC) of The Geomagician by Jennifer Mandula. Since this version is just a proof and not the final version, I won’t quote directly and will keep my comments general.

In The Geomagician, Mary has grown up fascinated by paleontology, and has always wanted to become a geomagician—someone who uses fossils for magic spells. However, the Geomagical Society of London doesn’t admit women, even women as qualified as Mary. Then, one day, when exploring a cave in Lyme Regis, she happens across a pterodactyl fossil with an egg… which somehow hatches in her hands. Astounded, she begins to care for the baby dinosaur, which she realizes could be her ticket to getting the career she’s always dreamed of. But the Society wants to take possession of the pterodactyl, and she worries that she won’t get the credit for this groundbreaking discovery. Enter Henry Stanton, the man with whom she’d grown up and fallen in love with. However, he’s also the man who broke her heart, so she isn’t sure how she can trust him. But with the pterodactyl’s fate and Mary’s career on the line, and with political debates about the situation threatening to spark a true scandal, she has to ally herself with him, or risk everything.

Historical fantasy is one of my favorite subgenres, and then to pair that with a commentary on academia means this was a great read. It reminds me of how Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell blends historical details with an academic look at magic, but has its own twist. In this, magic affects society in various ways: economic, religious, political, academic. I loved how all these concepts are shown to be interconnected; it’s very cleverly done by Mandula.

I also thought Mary was a wonderful protagonist. She’s inspired by real life figure, Mary Anning, a remarkable paleontologist, which is so cool. Some details of her life are, obviously, altered for this story, but I still enjoy the homage. As for Mary-the-fictional-character, she’s great. She’s clever and determined, but also makes mistakes. She can tend to be selfish and unable to see the bigger picture, which leads to some decisions that can be frustrating, but serve to drive forward both the plot and her own character development.

Further, her bond with her best friend Lucy and with her former lover Henry are both complex and interesting. I liked the conflict that she and Lucy find themselves in, and how that tied into the burgeoning political unrest. This isn’t a tired conflict of two women pitting themselves against each other over trivial things or romantic interests (as has tended to happen in literature over the years), but rather it’s two intelligent women butting heads over different ideas about how best to improve the flawed society in which they live. And as for Henry, I thought the relationship between him and Mary was very intriguing. They were childhood friends, then sweethearts, and then were estranged for over a decade. So their reunion in this book was compelling, as the mixed emotions of longing and betrayal are palpable in their interactions. It was interesting to watch their new relationship play out.

And then there’s the pterodactyl, whose name is Ajax. I loved him; he’s so cute and strange and, of course, magical. I think he wasn’t in the story enough during the middle, as there’s a lot going on, but when he was around, it was great. But overall, I do think he was somewhat underutilized, especially considering how delightful he is and how sweet his bond with Mary is. There are simply so many plot threads, from the romance to the political maneuvering to the societal unrest to the fraught friendship, that it feels as if Ajax were sometimes left by the wayside.

But by the time the final act rolls around, most of the plots have neatly come together into a surprisingly action-filled climax. The stakes are high, but the danger was somewhat unexpected for me, and I’m not sure some of these scenes entirely landed for me. I think the author is more skilled at writing character interactions than action, but they aren’t bad by any means. And the way things resolved was mostly satisfying, overall.

In the end, The Geomagician is an impressive debut novel. The themes about women entering male-dominated fields is well done and unfortunately still timely. The characters and their relationships are good. The plot moves along at a decent pace. And the ways that the concepts of magic, academia, politics, and religion interplay throughout the story is really brilliant. It’s an intelligent book while coming across as neither pretentious nor condescending, which is an admirable feat. I look forward to seeing what Mandula writes next!

The Geomagician will be published on March 31st, 2026!