Customer Reviews

Battle Magic

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Battle Magic is a superbly produced audiobook anthology of outstanding fantasy with each short story taking up the concept of magic as a weapon of combat between individuals, between armies, and between kingdoms. Each story, drawn from some of the best and most innovative writers in fantasy today, are aptly read by their individual narrators and conjure up worlds of dark enchantments, single champions against overwhelming odds, and powerful wizards locked in deadly conflict. The stories in this superbly produced, highly recommended, nine hour, unabridged, six cassette collection include Warlord; Hell's Bane; The Miracle of Salamis; The Jewel and the Demon; Alaric's Gift; The Fatal Wager; Ten for the Devil; Battle Magic For Morons; A Matter of Honor; Principles of Warfare; and The Strangeness of the Day.

This collection is firmly average. A couple pretty good stories but none really compelling. I think the problem, at least one of the problems, was that in order to broaden the offerings many stories were tangential to what one would think of as battle magic at best and seemed to not involve battle magic at worst. Now I understand that the editors, and authors, wouldn't want to present an entire anthology of wizards leading troops in battle but the stories should at least be reflective of what the anthology promises.

That aside, and the above would be forgiveable if the stories were compelling, the stories just aren't terribly inspired. Bland characters that the reader can't particularly warm up to and less than exciting plots.

The handful of fairly good stories elevate this to 3 stars and average, at times however it was a battle to wade through the book.

Well in this case I can clearly say that the cover has absolutely nothing to do with the book. I constantly struggled just to finish this compilation. Nearly all of the stories were bland and uninspired. I found two interesting enough where I might have continued reading a further story if available. One of them being the "Girlslayer" story. I found the premise rather original. The other was "The Jewel and the Demon." I very rarely toss books out of my collection but this one went straight to donation.

I really love the anthologies edited by Martin H. Greenberg. Generally, while one or two of the stories might not be my cup of tea, I find the rest of them enjoyable reading. Sadly, for this volume, none of the stories really caught my attention. Perahps it was the narrow focus - Magic on the battle field. But I sensed the breadth and depth of the stories. Ladykiller by Rosemary Edgehill was a pleasant read, though quite obvious from the start. Alarc's Gift by Mickey Z. Reichert seemed well-developed enough but ended on a rather bland note. Perhaps it was that all the stories individually had their merits, but in the form in which they were put together it highlighted their flaws?

Or maybe, it's like the old line that ends a relationship - "It's not you. It's me."

Either way, while I love the authors included in the anthology, such as the above mentioned Mickey Z. Reichert and Rosemary Edgehill, I'm afraid this collection doesn't do them justice.

Very disapointing..... all except "girl slayer" was terrible, and even girl slayer was weak compared to other books of this genre i have read. But i suppose it is pretty hard to develop a strong fantasy story with only 20 pages to work with...

THIS BOOK WAS HORRIBLE!!!!!! EVERYTHING EXCPECT BATTLE MAGIC FOR MORONS ISN'T WORTH THE PAPER IT'S PRINTED ON!!