How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Application to the academy was kept secret; my father had threatened me with a whipping if I told anyone, even Aben. But there had been whispers at school among those of us who were second and third sons, not heirs, and who weren't needed at home. (4.16)
Like Hogwarts, this wizard academy is kept a secret… but unlike Hogwarts, every kid who's sent here is expendable. We're on board with the idea that learning magic is hard and that you might have to make some sacrifices to do so, but this seems a little excessive.
Quote #2
Sadima hesitated, looking into his dark eyes. She had never been able to tell anyone. Her father had punished her for lying when she had tried, years before. (11.32)
When Franklin asks Sadima about her ability to communicate with animals, of course she has to think about what she's gonna tell him. In a world where magic isn't common, talking about getting inside an animal's head would sound like crazy-talk. All the more reason for people with supernatural abilities to band together.
Quote #3
"We spoke with a man who remembered a fireside tale with what he called silent speaking in it. In the tale, the wizards could talk without speaking. Imagine it. If people could actually understand each other, cruelty would end, war would be impossible… "
"I have thought that," Sadima said. "About animals." (11.46-47)
Franklin wants to make the world a better place by reintroducing magic—and it's a noble goal, we think. If people could understand each other's thoughts, maybe they'd be more empathetic, and not kill or oppress each other all the time. Sadima's on board because she wants to see animals treated better. So it seems like there are some potentially very good reasons to pursue magic.
Quote #4
The wizard laughed aloud, his hoarse voice scraping at my ears. Then he vanished.
I mean that. He didn't walk away, or slide into the shadows. He disappeared. He was there one instant, then gone the next. (14.16-17)
Okay, we'll admit it, that's a pretty cool little magic trick. It would be a handy one to bust out when someone's trying to sell you something you don't actually want. But it seems like in the academy, the wizards use tricks like this to intimidate the boys into behaving. Not cool, wizards, not cool.
Quote #5
"Watch closely," he growled. Then he faced the impossible gem and touched it, his palm flat against its surface. There was a sound like distant thunder, then something high, like faint screams, then a barely perceptible flicker of bluish light in the room. Then a tray as big as any my father's house servants had ever labored to carry appeared on the flat stone pedestal in front of the massive gem. (20.16)
Another impressive magic trick. It's kinda creepy how it happens, though. What's up with the sound and light effects? We're not really sure, and Hahp never learns either. We're guessing that the mystery of the gem gets explained in later books in the series, if it ever does.
Quote #6
I felt myself sweating, sharp, smelly fear-sweat. Piss on all the wizards, I hated them for turning us into animals. Would the one who graduated end up like the flying horses? Able to do strange, wonderful things, but with cold, dead eyes, changed forever into something else? (28.22)
Since Hahp's dad raises the magical flying horses, he's gotten to observe them up close. And what he sees isn't a pretty sight: their eyes are lifeless and cold. Is that what magic does to people as well as animals? And is that where the boy who graduates from the academy is heading? Suddenly becoming a wizard is starting to sound like not such a great idea…
Quote #7
I imagined the orchard, tried to feel like I had that day, then I switched the image in my mind to a plate of griddle cakes, steaming, the odor of maple syrup and sweet butter and the sound of the batter on the hot skillet and the way the air began to leave the dough the moment they were lad on a plate, like a sigh. I stepped forward and touched the gem believing that I would see magic, not the griddle cakes—magic. (32.18)
When Hahp finally figures out the key to making whatever he wants appear out of the gem in the academy, it's because he focuses on the feeling of magic. He has to perfectly imagine whatever he wants to make, but he also needs to hold the belief in magic in his mind to make it work. So it's kinda like magic only exists when it's believed in—like fairies in Peter Pan, almost.
Quote #8
The Founder was the only one who saw any value in magic, the only one brave enough to risk death to study it and turn it back into the astounding force for good it had once been. He was the only one who believed it was possible, and he had pursued it through hardships that would have stopped anyone else. (32.24)
This Founder fellow in Hahp's history book sure sounds like a swell guy. Of course, we know that it's actually talking about Somiss, so we're not really big fans. We will agree, though, that trying to bring magic back to a world without it was probably really tough. Since magic seems to work best when it's believed in, how would you even get started if very few people believed in magic anymore?
Quote #9
I looked up from the book. It was hard to imagine a world without magic.
My father bought magic for everything. No Malek ship had been caught in a storm. He paid for good weather and he paid to have water run through the pipes in our house; he paid for the streams and fountains in Malek Park, for the ponies to fly and a thousand other things. Everyone did, unless they were too poor. (54.4-5)
To a rich kid like Hahp, magic is just a part of everyday existence. Or using it is, anyway—only wizards know how to manipulate magic and create new things with it. But if you think about how magic has become a commodity—something only well-off folks can afford—that's not how Franklin had wanted to bring magic back into the world. Which we think is a bummer.
Quote #10
"Where are we going?" she asked…
Somiss threw his head back and stared at the open sky for a few heartbeats before he answered her. "To the ancient home of magic," he said quietly. There was awe in his voice. "If it is what I think it is, it will take me a hundred years to find everything they built, everything they had taken from them." (65.13-14)
Somiss has gone nuts over magic. His research has pointed him to these caves and tunnels, where he believes he'll be able to unlock the secrets of the ancient wizards. But at what cost? We already know that he's keeping beggar boys as prisoners down in the caves, and we know that he'll make Franklin do all the dirty work of his project. Is magic really worth it?