Author-Graham Downs
Genre-Short Story/Fantasy
Book Rating-8.4
Personal Rating-7
This was a light, entertaining somewhat enjoyable read. It starts of with a good intro of the magician, Solon, and his plight. Doesn’t take long for you to feel for him. And it leaves the specifics of his dilemma up in the air so you are enticed to read on. It then moves on to an outside family where the villain Marcus, lives with his family. Typical abusive man of the house kind of guy here. But since this is a short story it’s nice for more than one character to have some depth. It was a tad bit unfortunate that this guy was the garden-variety asshole you always find. But he served his purpose. That of which was making the magician confront his demons.
Why I think it worked well was because it hit all the points. Give the hero a problem. Challenge the hero. Make the situation so serious that there is a chance something as drastic as death could come should he fail. And then leave us hanging as to see if he succeeded. The villain I hated just because he was an idiot. One of those who thought he was smarter than the average man. I will admit that my favorite part was his reaction at the end of the story. He got a teeny bit of depth when he shot from evil to downright ranting lunatic. That was a lot of fun to read. The conclusion though was a little bit too neat. This story deserved a happy ending, but maybe one that was a few paragraphs longer. After finding out all was well it was almost like ‘lets hurry up and finish this story’ which of course bugged me.
With the clichéd abusive husband and kids, with demure wife, and the queen who is ever so bored with ruling the kingdom, this story could’ve flopped. But it worked for me. Did I enjoy it? Not really I wasn’t pulled in enough so if the Magician died at the end I probably wouldn’t have shed a tear. It was safe. And there’s nothing wrong with safe. It worked. Everything flowed from beginning to end leaving this a perfect piece of short literature. I think what sells it is the internal struggle of the magician, his relationship with the new queen and her mother, and the total smugness of the villain. Everything is perfectly placed and hits just the right amount of what it needs to be good, if not spectacular.
I would definitely recommend this because it has elements that I know people will enjoy immensely. My real problem I guess is that it reads like it should be a little more than a short story. Like it should be closer to fifty or seventy pages. It screams to be taken to the final resolution. What of the wife and children, and lets see the execution. And then end with something between the queen and the magician, that concludes the story but very clearly states life goes on and this is not the end. But that’s just my opinion. The build up to the climax was perfect but the afterglow fizzled much too quickly.
All in all there are no real reasons to not read this story. At only about 20 written pages you don’t have much to lose. Read it and add it onto the list of things you’ve read that made your existence as a chronic reader just that much more enjoyable, and lagit.
This was a light, entertaining somewhat enjoyable read. It starts of with a good intro of the magician, Solon, and his plight. Doesn’t take long for you to feel for him. And it leaves the specifics of his dilemma up in the air so you are enticed to read on. It then moves on to an outside family where the villain Marcus, lives with his family. Typical abusive man of the house kind of guy here. But since this is a short story it’s nice for more than one character to have some depth. It was a tad bit unfortunate that this guy was the garden-variety asshole you always find. But he served his purpose. That of which was making the magician confront his demons.
Why I think it worked well was because it hit all the points. Give the hero a problem. Challenge the hero. Make the situation so serious that there is a chance something as drastic as death could come should he fail. And then leave us hanging as to see if he succeeded. The villain I hated just because he was an idiot. One of those who thought he was smarter than the average man. I will admit that my favorite part was his reaction at the end of the story. He got a teeny bit of depth when he shot from evil to downright ranting lunatic. That was a lot of fun to read. The conclusion though was a little bit too neat. This story deserved a happy ending, but maybe one that was a few paragraphs longer. After finding out all was well it was almost like ‘lets hurry up and finish this story’ which of course bugged me.
With the clichéd abusive husband and kids, with demure wife, and the queen who is ever so bored with ruling the kingdom, this story could’ve flopped. But it worked for me. Did I enjoy it? Not really I wasn’t pulled in enough so if the Magician died at the end I probably wouldn’t have shed a tear. It was safe. And there’s nothing wrong with safe. It worked. Everything flowed from beginning to end leaving this a perfect piece of short literature. I think what sells it is the internal struggle of the magician, his relationship with the new queen and her mother, and the total smugness of the villain. Everything is perfectly placed and hits just the right amount of what it needs to be good, if not spectacular.
I would definitely recommend this because it has elements that I know people will enjoy immensely. My real problem I guess is that it reads like it should be a little more than a short story. Like it should be closer to fifty or seventy pages. It screams to be taken to the final resolution. What of the wife and children, and lets see the execution. And then end with something between the queen and the magician, that concludes the story but very clearly states life goes on and this is not the end. But that’s just my opinion. The build up to the climax was perfect but the afterglow fizzled much too quickly.
All in all there are no real reasons to not read this story. At only about 20 written pages you don’t have much to lose. Read it and add it onto the list of things you’ve read that made your existence as a chronic reader just that much more enjoyable, and lagit.
Blurb
Queen Celeste rose to power a month ago, after the sudden death of her mother. When Marcus, a Virduran farmer, claims that his cow was stolen and brutally slaughtered by his neighbour, Queen Celeste agrees to hear the case personally. This is unheard of in Virdura, but Celeste is desperate to prove herself to her subjects.
Unable to decide who is guilty and who is innocent, she orders the help of her royal wizard, Solon, to divine the truth for her. But Solon has a terrible secret. He is unable to perform magic, and he cannot afford to let the Queen find out why.
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