The final part is entitled "The Archimage" and corresponds to Alodar's mastery of all other forms of magic. The book is divided into six parts, the first five of which correspond to the five disciplines of magic learned by Alodar in that portion of the narrative. Alodar's self-imposed quest for much of the book is to distinguish himself sufficiently to wed Queen Vendora, which will restore his family's honor. (Note: 5 stars = rare and amazing, 4 = quite good book, 3 = a decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful.The book focuses on the adventures of its main character and hero Alodar in the fictional land of Procolon. Your emotional involvement will be similar to having a not-very-good RPG video game plotline explained to you. Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia, or an Icelandic saga, etc., because it's so very plot-based and, as implied before, the lack of anything resembling psychological realism. Oh-and it also reads rather like one of those pre-novel novels, e.g. The magical system is very specifically thought out, and I went along with the subpar book just to see how it would all transpire, but now I rather wish I'd cut and bailed early enough to just read a more enjoyable book. There's never a dark night of the soul where he comes to realize his horrible mistakes-no, turns out destiny's groomed him for even greater greatness. He's a bit of a Mary Sue, except that he's also awful several times throughout without any indication that anyone (other than mean, bad people) might think he's being awful. The characters have no character whatsoever-the main character especially so.
He admits spending the Vast Majority of his time on working out the details of his magic system, and comparatively little time on plot and characters, and it certainly shows.
The author's preface (or whatever one calls a preface when it shows up at the end of the book) was very illuminating. (I particularly appreciated the little covert jokes, not just the now-not-unusual employment of Maxwell's demon, but the use of painted-daisies in a magical preparation to rid a barbarian of lice, and willow bark in one to relieve pain.)ĭefinitely recommended for a real good overview of traditional Western European magic, wrapped up in a not very well done story. A lotta things make sense, now, that were just sort of a mishmash, before. Can't say how much, if any, he regularized or imposed structure, for he went well beyond what was in the folklore and anthro courses I've had. But said claim- mirabile dictu! -turned out to be legitimate. My skepticism was challenged by the cover blurb's claim, "one of the most logical detail of the laws of magic ever to appear in fantasy". Just out from Del Rey is MASTER OF THE FIVE MAGICS by Lyndon Hardy (who "became interested in fantasy while wandering through the fringes of fandom as an undergraduate at Caltech").
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