Scan barcode
hectaizani's review
3.0
Wizards and Wanderers is the third installment in a six book series of continuing adventures following the trials and travails of Dale and his ever-growing band of followers. Dale is a traveler from another, more advanced world who finds himself marooned on a planet that resembles 18th century Earth, where magic has flourished and taken the place of technology. He discovers that there is an alien invasion coming, which will destroy the world, and he is the only one who can save it. Along the way he picks up various unlikely followers, each of which is somehow necessary to the success of the endeavor.
Wizards and Wanderers picks up where the previous book Villenspell: City of Wizards (2005) ends. The travelers are [b:on the road|6288|The Road|Cormac McCarthy|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21E8H3D1JSL._SL75_.jpg|3355573] attempting to make it to the ocean in the west before the invaders arrive. With each encounter on their travels, Dale manages to add more members to his collection of misfits. This time the newcomers include a fallen deity, a collection of imps, and a loquacious dwarf. Each of these new arrivals is necessary to the success of the mission and they manage to integrate themselves into the group even if they start out unliked and untrusted.
The adventures in this book take the group through an enchanted forest filled with sprites, deep underground into an abandoned dwarven mine, into an isolated wizard’s tower, and face to face with a dragon. We learn a bit more about Dale’s arch-nemesis, and that revelation comes as quite a surprise.
Each book builds on the one previous and leaves the reader wanting to find out what happens next. The author works hard to create an epic adventure, and so far has been fairly successful in this endeavor. There are some areas that could use a little improvement. For instance, the layout is in a style usually reserved for academia that makes it very distracting. This series very much resembles a role-playing game campaign, the influence of Gary Gygax and Dungeons and Dragons ™ is obvious. This makes it a good bet for readers who enjoy fantasy style RPG’s. A word of warning, this is not a series that can be easily picked up in the middle, the reader needs to begin at the beginning with Wizard’s Bane (2004).
Reviewed by Sarra Borne (Hectaizani)
Wizards and Wanderers picks up where the previous book Villenspell: City of Wizards (2005) ends. The travelers are [b:on the road|6288|The Road|Cormac McCarthy|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21E8H3D1JSL._SL75_.jpg|3355573] attempting to make it to the ocean in the west before the invaders arrive. With each encounter on their travels, Dale manages to add more members to his collection of misfits. This time the newcomers include a fallen deity, a collection of imps, and a loquacious dwarf. Each of these new arrivals is necessary to the success of the mission and they manage to integrate themselves into the group even if they start out unliked and untrusted.
The adventures in this book take the group through an enchanted forest filled with sprites, deep underground into an abandoned dwarven mine, into an isolated wizard’s tower, and face to face with a dragon. We learn a bit more about Dale’s arch-nemesis, and that revelation comes as quite a surprise.
Each book builds on the one previous and leaves the reader wanting to find out what happens next. The author works hard to create an epic adventure, and so far has been fairly successful in this endeavor. There are some areas that could use a little improvement. For instance, the layout is in a style usually reserved for academia that makes it very distracting. This series very much resembles a role-playing game campaign, the influence of Gary Gygax and Dungeons and Dragons ™ is obvious. This makes it a good bet for readers who enjoy fantasy style RPG’s. A word of warning, this is not a series that can be easily picked up in the middle, the reader needs to begin at the beginning with Wizard’s Bane (2004).
Reviewed by Sarra Borne (Hectaizani)
weaselweader's review
3.0
The Sojourn Chronicles passes the halfway mark!
When I reviewed Wizard's Bane, Book One of the Sojourn Chronicles, I described Dale the main protagonist and the accumulation of his band of followers:
"Dale is a man in trouble, stranded, lost and seriously out of place - transported through a galactic space warp and marooned on Earth by means and enemies unknown! He is worried to discover that his sophisticated, technologically advanced tools and weaponry, normally capable of modifying and controlling the people and the environment around him are now undependable, inconsistent and frequently out of commission entirely. But the tools that he does have and his charismatic force of personality are sufficient to gather around him a ragtag collection of misfits that seem to have also lost their place in the world - a thief bent on reform and self-improvement, an "animal-whisperer" who dropped out of the local wizard's college, the spoiled son of a baron, a demon held in thrall by a sorcerer's spell who can't seem to stay out of trouble and the runaway pacifist son of a cutthroat murderer."
