Deadly Education: A Novel

An unwilling dark sorceress destined to rewrite the rules of magic clashes with a popular combat sorcerer while resolving to spare the lives of innocents. By the award-winning author of the Temeraire series.
"In the start of an all-new series, the bestselling author of Uprooted and Spinning Silver introduces you to a school for the magically gifted where failure means certain death--until one girl begins to unlock its many secrets. Enter a school of magic unlike any you have ever encountered: There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships save strategic ones. Survival is more important than any letter grade, for the school won't allow its students to leave until they graduate . . . or die. The rules are deceptively simple: Don't walk the halls alone. And beware of the monsters who lurk everywhere. El is uniquely prepared for the school's dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out untold millions. It would be easy enough for El to defeat the monsters that prowl the school. The problem? Her powerful dark magic might also kill all the other students. So El is trying her hardest not to use her power . . . at least not until she has no other option. Meanwhile, her fellow student, the insufferable Orion Lake, is making heroism look like a breeze. He's saved hundreds of lives--including El's--with his flashy combat magic. But in the spring of their junior year, after Orion rescues El for the second time and makes her look like more of an outcast than she already is, she reaches an impulsive conclusion: Orion Lake must die. But El is about to learn some lessons she never could in the classroom: About the school. About Orion Lake. And aboutwho she really is. Wry, witty, endlessly inventive, and mordantly funny--yet with a true depth at its heart--this enchanting novel reminds us that there are far more important things than mere survival"--
From the New York Times bestselling author of Uprooted and Spinning Silver comes the story of an unwilling dark sorceress who is destined to rewrite the rules of magic.&;The dark school of magic I&;ve been waiting for.&; Katherine Arden, author of Winternight TrilogyI decided that Orion Lake needed to die after the second time he saved my life.Everyone loves Orion Lake. Everyone else, that is. Far as I&;m concerned, he can keep his flashy combat magic to himself. I&;m not joining his pack of adoring fans. I don&;t need help surviving the Scholomance, even if they do. Forget the hordes of monsters and cursed artifacts, I&;m probably the most dangerous thing in the place. Just give me a chance and I&;ll level mountains and kill untold millions, make myself the dark queen of the world. At least, that&;s what the world expects me to do. Most of the other students in here would be delighted if Orion killed me like one more evil thing that&;s crawled out of the drains. Sometimes I think they want me to turn into the evil witch they assume I am. The school itself certainly does. But the Scholomance isn&;t getting what it wants from me. And neither is Orion Lake. I may not be anyone&;s idea of the shining hero, but I&;m going to make it out of this place alive, and I&;m not going to slaughter thousands to do it, either. Although I&;m giving serious consideration to just one. With flawless mastery, Naomi Novik creates a heroine for the ages&;a character so sharply realized and so richly nuanced that she will live on in hearts and minds for generations to come.