Eff is the thirteenth child in her family, and the elder of twins--her brother, Lan, is the seventh son of a seventh son, gifted with both great magical power and, supposedly, great luck. As the thirteenth child, Eff is, according to some folklore, destined to bring only ill luck and evil on her family.

We follow her story from age five to age eighteen. The Rothmer family is obviously a family of magicians, but this is a world in which some level of magic is common throughout society. Everyday household spells make cleaning and cooking and laundry less burdensome. Eff and Lan's father is a respected scholar--and gets an offer from a new college out west that takes them out to the frontier, where their lives will change.

They live in the country of Columbia, which was not that long ago split by a Civil War, They go by train to Mill City, not far from the great Mammoth River. On the other side of the river are great and terrible beasts, including both entirely natural beasts like mammoths, and magical ones like steam dragons. Mr. Rothmer is going to be a professor of magic, one of three, at the new college. Among the duties of the professors of magic at this land-grant college is providing support to the settlers not just on the other side of the river, but on the other side of the magical barrier that holds back the dangerous beasts, natural and magical, of the far west.

One of the things I like about this book is that relationships that start out problematic don't necessarily stay that way. Professor Graham, another of the magic professors, has very stern views on behavior and social status. He provides private tutoring to his son, William, and is shocked when Professor Rothmer decides that his children who are still of school age will attend the local day school. He disapproves strongly. But not only does he become a good working colleague for Professor Rothmer; he changes his mind about the day school when events demonstrate that the magical education there is very good indeed. (One event in particular is quite dramatic, and involves Lan and William.)

The magic teacher at this school teaches her students Avrupan (European) magic, but also Hijero-Cathayan and Aphrikan magic as well. She herself is of Aphrikan ancestry. and this proves to be important. Eff, it becomes clear, also has great magical potential, but starts having real difficulties doing any magic, because of her fears of "turning evil" because she's a thirteenth daughter. One uncle in particular really drove this lesson home, in their previous town before coming to Mill City, with not just lectures but bullying, gossip, and serious attempts to make trouble for Eff even as a small child. Her own parents' and siblings' more reasonable attitude a rather nasty, minority belief about thirteenth children, wasn't enough to completely counteract Uncle Ern's determination to see Eff punished before she's done anything at all.

Even in Mill City, her guilt and fears because of this haunt her, and she increasingly has difficulty actually doing any magic at all, no matter how hard she studies and masters the book learning part of it. It's this teacher, both directly and through a circuit magician whom she taught, who plays a major role in helping Eff confront and overcome her guilt, fears, and self-generated problems.

This is a nicely developed world. In addition to the magical systems mentioned, there are also the Rationalists--a group that believes the use of magic weakens people's natural talents and creativity. This costs them a lot of hard work, but they're not just a different flavor of religious fanatic (though that tendency appears to have some presence, as a minority attitude.) They come up with real solutions to real problems--including some things that would be harder to do with magic rather than with their inventions. And when they make their own settlement on the far side of the protective barrier, they don't fulfill expectations of a quick failure, that Professors Rothmer and Graham as well as others warned them of. People acting like adults, and respecting different beliefs and practices, is something we don't always see enough of, but we see it in this book. And we see that, without the pretense that more extreme and hateful attitudes don't exist.

What we don't see in this book is any Native Americans, or any mention of them or any of their cultures. It's a puzzling and somewhat disturbing omission. It's hard to think of any good reason why at least some of the Native American cultures, and their own magical and technological traditions, would not be present in this world.

Nevertheless, a good, and enjoyable book, and well-narrated by Ronconi.

Recommended.

I bought this audiobook. ( )

oh, so very very good. This book was so good that it made up for the fact that I finished the Flora Segunda books earlier this week. I will now go request the rest of the series from the library. ( )

This is a first person coming of age story told by Eff who happens to be a twin and a thirteenth child in an alternate Earth setting in the pioneer days. Settlers have more to worry about than our early settlers had though. This world has magic and dangerous magical creatures like steam dragons, spectral bears, mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses among other dangers.

