16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Stasheff does it again, June 21, 2000
Stasheff returns to the parallel world of wizards, sorcerers, and witches. Where christian ideas become reality. Beware of doing are thinking wrong here, there actually is a hell.
This book continues the story of Balkis. The Princess who can change into a cat. She can also whip out a really potent spell...if only she could rhyme that last line.
The princess is kindnapped due to a prophecy saying she will protect her empire. However, the abduction goes wrong and she is actually sent to the one who can complement her spells. Romance blooms as Balkis and her new love travel back home. As they travel, I felt like I was reading Gullivers Travels: large ants, crytal encrusted caves, and little people who survive off of apple smell alone.
Read and Enjoy!
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Back to the way it should be., November 25, 2000
By A Customer
I have to say that I disagree with the person who gave it two stars. For me, this book was a welcome return to a more readable adventure. The last several books (before this one) have made me find Matthew Mantrell and his family utterly unbelievable. Could I take the fact that he entered a world in which he could do magic? Sure! It's suspension of disbelief... The thing I've had a problem believing is that Matthew and his parents seem to know absolutely everything... poetry, other languages, literature, history, the specifics of every religion known to man... That's what I could not fathom. It stopped me from relating to them on a personal level. Of course, Mr. Stasheff has done his research, but to expect that the characters, who have lives devoted to things other than this, have too is too much.
This book was a refreshing break from that amount of history, religion, etc... Back to a pure adventure, with people, wandering lost through amazing new territory, meeting new people and creatures.
It was the first time in four books that I got caught up in the story and wanted to find out what happened next.
It was _before_ this book that I thought the Wizard in Rhyme series had played itself out, but now I'm not 100% certain.
**A side note. Mr. Stasheff should prevent the publisher from putting that moronic poem as advertisement... "Join our crusade. Your choice will be made. Isn't it time for a wizard in rhyme?" I can tell he didn't write it, and it's just plain awful.**
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
In need of better proof-reading, but still a good read, July 6, 2001
By A Customer
Continuing the "Wizard in Rhyme" adventures of the Lord High Wizard of Merovence and his friends and family, this volume pairs our hero with a young, female apprentice (with the self-protective ability to transform into a cat and a difficulty coming up with endings for her spells) in order to retrieve his children from a vile kidnapper. Like all the novels in this series, Stasheff does a wonderful job of combining medieval myths and legends with lively, likable characters. However, the story is marred by errors in proof-reading (changing the names of characters or cities back and forth, often several times within a few pages, where paragraphs from earlier drafts with different names seem to have been incorporated without correction). Enjoy the story, but beware those editing mistakes.
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