We had the chance to check out Jennifer Mandula’s debut novel, The Geomagician, and it has proved itself a story full of wonder.
Historical fantasy is one of my favorite book genres, especially when the story takes a well known time period and puts a magical twist on it. The Geomagician caught my attention because it combines two of my favorite things: paleontology and magic. More specifically, the story tells an alternate version of the life of Mary Anning, a real-life 19th-century fossil hunter, only in this tale Mary lives in a world where fossils can be used to perform magic.
The Geomagician
Written by: Jennifer Mandula
Published By: Del Rey
Publication Date: March 31, 2026
That in itself makes The Geomagician a fascinating premise, but then there’s what Jennifer Mandula does with the world. Every layer of this alternate world is brought to life so thoroughly, it’s easy to forget that this is a novel and not a record of things that actually happened. I love how thoroughly the author brings the world to life by citing “theomagical” debates that share an eerie similarity with the real life debates between creationism and evolutionary theory. It’s the attention to finer details like this that really raises the story to the next level for me.
While the premise of The Geomagician seems straightforward, I found it unfolded rather like a puzzle box. The story seems to start with the idea that we’ll be following Mary as she struggles through her day-to-day life in the town of Lyme Regis. But then the story grows bigger, and then even bigger. Before the reader knows it, they’re plunged headlong into a story that threatens to upend everything about the world they’ve been introduced to. And just when you think you’ve finally grasped where the story is going…another curveball is thrown in to the mix. It’s a lot of information to take in and I found myself wondering in the second half of the book if the author wasn’t perhaps introducing too many plot ideas.
There are multiple plot threads running throughout The Geomagician, which isn’t a bad thing as long as they’re kept organized. And while the author does her best to keep the reader up to speed, it felt several times like more time should’ve been spent on a particular sub-plot with Mary’s friend Lucy, given its relative importance to the story as a whole. Though perhaps more of this will be explored in the next installment, as The Geomagician is intended to be part one of a duology. Even so, I feel like the author really pushed the boundaries of the magic system established for the story, almost too far. Building stakes is all well and good, but suddenly expanding the stakes a hundred fold…..it can be a lot to absorb in just one book.
That being said, I loved how the author wove together the different plot elements of using magic in day-to-day life with the intrigue that naturally swirls around those in power, for better or worse. There are many layers at work in this quasi-magical version of the world and it won’t take long before you start second guessing the motives of just about every person Mary meets.
One of my favorite things about The Geomagician is that so many of the events detailed in the novel actually happened in Mary’s real life. Once you finish reading the book, look up the life of Mary Anning and compare notes; there’s more truth in this story than you might think at first glance.
All in all, The Geomagician is a solid debut for Jennifer Mandula. Combining 19th century paleontology and fossils with magic creates a mesmerizing story that will definitely leave you wanting more.
