Customer Reviews

The Accidental Sorcerer (Rogue Agent)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Bought this book on the strength of the cover blurb, always a dangerous thing. Initially it was the lighthearted humorous fantasy I was expecting. Somewhere around Chapter 16 it took a major turn into darkness; no foreshadowing or transition that I got anyhow. It's like two different stories stuck together. It is a decent tale, but I'm not sure if I will pick up the second in the series or not. Also, either the copy editor or the typesetter needs to be replaced. There was one chapter with some paragraphs repeated 3 times and the end paragraph sorely out of place; it took me a while to figure out the proper order.

Gerald Dunwoody is a "Third Grade" wizard who has been failing at one job after another. After he loses his job as a magical inspector for the government, he takes a job as Royal Wizard for the kingdom of New Ottosland. And that's where the story really starts to get interesting.

K.E. Mills has a gift for descriptive writing. Her characters were all physical presences in the story. She also manages to write realistic sounding dialog. Though a few of the plot twists were fairly obvious, the final conflict between Dunwoody and the King was well written, and showed the growth of Dunwoody's character from a failing naive wizard to a major magical being struggling to take responsibility for the consequences of his failures and magical power. Mills manages to mix interesting characters with consistently paced action to create a story that reads quite quickly.

The Accidental Sorcerer starts out feeling like a farcical romp of a tale, as if PG Wodehouse had decided to turn Wooster into a magician. Then half way through, the book turns into a fairly serious story of the corrupting influence of ambition and black magic. This left the novel feeling like it had a split personality. Both parts were well done separately, but together they had a rather jarring effect. I spent the second half of the book waiting for it to get funny again. It almost felt like Mills had changed her mind about how she wanted to write the book, and then didn't go back and change the first half of the novel. The bad editing also irritated me. At one point, an entire paragraph was repeated.

Mills has a good story here, and the end of The Accidental Sorcerer sets up the rest of the trilogy. Assuming that the writing at the end of the novel sets the tone for the rest of the trilogy, it seems that Mills has created a world where she can explore serious issues of responsibility and power in a relatively light setting. Though this shouldn't be mistaken for serious, heavy fantasy, it is a good romp of a tale, and the intriguing cast of characters makes me willing to pick up the next book in the trilogy to see what mess they will get into next.

Once I begin a book I simply cannot stop until it is over. It took me nearly a month to finish this stinker. The plot is exposed entirely through dialogue, the characters are flat and two dimensional but they talk so much it's a wonder nobody simply started screaming "Shut up and move the story along!" halfway through the book.

I couldn't tell if the story was trying to be zany, or serious, or both. Sometimes it was a little like Strange and Norrell and other times it was like a bad Harry Potter rip off teetering on the edge of Disc World.

All the male characters are cardboard, flat and 2D, but the female characters have only slightly better attempts to fill them out. Description is lacking in just about every detail, instead the author relies on people hitting you in the face with blatant expose through long drawn out conversations that will bore you before the first one is over.

Anyway, skip this one and go read something else this summer. The fact that there is a second one coming out only goes to prove you can't keep a bad thing down.

This book is the first of a trilogy, so it's supposed to set a stage for the rest of the series. As another reviewer commented, the outline reminds me of the Wizard of Yurt series by C. Dale Brittain, which is a series I thoroughly enjoyed. So you expect the setup to occur along the tried and true lines, except that after reading to the end, the entire book is just a setup for the whole series. Methinks the author is envisioning more than a simple trilogy for this character. That's just a comment, not a criticism; the criticism will come later.

I'm a compulsive reader; I just have to finish books I start, as a rule. However, the writing in this book was incredibly heavy-handed. Within the first few chapters you are told that the protagonist (I forget the name) has been able to do something amazing, something he absolutely wasn't allowed to do. Then he ships off to be court wizard at a certifiably crazy court and is able to perform fantastic, but most assuredly forbidden, or at the very least, inadvisable feats, at the urging of an extremely annoying monarch.

The characterizations are very heavy, there's no subtlety involved. The king is demanding!, ambitious!, superior!, crazy!, evil!, all in the first few chapters. Hints of the conflict are dropped like dandruff, I spent the time wondering why the characters were going along with something that screamed "bad idea!!!"; the justifications were weak to say the least.

