Od Magic by Patricia McKillip is a free-flowing story of a kingdom, a wizarding school, and the founding wizard, Od.

Well, Od is a big player, but not a big page-time earner. We get a number of perspectives. Brenden, from the blurb, is a magical gardener of a sort who is recruited by Od to the school to be a gardner. We have Princess Sulys; Mistral, the daughter of an illusionist; Arneth, son of the City Warden; Yar, a professor at the wizarding school; and maybe another (I cannot recall if Valoren, the King's councilor, is a POV).

Some of these stories are rather loosely related until the conclusion, and I'd describe the plot of this novel as more of a general theme and flow than a direct plot. Each character does have a plot, motivations, goals, etc, but they're not necessarily tied to each other. Well, except maybe for Od's, but that's for the reader to decide.

The prose plays into this with its flowing, lyrical style, as well. We float through the city on comfortable strings of words as we go along. This isn't to say there isn't tension or conflict in the story, but just that we really flow through in a graceful way.

I'd also say the magic plays into it as well. It lacks hard rules and edges, and most of the magic is incredibly soft. There is a school, so there must be some sort of in-universe parameters, but those aren't shown to the reader, so it's another aspect that feels comfortably fluffy.

This is all juxtaposed to the society. Magic is unallowed outside of magic which helps the kingdom and/or is in the magic school. The magic school's purpose has shifted to that which helps the kingdom. The rules are very rigid, and the characters all mostly bristle at the rigidity. It makes for an interesting juxtaposition, even if it's one we've seen before.

I enjoyed this as a fun, lightweight, comfort read, and it's definitely something I'll keep on hand for that purpose.