Circulus de Potentia

Alex is back again in the second installment of the Magicae Mathematica series by Jim West. She and her friends—Nosaj and siblings Maya and Mada—are getting ready to attend a festival in Nosaj’s honor. Councilman Etan, Nosaj’s uncle, is affronted when an older, unknown man challenges Nosaj to a duel, since Councilman Etan considers Nosaj the city’s champion. In order to appease the increasingly demanding crowd, Councilman Etan comes to a compromise that if the challenger can defeat each of the one hundred guardians, then he can fight young and now terrified Nosaj.

The challenger possesses incredible strength and tenacity that is contradictory to his physical appearance, except for one vital piece of clothing, a golden circlet on his head that reflects the pi symbol in the center. Archimedes—brilliant mathematician and master wizard—believes the challenger’s skills are attributed to the golden headpiece, alluding that magic is involved and undoubtedly the source of the challenger’s remarkable supernatural abilities.

Archimedes sends Alex and her friends on a quest to find the banished Pythagoras, Master Wizard of the Forest and leader of the Pythagoreans, for his formula—implying the well-known Pythagorean Theorem—to help solve the mystery behind the golden band. Away from the safety of the walls surrounding the city, the group has five days to find Pythagoras, while they travel through the shadowy forest meeting wolves, strange inhabitants, and eventually through a maze complete with a grotesque bull-headed monster.

Meanwhile back in the city, the challenger is defeating each guardian Councilman Etan presents starting from the hundredth guardian down to the first, attempting to delay the inevitable for Nosaj, while Archimedes frantically seeks to solve pi in order to ultimately destroy the Circulus de Potentia and defeat the ambiguous challenger.

Expertly written, Jim West continues to delve into mathematics in a way that instantly piques the reader’s interest. Combining Latin and math, magic, renowned mathematician Archimedes, and Pythagoras’ formula, Circulus de Potentia is attention-grabbing to say the least. The second book in the Magicae Mathematica four book series, Circulus de Potentia‘s ending promises Alex’s story will continue with two more books to follow. According to Jim West’s website, books three and four (Divide et Impera and Bellum de Numeros) are coming soon.