Honestly, I never finished the book; I simply skipped ahead to the ending, and rolled my eyes. I'm going to be returning my copy if I possibly can.

As a compliance officer (on probation) for the Department of Thaumaturgy, Gerald Dunwoody heads to Stuttley's Superior Staff factory for a snap inspection. Seems that the safety statements, that are supposed to be witnessed and signed, haven't been sent in for the last two months, which is a breach of regulations. But while there, an accident occurs, and Gerald is being blamed.

Fired, he slips a little into a depression, sure that he won't find another, not for a while at least, until the factory debackle has died down. But his friend, Monk, spots what could potentially be a job for him. Seems the king of New Ottosland is looking for a court wizard. At this point, Gerald would be happy to get anything. And off he goes.

But things aren't what they seem. In any aspect. Something happened to Gerald in that factory, and now he can do things that even most First Grade wizards can't. And by doing something he didn't think he could do, he unwittingly put himself in a position that he'll only be able to get out of by the skin of his teeth.

Princess Melissandre is smarter than most give her credit for. She's deliberately made herself look frumpy; she refuses to end up anything like the long list of Princess Melissandres before her. But as the sister of the king, she's blind to that Lional is truly up to.

Seems Prince Rupert is also hiding behind a mask. Acting like the dim-witted little brother obsessed with butterflies, he knows a lot more than anyone would think. But to reveal what he knows could put him in harms way.

And King Lional... he wants to take New Ottosland to heigher heights than the previous kings before him. He has `visions' of New Ottosland being a land to be reckoned with. He wants to take New Ottosland out of their relaxed and out-dated traditions and rise to the top. And the way he's going about it is all wrong. See, King Lional has gone mad. He wanted so much to be a wizard since he was a kid, and has become obsessed with what he wants. No one truly understand at what lengths he'll go to, and Gerald learns it quickly - the hard way.

But will Gerald be strong enough to stop him?

I enjoyed this story. At first, I thought the story would be a fun, light read, something to breeze through on the way to the next novel. How wrong was I! Deep-seated feelings, thoughts, plot twists, things you never saw coming. Characters who aren't what they appear to be. Action, drama, mystery, the dialogue isn't simple, thoughts aren't simple, actions aren't simple.

A few things bugged me a little, though. For instance, King Lional. Seemed like a typical king as I've read before. Demanding, superior, arrogant, just like a lot of kings are, but you get a sense right away that something isn't right, and it bugged me a little that no one could see it. A brother and sister blind to it, okay, I get that. Staff and servants stay way from it, I get that too. Gerald spots something's off, and yet no one has a clue? All those missing wizards and not one thing is done about it? Wizards leaving messages that they're going off, but to never been seen or heard from again? How can people be that blind?

I found Gerald to be a little naive and under confident of himself. It felt like he really didn't have any idea on how to conduct himself, how to be with other people. I mean, sure, the whole job as a court wizard is new to him, but his uncomfortableness around other people made me feel uncomfortable, and I really didn't like that.

But, in the end, Gerald really does redeem himself, doesn't he? No matter how scared he was, he fought to the finish; he used his fear to beat his opponent, and a job well done. I think anyone who swears an oath to do no harm, and that choice is taken away from him, would be down on himself, but I think he'll become stronger for it.

Reg - delightful bird, isn't she, LMAO?! Oh, she had me in stitches that one. Her comments, her views, how she really doesn't care of your status... excellent characters - for a bird.

LOL, and I can't help but wonder if a little 'something-something' is going to happen between Melissandre and Monk...

Other reviewers have covered the plot points, so I won't retread those here.

Overall the book (and series) was a decent read, with a techno-strategic vocabulary for its reasonably well developed magic system and a comfortable steam-punk feel. But it became somewhat onerous reading as all the conversations between the main characters seemed to unfold in basically the same pattern that involved screaming at each other or just not listening or jumping to conclusions about what the other character was about to say

A: Do SOMETHING!
B: But I thought..
C: ARE YOU INSANE! That's the STUPIDEST thing I've ever HEARD!
B: Can I get...
A: Do SOMETHING ELSE!
D: Your butt is FAT!

