Wizard of London; M. Lackey

Certain elements of this story reminded me of Katherine Kurtz & Deborah Turner Harris' Adept series, but Ms. Lackey puts her own stamp on things. Set in England during that wonderful exploratory age of steamers & trains, Wizard of London has an ensemble cast featuring two schoolgirls, several Indians, magic, fairies & mystical creatures. BTW, this is book four of the Elemental Masters series. Yet again I have started a series bass ackwards.

This version of life has three types of people: plain humans, humans with psychic talents (clairvoyance, telepathy, etc) & humans with elemental talents (water, fire, earth or air). The first category doesn't concern us at all in this story. The second two do. The little girls in question, Sarah & Nan, are psychically gifted. Sophie is a medium & Nan is to be a 'Warrior of Light' when she grows up.

Basically the set up is this- Sarah & Nan attend a school where their talents can be nurtured & trained & protected. Despite this they are attacked. Somehow the headmistress manages to protect them, although only with the help of friends long in her past. Mixed into this is a sorceress who will do anything to remain young & beautiful forever; her male protege, who is really dumb as a brick, IMO; two birds as the girls' familiars; fairies & ..ta da!! My favorite- Puck.

The similarities to Kurtz & Harris' work is superficial & relates mainly to terms used: elemental powers, warrior of light & a few general themes. WOL seems to stand on its own, apart from the others in the series. Well, I don't feel as though I've missed anything from the previous three like I did when I accidentally got Anne Bishop's Pillars series wrong. It's a fascinating glimpse into a little world I'd like to get to know better.