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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
High fantasy, low Wattage, August 5, 2002
By A Customer
I read this book, along with all the other Ethshar fantasies, when they first appeared back in the eighties. I must say I always enjoyed the way Watt-Evans approached magic; he could make it at once fantastic and logical.His scenes of magic at work are indisputably fun. Watt-Evans is kind of old school, he has devised a magical world, rules for that world, puts his plots into that context, and relentlessly follows things to their logical conclusion. The thing is, nothing much happens in Watt-Evans' stories. There are no larger-than-life heroes, no derring-do, no hair-breadth escapes, no great truths revealed, and no surprises. As one reviewer of his work pointed out, his characters are pedestrian, which I think is exactly Wat-Evans' point. Just because there is magic in Ethshar doesn't mean people or their institutions will be any different. Folks are still interested in profit and comfort, governments and religions just want to perpetuate themselves, parents still want to control their kids'lives, etc.This adds an element of realism to his work that is lacking in Tolkien-wannabe fantasies. Watt-Evans has managed to create a very magical world, and then his plots render it mundane. As strange as this sounds, I would always scoop up an Ethshar novel as soon as it hit the shelves, devour it in a day or two, and look forward to the next. Yet, I never felt really satisfied after finishing. Kind of like eating Chinese food.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Highly recommended!, December 18, 2002
Now that Dumery has reached his 12th birthday, it is time for him to be apprenticed. He's the third son of a wealthy merchant, which means that he inherits...nothing. He has only really been interested in one thing, wizardry, so he offers himself as an apprentice to every magic-user in Ethshar. When they all tell him that he is completely dead to magic, and as such untrainable, he feels crushed. But when he sees the most powerful wizard in Ethshar humbling himself before a man who sells dragon's blood (necessary for so many spells), he decides that he can apprentice himself to the dragon hunter, and force the wizards to humble themselves before him. Oh, but Dumery finds that even this is much harder than he imagined. I must admit that I consider myself a devoted Watt-Evans fan! I have enjoyed all of his books that I have been able to lay my hands on, this one included. Indeed, Mr. Watt-Evans' world is fantastic and yet realistic, with normal seeming people, going about their business in a manner totally consistent with their world. At least with the stories I have read, his heroes are relatively normal young men, looking for their future in a world of high magic. I highly recommend this book for any fan of fantasy literature!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Read It!, August 7, 2007
Let's see: This is an Ethshar series book and is therefore an excellent read. That may sound like a bold statement, but it is a fact. Before you run out and buy it I recommend that you start at the beginning with the first book "The miss enchanted sword", that way you will understand what is going on. Get the whole series and enjoy many hours wasting time reading about a world of total fantasy.
Note: This applies to every book in the series, I have read them all.
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