While I was thrilled with ongoing quality of Crystalwizard's writing in the second book in the series, Villenspell: City of Wizards, I did criticize her for allowing the plot to stall:
"After a near encounter in the forest world of faerie, Dale and his fellowship reach Villenspell, the city of wizards, where they intend to enlist magical aid to help them and their recalcitrant technology survive an assault on the world by Gorgs. But, at this point, the story's plot stalls and Crystalwizard allows her characters to meander almost aimlessly from one encounter to another in the city."
Unfortunately, Wizards and Wanderers has completely mired in the mud on the road to Yaybar where, presumably, Dale and his cohorts are still destined for (but no closer to) their encounter with destiny and the evil Gorg who, at the behest of a maniacal wizard left over from the Wizard's War thousands of years earlier, would overrun the earth.
I will say this ... in the closing chapters, Crystalwizard injected a superb twist into the plot which injected new life and sparkle into her fantasy series and prompted this reader into a commitment to continue with the series. Like the best of thrillers, a reader is now left wondering whose side everyone is on and all the characters are looking over their shoulders waiting for their friends (or enemies) to launch a surprise attack!
Crystalwizard has no problem with dialogue. Some of her scenery or magical interludes are described with almost breathtaking focus and beauty. I also enjoyed some genuinely gripping philosophical debates that occurred from time to time throughout the story ... but that sparkle and excitement that is necessary to drive a plot focused fantasy epic forward was missing for at least the equivalent of an entire book! That's pretty thin ice for an author to walk on for such an extended period of time.
But I am looking forward to Army of Misfits, the next novel in the series. I want to see where that little twist takes me.
Recommended.
Paul Weiss
When I reviewed Wizard's Bane, Book One of the Sojourn Chronicles, I described Dale the main protagonist and the accumulation of his band of followers:
"Dale is a man in trouble, stranded, lost and seriously out of place - transported through a galactic space warp and marooned on Earth by means and enemies unknown! He is worried to discover that his sophisticated, technologically advanced tools and weaponry, normally capable of modifying and controlling the people and the environment around him are now undependable, inconsistent and frequently out of commission entirely. But the tools that he does have and his charismatic force of personality are sufficient to gather around him a ragtag collection of misfits that seem to have also lost their place in the world - a thief bent on reform and self-improvement, an "animal-whisperer" who dropped out of the local wizard's college, the spoiled son of a baron, a demon held in thrall by a sorcerer's spell who can't seem to stay out of trouble and the runaway pacifist son of a cutthroat murderer."
While I was thrilled with ongoing quality of Crystalwizard's writing in the second book in the series, Villenspell: City of Wizards, I did criticize her for allowing the plot to stall:
"After a near encounter in the forest world of faerie, Dale and his fellowship reach Villenspell, the city of wizards, where they intend to enlist magical aid to help them and their recalcitrant technology survive an assault on the world by Gorgs. But, at this point, the story's plot stalls and Crystalwizard allows her characters to meander almost aimlessly from one encounter to another in the city."
Unfortunately, Wizards and Wanderers has completely mired in the mud on the road to Yaybar where, presumably, Dale and his cohorts are still destined for (but no closer to) their encounter with destiny and the evil Gorg who, at the behest of a maniacal wizard left over from the Wizard's War thousands of years earlier, would overrun the earth.
I will say this ... in the closing chapters, Crystalwizard injected a superb twist into the plot which injected new life and sparkle into her fantasy series and prompted this reader into a commitment to continue with the series. Like the best of thrillers, a reader is now left wondering whose side everyone is on and all the characters are looking over their shoulders waiting for their friends (or enemies) to launch a surprise attack!
Crystalwizard has no problem with dialogue. Some of her scenery or magical interludes are described with almost breathtaking focus and beauty. I also enjoyed some genuinely gripping philosophical debates that occurred from time to time throughout the story ... but that sparkle and excitement that is necessary to drive a plot focused fantasy epic forward was missing for at least the equivalent of an entire book! That's pretty thin ice for an author to walk on for such an extended period of time.
But I am looking forward to Army of Misfits, the next novel in the series. I want to see where that little twist takes me.
Recommended.
Paul Weiss
More...