Everybody knows about Harry Potter. There are the books, the movies and probably the cereal box. What one the many things I liked in those stories were how a kid gets to learn magic. In school! In a modern day settings. I read those books when I was in University but I can’t help to feel it must be really magical to read Harry Potter when you are loner. And imagining that you could be drafter for Hogwarts.

There are other books about young wizard learning their crafts. Here are a few I liked.

The Magicians

Another modern day serie. The would be wizard are a bit older. And more emo. And frankly a bit more boring. I have only read the first book. But I felt the pacing was a bit slow. And none of the heroes were really likable.

The thing I liked in the books were the magic system who was really technical. You needed lots of practice to get all the movements perfect. The final exam was also a extremely brutal: students were thrown naked in Antartica (or another cold place) and had to reach a very distant destination. Their magic had better be ready or they would die frozen in less than a minute.

There is a TV adaptation of the book. I haven’t watched it but I hope it is a bit more riveting than the book.

The Name of the Wind

This is one of my favorite book serie ever. Patrick Rothfuss has created a universe that is very well fleshed out. The book is a long flashback following the demise of a once really potent wizard. You learn of its youth and of its discovery of the University of Magic. The only real flaw of these books is that the serie is still incomplete and we, avid readers, have been patiently waiting for the third and last book to be published.

This is an epic story that has it all: adventures, love and magic. I like that when attending University, you can, as part of your training, craft magic items and sold their “patent”!

Uprooted

I just started a new book recently and I was surprise how much I love it. Uprooted tells the story of a young girl who is offered as a sacrifice to a dragon. Pretty soon you learn that the dragon is more human than you would have thought and that the helpless girl can learn more magic than what was planned for her.

There is a feel of old school “tale” to the book. I like that even though it takes place in an imaginary country, there is a strong slavic/polish feel to the story. This is not a setting we see often in books.