The Selfish Perils of Fighting Injustice in The Geomagician

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Like other mothers of my era who raised their children on dinosaur shows, I was introduced to the biography of Victorian paleontologist Mary Anning through a 2017 episode of the science-fantasy children’s series Dino Dana. Anning was a real-world paleontologist, a woman fossilist in a time when only men were allowed to join scientific societies. Anning found an ichthyosaur skeleton—the first to be correctly identified—when she was only twelve years old. She also discovered the first pterosaur skeleton (originally named Pterodactylus macronyx) outside of Germany. She knew more about fossils than most of the people who bought fossils from her, and he work was routinely used in the studies of male scientists, who rarely gave her credit.
 

The children’s show only touched on Anning’s history, and it did acknowledge that Anning grew to be respected within the scientific community. She eventually received an annuity from the British Association for the Advancement of Science (thanks to fellow paleontologist and friend William Buckland—more about him in a moment). When she suffered from breast cancer in her 40s, members of the Geological Society raised money to support her in her expenses. When she died at age 47, the Geological Society also helped to fund a stained-glass window placed, in her honor, in St. Michael’s Church in Anning’s hometown.

Anning was a fascinating historical figure, and she becomes a fascinating protagonist in a magical Britain in Jennifer Mandula’s The Geomagician, which releases on March 31, 2026. Mandula uses a lot of historical fact in creating her version of Anning: Mary is a fossilist who caters to wealthy individuals who know less than she does about her discoveries. She’s frequently down on her luck; though she owns Anning’s Fossil Depot, founded by the historical Anning at age 27, it hardly makes the money she needs to survive. Mandula’s Mary is hard-pressed to support an ailing mother, keep her shop open, and feed herself—all while striving to keep up with the latest geomagical discoveries.

Mandula places her Mary in a world where magic can be imbued in objects called reliqs, and fossils are some of the best items for storage. Mary wears an ammonite to collect her magic, which she uses sparingly to help in her discoveries—and also sells it in a place called the Slicks when money is too tight. The wealthy purchase magic that has been sold this way, living in the luxury of magic-lit lights, banquets with magical decoration and illusion (and climate control), all without thinking about those who had to give up their own resources just to survive. Enter Mary’s friend Lucy, a witch (people who can use magic without reliqs) and an activist, who is determined to upend the economy of magical sales. The issue doesn’t seem that important to Mary—it’s just the way the world works—but Lucy is her closest friend, and so she listens with one ear when Lucy describes protests and pamphlets.

When Lucy and Mary go to a recently washed away cliff where Mary is sure she’ll make a discovery that will be her financial salvation, the discovery is more than Mary could have imagined. Not only does she discover a pterodactyl skeleton, but she also discovers an egg—which remarkably hatches in her hands. From there, she’s launched into the perils of scholarly society by her mentor, William Buckland, and her former friend, Henry Stanton, whom she once expected to marry. The two rival scientists are both vying for presidency of the Geomagical Society, and Mary’s discovery has the potential to make either of them the forerunner. Buckland, also a theologian, has a traditional interpretation of how the pterodactyl hatched; Stanton favors a much more heretical, but more plausible, theory, and it’s up to Mary to determine whose position she will support.

The battle between safety and truth weighs heavily throughout the novel, as does the notion that advancement for some may come at the sacrifice of advancement for all. Mandula adeptly shows a very flawed Mary, who doesn’t see how her own plights might extend beyond her own, personal situation. She’s introduced to other women who crave inclusion in the sciences, but she doesn’t see them as relevant to her own desire to belong to the Geomagical Society. She watches her wealthy friend Lucy fight against the injustices of the Slicks, but doesn’t see it as her own cause. Henry and their other friend, Edgar (also Lucy’s brother and a member of the nobility), have other ideas about how to revolutionize the harvesting of magic to make it more humane—and more powerful—in a way that Lucy abhors, but Mary views with an analytical mind, thinking of the possibilities rather than the consequences.

Because the story is tightly told from Mary’s point of view, she doesn’t analyze her own failings, but as the novel expands, Mary’s choices show a larger picture, until finally she can’t avoid the larger truths she’s hidden from. And while some of the bones of the novel’s structure borrow heavily from second-chance romance novels, the romantic subplot really isn’t at the center of the novel. Instead, the core theme is about the interrelations between people, and how hard it is to upend systems designed to keep certain individuals in power, because they’re disinclined to let it go. The result is a very thoughtful book, with cameos from many lauded paleontologists of the era, plenty of references to the historical Anning’s discoveries, and an adorable baby pterodactyl named Ajax.
 

The historical Mary Anning had a dog, rather than a pterosaur.

The fictionalized Mary certainly lives up to her real-world counterpart’s legacy, and is ultimately, despite her flaws, an easy protagonist to root for. Readers might even be inspired to look more deeply into the real Anning’s life with biographies like Shelley Emling’s The Fossil Hunter (2009). But even without more biographical insight, The Geomagician stands well on its own as both an homage to Anning’s work and a timely fantasy of ethics and justice that ends on a note of hope.

You can preorder The Geomagician at Bookshop.org.