Fountain Girl by Patricia S. Bowne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Full disclosure: Pat Bowne and I used to belong to the same critique group, and I’ve been a fan of her writing for a long time.
She usually sets her stories and novels in the fantasy world of the Royal Academy at Osyth, a university that teaches magic. This book takes place before the academy is established, at a different magic university. A girl from a distant, isolated village comes there to learn how to master her magical skills and to find her brother’s lost child. Her particular magic involves water, but when the river runs disastrously dry, she didn’t make it happen. She’s only a first-year student — how could she have the skills to do that! But if not her, then who?
Demons, wizards, mermaids, folk tales, and irascible kings fill this story. Even better, it’s filled with plot twists. Bowne has been writing in this universe long enough to weave a lush brocade of people, places, and motivations. As an academic herself, she knows how difficult college life can be for students and professors. Throw in some angry goblins, and the stakes rise to potentially fatal.
You don’t need to have read previous Osyth novels to understand this one, by the way. As a prequel to the series, it stands on its own.
Patricia S. Bowne fiction: https://raosyth.com/raosythindex.html
Sue Burke 