Review: An authentic, mature, intelligent series
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 15, 2013
I will have to straight-up admit here that I often read more standalone novels than series books, when it comes to fiction. This is partly due to my short attention span, and the fact that I often do enjoy it when an author is able to say whatever they want to say "at once" (rather than drag the series out over several installments because of more commercial value, or something along those lines).While the writing style in THE SCHOOL OF THE AGES series is quite different from many of the newer YA books (especially those with a strong "romance" element), I would have been very happy to dive into this series had I discovered it or been introduced to it as a teenager (I'm currently 26). If I were a teenager right now, it'd be a sure thing that a lot of popular new YA novels would not appeal very much to me.What I find very appealing in this series is the authentic portrayal of multiculturalism (one that is based on "real people," not stereotypes), and that it doesn't talk down to teenage readers. The themes in THE WAR AGAINST LOVE are obvious from the opening pages (the first two paragraphs consist of very introspective and reflective/meditative lines that don't go overboard on the technical or theoretical side of things).There's one paragraph on the first page that deserves a special mention in a review on this book--it is very poignant yet easy to appreciate, in terms of style and content:"The doorbell rang. Peter was watching a very dumb reality show on TV. Reality includes God and magic, and the people on the show knew neither. I got up and went to the door and checked the peephole, and saw outside a nightmare.This is a very dark and mature book, and I don't mean "dark" in the horror/sensationally macabre sense or "mature" in the sexually explicit sense. It is dark in the sense of realism in human nature; it is mature in the sense that the themes and storyline are not "fluffy" and based on the feel-good factor (such as the kind of thing what might find in soda, which might taste nice but is terrible in terms of nutritious value).I enjoyed the montage scene somewhere in the middle of the book--it was a bit of a sudden change of pace and style, but I like it when an author tries something new or different. It gave a rather panoramic view of things which the longer paragraphs didn't have (what those paragraphs had were good descriptions and very, very intelligent dialogue--there's one chapter where I was thinking to myself, "Damn, I wish I could've been there having those intelligent conversations in the SotA setting"). FYI that is Chapter 13 ("Orientation"), and school orientations are something I have usually rolled my eyes at with a dramatic sigh to the ceiling because of my relative disdain for "fluffy" orientation types of activities which merely scratch the surface in terms of interaction and understanding others better.The ending was pretty unexpected too (I didn't see some of those twists coming!)...and I was quite surprised as it was a daring thing to do with the plot, even with the "cautionary" mention in the opening paragraph.An intelligent series that more young people should be introduced to; many of the themes would make for a great discussion that isn't narrow in any way. One last note--I instantly liked the interior image of Ana Vorkina by Julie Posner when I viewed the ebook (if there was an actual 'like' button for or beside it, I would have clicked it to share on my social media straight away). The drawing captures the layered, spiritual and mature (i.e. refer to my comment about "maturity" above) tone of the book very well.