Not sure if she's going for a light-hearted satire or screwball comedy feel, but as written, this conversational style turns what might be fast-paced banter from a poking with soft pillows into a lashing with steel feathers.

The first half of this book is a brisk, outrageous, very enjoyable comic romp, as the young wizard Gerald goes from petty magical bureaucrat to royal wizard in a bizarre series of events. The second half becomes steadily grimmer, though never truly nightmarish, as Gerald gradually awakens to the true depth of his predicament. The ending, leading him into a new, very different path, left me eager for more. Very much recommended.

Gerald Dunwoody really wants to be a wizard. After a series of disappointing jobs (i.e. he got fired for screwing them up) and only testing out to be a level three wizard (the mail order program said he be at least a two!), he figures that his best bet to move up in the world (and be able to afford important stuff like food and shelter) is to take a mind numbing job in the magical inspection department. His first assignment as probationary inspector turns out to be more like walking through a dynamite factory with a lit match than the calm reviewing of safety reports and endless stamping of official reports he was told to expect. Gerald saves the day but gets the boot from his boss, who doesn't believe that a lowly wizard such as his self could have controlled the power necessary to divert the disaster that nearly destroyed a block of the city. Yet Gerald did and he felt something change in himself at the factory. Despairing, Gerald resigns himself to a boring life as a tailor until his friend shows him a help wanted add for a small backwater kingdom called New Ottosland. Its right up his alley since no experience is required and no wizardly level is specified. Gerald takes the job and figures that if he lays low for a while his little accident will be yesterdays news. He also figures that it will give him time to figure out exactly what happened to his magic during the accident. Unfortunately for Gerald the wanted add left out little details like a power mad king with a empty bank account and a neighboring kingdom threatening to invade if the king doesn't pay up. With the deck stacked against him can Gerald keep his job and save the kingdom or will his efforts bring disaster for himself and everyone around him?
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This is a good start to the beginning of a trilogy. It kind of reminds me of another series called a Wizard in yurt by C. Dale Brittain (A bad spell in yurt, mage quest, daughter of magic etc..). It has the same tendency of being funny and then going dead serious (this book saves it for the end though.). The characters are interesting and the story is a little different from other fare as Gerald really does end up being a wild card by the end of the book. I am really looking forward to the next book. I would recommend this to anyone who likes fantasy with a comedy bent and those who like their heroes to be a bit conflicted.
m.a.c

Much has been made of the change of tune in the second half of the novel compared with the first half. It seems to imply inconsistency and incompetence of the author.

I personally had no problems with that at all. It's obvious the first half is a reflection of his innocent self, and the second half is how he changes when his powers are awakened and he has been tortured using forbidden and long forgotten dark magics.

Asides from some poor editing mentioned by a previous reviewer, the only thing I found unlikely was the very end. I cant see being a secret agent as the only route available to a person as unique as Gerald. Surely it would have been possible for him to help his genius friend Monk with his research, or in a multitude of other ways.

Having said that, I do look forward to the next book. I hope it develops properly and I also hope Reg and the Princess can tone down their stubborn screeching.

Thanks for reading.

After having read the Kingmaker-Kingbraker, which I loved, I was deeply disappointed at this odd congregation of words. Flat, papercut characters that jibber ENDLESSLY! There's an enormous amount of dialogue, supposedly "funny" (sadly, it's not fun at all, unless maybeyou're ten years old, I did in fact wonder if I had accidently gotten a YA book), that just goes on and on and on... In a tiring mixture of yelling at each other and making smart remarks, the reader is lead deeper and deeper into... nothingness!

I'm more than halfway through and struggling. This is a seemlingy empty story with remarkable "flatness" in all dimensions. Furthermore, the authour uses italics and exclamation marks like 10-20 times per page (it seems at least, I did count several times - 10-12 words in italics on many pages), and that, of course, has just the opposite effect. Less is more. I found this book both boring and not well written. If you are expecting something like Kingmaker - don't buy this one.