Millennia ago, a magical race called the Aesir found a new home on a distant world. Attracted to the cold during an ice age, they hibernated for hundreds of years at a time. With each awakening, however, they saw their world changed by ever-evolving mortals, encroaching on their territory and way of life. Two civilizations with opposing magic poised to clash, over and over. Now, the Aesir are awakening to wage a new war—this time to exterminate their enemy once and for all.
Robinson Hawksley is an elocutionist at the Invisible College who has perfected a way of teaching speech that relies on harnessing the intelligences that create magic to train the sorcerers. The world needs more sorcerers to protect against the looming Aesir threat, and Robinson’s newest charge is McKenna Foster, a barrister’s daughter rendered deaf after a bout with a plague unleashed by the Aesir. As progress develops between them and they grow ever closer, there also comes a strange connection to the Aesir—one that crosses the boundaries of time itself and the unfathomable mysteries of the Unseen Powers.
Emerging from their icy fortresses, the Aesir begin their bombardment. Can Robinson and McKenna, brought together by magic, stop an endless war with powers even they have yet to fully understand?
–From the back cover of The Invisible College
What Is The Invisible College?
The Invisible College is the latest novel by Jeff Wheeler, the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of over 40 novels set in several different worlds including Muirwood, Kingsfountain, and even our modern world. Many of these worlds are similar to our own throughout different historical periods. However, there is always an element of magic within them. The Invisible College is no different. This time the story is set in an 1800’s European like world with the large city of Auvinen having some similarities to London of the time. There is a steampunk type feel to the setting. However, the mechanical and industrial creations are not powered by steam, but by sorcerers wielding magic. Unlike magic in many other stories, the magic in The Invisible College is based on music and incantations are sung with specific notes and pitches. While the magic originally came from the mysterious, ancient Aesir, humans have learned to harness it not only for their benefit, but also for protection against the powerful enemy.
The story follows the three main characters. Robinson Hawksley is a sorcerer, professor, and inventor who is sickly after surviving one of the Aesir created plagues. McKenna Foster, who is rendered deaf from one such illness, is a student of Hawksley’s lessons on elocution so she can learn to speak properly despite not being able to hear. Finally, Joseph Crossthwait, the secretive military officer, has a special mission of hunting down Aesir enemies who have infiltrated the human cities as Semblances which are humans whose bodies have been taken over at the point of death by an Aesir entity.
Why Should You Read The Invisible College?
About eight years ago, my oldest son asked me to buy a novel for him written by the teacher of his early morning religious class. He wanted to read it for his high school language arts class. Always happy to encourage my children’s desire to read, I ordered the book and when he was done, read it myself. I thoroughly enjoyed The Wretched of Muirwood and then read the other two books in that series. I as impressed with the story of good versus evil set in a medieval time period with a hint of magic that was not overwhelming. After that, I continued reading other novels by Jeff Wheeler, most recently having finished his Dresden Codex trilogy which is set in the world of today with magic from the Mayan civilization and his first foray into thriller novels. I have enjoyed every novel of his and have spent several nights reading until the wee hours of the morning because I can’t put the book down as the end of the story nears.
When I learned of Wheeler’s upcoming novel and the premise of the story, I was interested to see what new world the author had created. Luckily I was able to receive an advance copy of the novel to review. As I teacher, I always tell my students that sometimes you need to keep reading for several chapters to get into a book. I know that from experience. However, while reading the seven pages of the Prologue, I was hooked. I don’t recall that every happening to me before. During my first sitting with the novel, I not only read the Prologue, but also several chapters before I had to put it down.
As a history major and teacher, I really appreciate the work that the author puts into researching the backgrounds for his worlds. While many of his novels are in medieval settings, which reflect Wheeler’s study of that time period in college, he has created stories in other time periods that reflect his passion for history, especially in how the common people lived during that time. As I read The Invisible College, I felt as if I was in Victorian England with its different levels of society. I am also a special education teacher, so I also appreciate how the story reflects the practice of the time of putting people with disabilities, such as those who were deaf, into asylums. While Wheeler represents this philosophy in the novel, he also counters it by showing that people who have disabilities can not only be productive, but also participate in society as well as anyone else. McKenna Foster’s parents refused to put her in an asylum when she became deaf. Instead, they helped her learn to read lips and to speak clearly so that she could enter society along with her sisters.
In addition to the settings of the story, Wheeler has become a master at character development. In each of his novels, including The Invisible College, he creates characters with imperfections and challenges which they must overcome. Along the way, the reader not only gets to know the characters, but develops their own relationships with them so by the end of the novel, it feels like a farewell–until the next novel. Finally and most importantly, The Invisible College is a great story that will keep you interested and engaged right until the last page. Luckily for us, Wheeler is already writing the sequel, The Violence of Sound, which is scheduled to release on April 15, 2025. I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Invisible College and recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good story which includes a bit of fantasy and magic. If you have read novels by Jeff Wheeler before, you don’t want to miss this one. If you have never read his works, this is a great place to start.
The Invisible College is published by 47North and releases on November 12. It is now available for sale directly from Amazon. The hardcover edition sells for around $24, the paperback edition for $14, and the Kindle version for only $5.99. Also, if you subscribe to Jeff Wheeler’s newsletter, he will send you bonus chapters from The Invisible College in both epub and audio formats. These are chapters that provide some additional background on the main characters.
Disclosure: GeekDad received a copy of The Invisible College for review purposes. Jeff Wheeler is an acquaintance of mine from the past. However, this has not influenced my review of this novel.
Click through to read all of “Jeff Wheeler Creates an Exciting New World in His Latest Novel ‘The Invisible College’” at GeekDad.If you value content from GeekDad, please support us via Patreon or use this link to shop at Amazon. Thanks!
