Since Noam’s mother died his father has been catatonic, and before he can recover, magic wipes out their entire neighbourhood. Only witchings, those with underlying power will survive, and his survival reveals that Noam is one of them. He is taken to the government complex where the powerful live, introduced to a new world. This book is set in the 22nd century yet it deals with contemporary issues in a fascinating way. Noam is the son of undocumented immigrants, and when he reveals his heritage to the residents of Carolinia their various reactions reveal both racism and inclusivity. Because of this, he’s had different opportunities than those who grew up with magic, and when he has to take an exam set for them he has no idea of the answers, but resolves to learn and use what he discovers against the government. Noam is a Jewish, Colombian, bisexual character an this is incorporated in an excellent way. His romance isn’t rushed at all, it isn’t even alluded to in that way for a while which allows things to develop naturally, whilst he occasionally drops hints.
The country of Carolinia closed off its technology developments in 2019 to focus on magic but this means it is the only country that is accepting of witchings. Still, they treat Atlantians the way other countries treat witchings. I also like Noah because he isn’t naive, despite what his love interest says. He does think about peoples’ motives, although when he’s decided someone is evil he tends to put everything on them and when he’s decided they’re on his team he trusts them pretty utterly. Without spoiling things, it’s understandable in certain cases why he does this.
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
SPOILERS AHEAD
When he arrives at the faculty, Noam is studied by who he thinks is a scientist but then realises is the 123 year old- but young looking- Lehrer who overthrew the old government in 2019, became king before giving it up to be the secretary of defense. He’s never really believed Lehrer was on the side of the disadvantaged but what he says to Noam implies he wants them to change Carolinia together. As the scientists study him and see no magic, Lehrer is the only one to not give up, waiting until Noam displays technopathy. He fails the aptitude tests because he hasn’t been to school to learn science for years but Lehrer wants to teach him personally, something the minister only does for one other student, the mysterious Dara who is never in the apartment and has the power of illusions. Dara is hot and popular, but he doesn’t react much to either Lehrer or Noam.
When Noam visits home, he is devastated when his dad’s best friend Brennan rejects him for being a witching so he sneaks into the higher government level and uses his power to collect emails about Sacha’s plans to deport all undocumented Atlantians. He gets away with it- but then the level is put on lockdown. While trying to escape he runs into Dara, also on the level but seeming to work against Lehrer for some reason. Luckily, Ames’ father the home secretary takes them straight to Lehrer, who doesn’t believe Noam’s blatant lie but encourages him to continue, just without being caught. He also passes Noam a note saying ‘Faraday’ but doesn’t seem able to help him directly so Noam assumes this is referring to a shield.
The students are sent to help at a refugee camp which has been injected with magic. It helps the others sympathise with the Atlantians, particularly a child called Bea who starts to improve before finally dying. After her death, Noam dreams of her telling him ‘Faraday’ too. Brennan prefers peaceful protest but Noam believes they need to be more active so he takes part in a masked protest with the more militant Atlantians but the Carolinians get violent, which they won’t be blamed for of course. Noam’s magic gets out and he is arrested with some of the others, while his friend Grace is hurt. He has his friend Sam tell the officers he is the witching they’re looking for, and they lock him up. Lehrer comes to collect him and when they get to a private place, he finally reveals the truth to Noam rather than speaking in riddles. He couldn’t say anything before because he was sure Sacha is spying on him but he does want to incite a coup. It’s at this moment that he seemed a bit suspicious to me, and I liked how, as soon as I thought that, Noam also doubted him.
Noam’s stunned to discover the priveleged have problems too: General Ames’ birthday Ames tells Noam her father killed her mother and brother by taking their family into the danger zone because he only wanted witching family so she wants him dead while Lehrer dangerously tells a drunk Dara not to embarrass him again. Dara tells Noam that he has tried to tell him about Lehrer several times, that the defense minister already has absolute power and Sacha has only ever been a figurehead, but now Lehrer wants the glory too. The boys are about to kiss on the roof but Dara pulls away, only to come to Noam in their bedroom. As they fumble, Noam sees bruises on Dara and is a little suspicious but assumes they are from kinks. Noam tells him he should take action himself, so the next morning, General Ames is dead and Dara admits he murdered him.
Noam can’t believe what Dara says about Lehrer because of his feelings against Sacha. Indeed, we are led to think he is the only villain too because the note opening the book reveals that Sacha stole Lehrer’s letter from his brother, but as these interludes continue, they start to implicate Lehrer instead. At the funeral, Noam overhears Lehrer threatening Dara again, and, agreeing to search out the murderer for Lehrer but instead trying to clear any evidence of what Dara did, finds tapes of General Ames committing statutory rape on Dara- he assumes that’s where the bruises come from and why the general asked the boys to stay over. But Dara still says the bruises weren’t from there, insinuating they were from Lehrer. He tells Noam he didn’t kill the general because of this but because Sacha told him too, and Noam finally realises the pretty strongly hinted at power of Dara’s- telepathy. Lehrer has always known this, so the only things he’s told Noam have been things he’s happy with Dara knowing, but now Lehrer asks Dara to agree to his plan to kill Brennan and incite a riot. Lehrer has Noam incarcerated because he says he’s gone fever-mad.
Lehrer sends Noam to kill Brennan with a gun but he ends up accidentally doing it with lightning, meaning they won’t be able to blame it on the man they’d hope to and Noam will be under suspicion. But even without knowing this Sacha arrests him because someone- who must be Lehrer, the only free person who knows- sent in a tip detailing how Brennan would be killed. Lehrer’s men are storming the city and Sacha knows his time is up, so he tells Noam the defense minister’s power is to persuade people to do whatever he wants to. Only Dara’s telepathy can resist it. Speaking of, he shows up to free Noam, killing Sacha and his men. He says Lehrer let him out to free Noam but also confirms Lehrer had him arrested and explicitly reveals his adoptive father is the one who gave him his bruises.
They try to avoid him, but accidentally run into Lehrer, who wipes Noam’s memories to keep him on side while he locks up Dara and puts him on magic dulling sedatives, saying its all to stop the fever sickness. But Noam knows something is off and frees his lover. He needs to stay behind to ensure the refugees continue to get the rights Lehrer has won for them so he gets Dara out and agrees to be Lehrer’s liason.
Quotes
“This time he kept his mouth shut. There was probably some cosmic quota for the amount of sass you could get away with in one day.”
“His grief was a grim spectre on the other side of a shut door. And if he opened that door, he’d be consumed.”
“Now that both his parents were gone, the world was much larger than it had been before- gaping around him, sharp toothed and hungry.”
“Power’s a nasty thing, and none of us are immune.”
“As long as Lehrer had this mark, the descendants of those men who’d tried to wipe witchings off the earth could never sanitise history.”
Into New Realms 