Nice, light, amusing, typical fantasy fare. Quite enjoyable. By this, I mean that it's rather light fare, not that it's always happy. There are, indeed, a number of quite dark occurrences in the books in this series, yet it still feels "light" to me.
This one was a bit of a disappointment.
It starts with a lowly third grade wizard, trying to prevent a magical accident in a wand factory that is being run into the ground out of greed. He is then blamed for the accident by the same manager who caused it.
This is where the book starts and that's how it continues. anyone in authority is a pompous bastard, and poor little third grade wizard tries to stop it all going pare shaped and despite himself actually succeeds, but is eaten by guilt for not doing better.
The characters are simply either too evil or too good.
Too much is simply explained by a character in "You know captain..." style, instead of just being woven into the story.
The only redeeming character is the talking bird companion, and she too gets repetitive and annoying after a while.
It is a coming …
This one was a bit of a disappointment.
It starts with a lowly third grade wizard, trying to prevent a magical accident in a wand factory that is being run into the ground out of greed. He is then blamed for the accident by the same manager who caused it.
This is where the book starts and that's how it continues. anyone in authority is a pompous bastard, and poor little third grade wizard tries to stop it all going pare shaped and despite himself actually succeeds, but is eaten by guilt for not doing better.
The characters are simply either too evil or too good.
Too much is simply explained by a character in "You know captain..." style, instead of just being woven into the story.
The only redeeming character is the talking bird companion, and she too gets repetitive and annoying after a while.
It is a coming of age type story, but our young hero stands up against such incredible odds that he needs super powers and a bunch of helpful friends to shepherd him to victory despite himself. This may be the theme of many other books, but here it just doesn't seem to fit in the seams are showing.