The world also has three kinds of magic - the Avrupan, the Hijero-Cathayan, and the Aphrikan. Many, even most. of the people in Columbia are students of the Avrupan school which teaches that seventh sons are lucky and seventh sons of seventh sons are even luckier. And there is nothing worse to be than a thirteenth child. Her brother Lan is a double seven who is petted and praised for his potential; Eff is the unlucky thirteenth. While her parents are supportive of her, many of her aunts, uncles and cousins torment and belittle her. She develops a major inferiority complex and a fear that she really will turn out to be as horrible as her relatives say.

When she is five, her parents decide to travel west to the edge of settlement. Her father is a professor of magic who gets a job at one of the new land grant colleges on the frontier. This trip gives Eff a chance to start over but she still doesn't tell anyone that she is a thirteenth child. There in Mill City Eff also has the chance to learn from a new teacher who is an expert in the Aphrikan school of magic. The new teacher helps Eff gain confidence but Eff is still worried that her magic could be dangerous.

Now, in this world there is a magical barrier that was erected by Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson to keep the people to the east safe from all the dangerous magical and non-magical creatures in the west. But settlers are pushing the limit and gradually expanding beyond this great Barrier Spell. Each settlement has their own magician to provide the magical protections necessary to live beyond the Great Barrier. But the land beyond the Barrier is little explored and largely unknown. Eff wants to learn more about the land and become a naturalist. When the settlements are attacked by a new insect that no one knew anything about, Eff travels with her father, twin, and friend to try to find a way to protect the settlements. And she becomes a heroine!

I thought the story was a fascinating and different take on fantasy. Combining magic with pioneering made it even more interesting. Having Eff tell her own story made it easy to understand and sympathize with her. The only problem I had with the story was the very lackluster cover that the book has. If I can convince students to pick it up, I know that they will enjoy getting to know Eff and finding out about her magical world. But the cover doesn't make it easy.

Don't judge this book by its cover! Pick it up and explore a fascinating new world with a wonderful main character. ( )

Eff Rothmer is the thirteenth child and believed by many in her large extended family to be a bad omen. Her aunts, uncles, and cousins make her life miserable because of her birth order. Her twin, Lan, by contrast, is the seventh son of a seventh son, which is deemed not only to be lucky but that he should also have extra-strong magic powers. The novel takes place in an alternate reality or history in the early to mid-nineteenth century United States and people use magic for everything from household chores to setting the magical settlement boundary in the west to keep out dangerous magical creatures. When the Rothmer’s move out west so Papa can take a job teaching magic at the college in the frontier, Eff is relieved to be leaving the miserable cousins, aunts, and uncles who torment her behind. Maybe no one out west will know she is the thirteenth child. As the twins grow in the western settlement, Lan receives extra magic lessons from his father and another professor and Eff finds a wise teacher, Miss Ochiba who teaches her about the world’s other magical traditions and that being a thirteenth child is not all bad; it comes with it’s own magical power as strong as her brother’s. Eff learns this in dramatic fashion in the climax of the book. This is a slow-moving tale of self-discovery that might appeal to some readers who like historical fiction with some fantasy thrown in. Kirkus starred. ( )

Excellent, as always. Set in the northern mid-west of a frontier America with magic, where some things are familiar (the first three presidents, the state of Pennsylvania), but many are not (particularly the mammoths and steam dragons of the great plains). Eff’s large family is realistic and delightful. Her twin brother is the lucky and powerful seventh son of a seventh son, but she is the unlucky thirteenth child, or at least so her more distant relatives, especially her uncle, insist. Their magic teacher leads them to explore the three main geographical schools of magic. Lovely worldbuilding and a good story, but I’m glad that this is the first book of Frontier Magic, as it seems to be setting up for much more to come. ( )