Strixhaven: Omens of Chaos (Magic: The Gathering) by Seanan McGuire

 Where to begin? I never played Magic:The Gathering when it came out. I was in college and I loved D&D and my only thoughts of Magic when it came out was that it was like a dumbed down version of D&D and I snobbishly turned up my nose at it because it was for kids and its parent company bought D&D from TSR and was trying to ruin it with 3rd edition - I fully admit, I didn’t know anything about it, it was an opinion based on ignorance. My brother-in-law has been teaching me how to play Magic recently and I am realizing how wrong I was and how fun and complex the game is! 

From following her on social media, I was aware how much Seanan McGuire loved Magic, and I just adore Seanan McGuire’s body of work.  (Note: I review a bunch of her books so I am copying part of some of my other reviews here to save time.). She has quickly become my favorite living writer and I feel very lucky that she is so prolific. I was first introduced to her work when her book Parasite, written as Mira Grant, was nominated for a Hugo Award. I loved it and quickly devoured the Newsflesh series before I realized that Mira Grant and Seanan McGuire were the same person. 

I started reading her works under her own name, starting with Sparrow Hill Road, which is amazing, but I picked it because I was intimidated by her long running October Daye series. When Incryptid was nominated for the Best Series Hugo in 2018, I dove into that and I loved it! It is probably my second favorite series by McGuire (Velveteen Vs. holds a special place in my heart). 

And ever since I was little, I loved books set in magical schools. I still have my dogeared copy of The Worst Witch and have read it to both of my children. So when I found out my favorite author was writing a magical school book based on a game I liked I preordered a copy right away! Then I was lucky enough to get an eARC from NetGalley and the publisher. 

I loved this book so much! You don’t need to know anything about Magic to enjoy it (which is good, because I still don’t know that much lore about the game). 5 students from different planes of existence are recruited to come study at a magical university and they learn about each other and themselves in this book. The characters feel very real - none of them are perfect and they still learning who they are and what type of people they want to be. I enjoyed this book thoroughly and hope it sells well so that Ms. McGuire can write all the sequels she wants to!