Light Academia(!)

Wed 15 Oct 2025 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Leave a Comment | Posted by: Gavin

In Other Lands coverSarah Rees Brennan’s In Other Lands is tucked comfortably at the end of Jenny Hamilton’s Dark Academia: A Starter Pack (Tart, Awad, Samatar, & more) in the NYTimes answering the subtitled question “Is there such a thing as light academia?”

“In Other Lands” is a hilarious, and moving, sendup of magic school novels where kids learn to fight in an ongoing war against the forces of evil. Its mouthy, obnoxious 13-year-old protagonist, Elliot, resists every step of the way. (“Oh my God,” he says. “We’re child soldiers?”) Elliot’s pacifism never alters, but the world of the book grows deeper and more nuanced as the reader gets further in. Brennan explores gender dynamics, diplomacy in wartime, xenophobia and the ways that deeply damaged people can learn to care for each other — all with a per-page joke rate that puts Douglas Adams to shame.

If you read it and love it, try … the “Giant Days” comic book series, by John Allison, illustrated by Max Sarin and Lissa Treiman; “I Kissed Shara Wheeler,” by Casey McQuiston; or “Year of the Griffin,” by Diana Wynne Jones.

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