Podcast Episode #66 – Akarnae and Other Magic Schools

Tea in the Treetops Podcast

Welcome to the sixty-sixth episode of the Tea in the Treetops podcast hosted by Philippa and Anni.

In this episode, we give a joint, spoiler-free review of the Medoran Chronicles series, since the final book, Vardaesia was just released. We list some other magical school books for varying age groups, as well as catch up on what we’ve been reading. This episode was recorded on 22 February 2019.

We hope you enjoy listening and we would love to hear your feedback. Is there anything you would like us to talk about in particular? Just let us know!

You can listen to past episodes of the podcast, as well as the various ways to subscribe on the main podcast page. You can also record a voice message for us via the Speakpipe widget there.

Our title music is titled Sea of Dreams and has been used with the kind permission of the composer, Bart Stoop. You can hear more of Bart’s beautiful music at facebook.com/BartStoop.

The Medoran Chronicles by Lynette Noni [starts at 13:40]

Congratulations, Lynette! We loved all six books in this series – Anni over the last few years and Philippa in the last few weeks. We both gave the final book five stars.

Here’s the blurb for book 1, Akarnae:

With just one step, sixteen-year-old Alexandra Jennings’s world changes—literally.

Dreading her first day at a new school, Alex is stunned when she walks through a doorway and finds herself stranded in Medora, a fantasy world full of impossibilities. Desperate to return home, she learns that only a man named Professor Marselle can help her… but he’s missing.

While waiting for him to reappear, Alex attends Akarnae Academy, Medora’s boarding school for teenagers with extraordinary gifts. She soon starts to enjoy her bizarre new world and the friends who embrace her as one of their own, but strange things are happening at Akarnae, and Alex can’t ignore her fear that something unexpected… something sinister… is looming.

An unwilling pawn in a deadly game, Alex’s shoulders bear the crushing weight of an entire race’s survival. Only she can save the Medorans, but what if doing so prevents her from ever returning home?

Will Alex risk her entire world—and maybe even her life—to save Medora?

Magic School Books [20:40]

Middle Grade

• Harry Potter series, JK Rowling
• Chronicles of Narnia, CS Lewis (not school-related, but parallel words)
• Magisterium series, Cassandra Clare/Holly Black
• Percy Jackson series, Rick Riordan
• Nevermoor, Jessica Townsend
• Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Ransome Riggs
• A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula le Guin

Schools – YA

• Carry On, Rainbow Rowell
• Vampire Academy, Richelle Mead
• Ink and Bone, (The Great Library), Rachel Caine
• Hex Hall series, Rachel Hawkins
• The Novice, Taran Matharu
• Mythos Academy, Jennifer Estep

Older themes

• Nevernight, Jay Kristoff
• The Magicians, Lev Grossman
• The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss

Other books and things mentioned​

Aurealis Awards shortlist for 2018 – congratulations to all the authors with nominated works!​

Sunday March 3, 6:30pm Rhianna Patrick’s show on ABC Radio – Listen to Anni talking about books too!

David Tennant does a podcast with… (Twitter link – podcast platform links available there) – Yes, I got it completely wrong when I said it was only BBC actors on it – there are plenty of interesting people involved!

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