One Wizard Place
I picked up One Wizard Place at Dragon*Con when I walked by a publisher's table and the author, D. M. Paul, showed me his books. He sold me on it, so I walked away with a CD of the first book of the series and a copy of the second book.
One Wizard Place is about a Kase Hobskin, a young man, and Murdox, a man who has been transformed into a wolf-dog. The two are partners in the Incantation Enforcement Agency, Counter-Curse Division. The world of the story has a mixture of magic and technology. Kase and his father had entered the world from the real world. Kase's father was turned completely into a wolf in the same incident that turned Murdox into a talking wolf-dog. Now Kase and Murdox work as a team solving magical mysteries.
In the opening scene they solve the problem of a set of nixies plaguing a woman and her house. Then they save the day from a bunch of trolls trying to rob a bank. Then they get a message about an elf-king in trouble. They travel from their city to the elf-king's city in a forest of enormous trees. They find that the elf-king is turning to stone due to a mishap with a potion. To get the final ingredient for the counter-spell, they must travel to the far reaches of the world to get the claw of a blood dragon.
They travel with an elven ranger on some giant squirrels. They cross the swamp of doom and despair and reach a port city on a sea of sand. There they pay for passage on a ship that turns out to be a pirate ship. A sea monster stops the ship, but turns out to be in league with the pirate captain. The pirates chase the three off the ship, and they end up on the other side of the sea. After escaping from a bunch of leonines, lion men, they have to deal with a pair of giant birds, one of which picks up Kase. The elven ranger jumps on the other bird and follows after, saving Kase.
They find the dragon's lair, and just when things get sticky, the dragon tells them about her missing egg. Kase just happens to remember seeing the egg at the IEA. The three of the ride the dragon to the elf city, where the potion is prepared just in the nick of time.
The book is a Young Adult title, but it was still a fun read. The characters are not terribly complex, but they are interesting, and the settings are very intriguing. I love the main city, a city built of layers upon layers. The forest of enormous trees is also interesting. The plot element of a team of agents for a magical agency should provide fodder for some good plots. Also, Kase's status of an orphan, with a father turned into a wolf, provides a good foundation for his character. The story shows a world with an array of different environments. The story keeps a good, exciting pace. I'll give it a B. For a YA novel, it kept my attention and was a good listen.
One Wizard Place is about a Kase Hobskin, a young man, and Murdox, a man who has been transformed into a wolf-dog. The two are partners in the Incantation Enforcement Agency, Counter-Curse Division. The world of the story has a mixture of magic and technology. Kase and his father had entered the world from the real world. Kase's father was turned completely into a wolf in the same incident that turned Murdox into a talking wolf-dog. Now Kase and Murdox work as a team solving magical mysteries.
In the opening scene they solve the problem of a set of nixies plaguing a woman and her house. Then they save the day from a bunch of trolls trying to rob a bank. Then they get a message about an elf-king in trouble. They travel from their city to the elf-king's city in a forest of enormous trees. They find that the elf-king is turning to stone due to a mishap with a potion. To get the final ingredient for the counter-spell, they must travel to the far reaches of the world to get the claw of a blood dragon.
They travel with an elven ranger on some giant squirrels. They cross the swamp of doom and despair and reach a port city on a sea of sand. There they pay for passage on a ship that turns out to be a pirate ship. A sea monster stops the ship, but turns out to be in league with the pirate captain. The pirates chase the three off the ship, and they end up on the other side of the sea. After escaping from a bunch of leonines, lion men, they have to deal with a pair of giant birds, one of which picks up Kase. The elven ranger jumps on the other bird and follows after, saving Kase.
They find the dragon's lair, and just when things get sticky, the dragon tells them about her missing egg. Kase just happens to remember seeing the egg at the IEA. The three of the ride the dragon to the elf city, where the potion is prepared just in the nick of time.
The book is a Young Adult title, but it was still a fun read. The characters are not terribly complex, but they are interesting, and the settings are very intriguing. I love the main city, a city built of layers upon layers. The forest of enormous trees is also interesting. The plot element of a team of agents for a magical agency should provide fodder for some good plots. Also, Kase's status of an orphan, with a father turned into a wolf, provides a good foundation for his character. The story shows a world with an array of different environments. The story keeps a good, exciting pace. I'll give it a B. For a YA novel, it kept my attention and was a good listen.
posted by Dylan Peters | 9/30/2007 09:09:00 PM
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