Customer Reviews

Gift of the Unmage (Worldweavers)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Thea is a double seventh--a seventh child of two seventh children--and so, as soon as she is born, great things are expected of her. Everyone waits anxiously for her sure-to-be powerful magic to reveal itself.

And waits. And waits.

She disappoints everyone with her lack of the magic almost everyone in her world has, even those who can't show it, like her parents. However, in a last-ditch attempt to find Thea's power, her father sends her to another world, where her teacher, Chevyo, helps her to discover her own abilities.

Back home, however, Thea attends the Wandless Academy, where those hopeless cases are sent to be isolated from magic. There, her strange powers that Chevyo helped her find in the other world come in surprisingly handy when she and a few friends, thought to be talentless and useless by much of their society, are called upon to save their world.

GIFT OF THE UNMAGE was a good book, really, but at times I felt like it had a lot of potential to be even better, so I was a little disappointed. It's still worth the read for those who are looking for this sort of fantasy, however, and I will be looking forward to Ms. Alexander's next books.

Reviewed by: Jocelyn Pearce

This book was a perfect mixture of Madeline L'Engle's a Wrinkle In Time, old native american folklore, with some Hogwarts academy thrown in. Thea is the main character of the book and she wonderfully portrays a young woman who is unsure of herself in society and at home. This book made me think and I loved it!!! A part of me related whole heartedly with Thea, I too doubted my place at home and in society when I was her age. I too had to (and still do) ask why?, to every thing and anything. I will warn you that this book isn't a light read, but if you are looking for a book that is going to make you feel good and make you think about life (or your supposed life path is) then this is the book for you.

"Gift of the Unmage" is the first book in a YA trilogy aimed at an audience that wants more from fantasy than a standard kids-defeat-evil theme. What sets this book over and above other YA books in the genre (a certain boy wizard comes to mind) is the inner conflict. Thea is a real teen, with real doubts, uncertainties, and questions about herself and the situations she faces. The enemies aren't all externalized Bad Guys Out To Destroy The World; there are inner demons that must be faced as well. Anyone who has gone through the teenage years, or is going through them, will instantly recognize the confusion and turmoil that goes along with being human.

And that is ultimately the best part of the book: Thea is human. She doesn't always do the right thing, and she faces the consequences of her actions when through the best of intentions she makes a wrong choice. Again, unlike the boy wizard books where everyone is the same at the end of the books as they were at the beginning, Thea changes, grows, and learns from her mistakes.

If I had a complaint, it is that the book is not long enough. There are numerous plot threads, external and internal, and at the end I was wishing for another couple hundred pages to watch the playful weaving move towards the upcoming major conflict. I'm sure that is what will happen in Book 2, but it is going to be difficult to wait for Book 2 to hit the shelves.

Thea is 14 years old. She's the seventh child of two seventh children, which means she is to be very powerful. Thea wants to go to the best magical University when she gets older. But, there is one thing holding her back...she doesn't have the magical touch, at all. She's not able to perform any magical projects. She feels she's letting her parents down. They have tried everything they can to help Thea find her magical nitch. Now, there is only one thing left to try and her father will call in a huge favor to try it.

In her eavesdropping Thea knows her parents have plans for her and if these plans with some private lessons don't work, she will be sent to that place next year. That place is The Wandless Academy, where non-magical children go to school. Non-magical children and schools are the minority and she feels she will become nothing in a magical world without magical powers.

This is a world where magic exists in a big way, and in many different specialities and levels. If you don't have magic, you don't amount to much of anything here, or as Thea feels. There is a big world starting to be created here with endless magical possibilities; from our traditional telepathy between family members to traditional magic with music or shepherd mages and different levels of mages. We even have portals to travel to different places and through time.

This young adult read is not one for lots of violence or intimacy of boyfriend/girlfriend, but what I did enjoy from it was the American Indian mythology usage. This was a great mythology to set with this world. Alma relates the things Thea learns my using the beliefs to the current time and place Thea lives in.

Thea starts off as a typical teenage child who in a way feels sorry for herself and guilty for her lack of powers, in relation to her parents. She has a wonderful and open relationship with her Aunt. As she is close with her parents, it's just she feels she has let them down, being expected to be so powerful. Thea really grows greatly through this book with what she learns while with Chevery. Then how she uses it when she returns home to willingly go to the Wardless Academy. Thea makes some wonderful and unusual friends there at the school. But it is a time she will never forget, for the things she accomplishes. I enjoyed the journeys Thea takes to understand herself. Through the beliefs and teachings Thea goes through she learns she has to be patient and the understanding will come ~ a great lesson to be learned by both children and adults alike.

I enjoyed this first book, and will be reading the next book as well. I would suggest this book to a Young adult who likes to read of magic and Americal Indian mythology. I feel this book was a nice break from lots of fighting and violence and even the drooling love scenes. This is a nice read for a younger adult to sit back and enjoy, and the parents not worring what is in those pages.

The review written by E. Hill matches my opinions perfectly. This book is full of wonder. I loved it and was glad I didn't need to wait to read the sequel. The characters felt real; the opponents were original yet familiar. Grandmother Spider and the other Southwestern mythology added a great hook. Highly recommended.

While I found Alexander's world intriguing -- and not just the magic, but the different magical beings and their various flaws and skills -- the story was, as one reviewer writes, "disjointed." The major problem is that the main point of the book -- that Thea uses computers to do magic -- is a tiny subplot tacked on at the end. The majority of the book doesn't focus on this element at all. I felt very disappointed after finishing Worldweavers: Gift of the Unmage because the jacket led me to imagine it was very different book.

PROS:
--The structure of world is vividly imagined. Humanity is in contact with different sentient beings (via dimensional portals rather than space travel) and magic is common on Earth.
--Unique characters. Some of these are taken directly from the folklore of the American Southwest; some are pure human -- but with very special personalities and matching magical styles.
--Definitely no guessing this plot! It's... errr... twisted. Whether that's a good thing in this case is another call.

CONS:
-- The plot pacing is deathly slow in parts.
--The characters are memorable, but only reasonably well-developed (And there are a lot of them! Her oodles of siblings, parents, aunt, various magical mentors, teachers, school friends. I'm actually impressed Alexander was able to finesse a dramatis personae that enormous!).
--The whole thing doesn't really feel like a novel; it feels like various types of novels with different plots and VERY different pacing thrown together. Also, I should mention it involves flashbacks. A lot.

I didn't read the sequels because this book was difficult to finish on its own -- and frankly, I was frightened of being further let down -- but there are MANY loose ends left open. Maybe these cliffhangers do ultimately continue on into tidy peaks and valleys in subsequent books in the series.


This book really deserves three stars, but I'm giving it two because the people who rated the book three stars seem to give glowing reviews (what's up with that?) and I wanted to distance myself from them. It's an "ok" book. Don't expect computers to play a very big role, and you might like it on account of its unique world.

I was trying to describe your writing to my fiance', and I did it like this: "Well, this latest book seems as if it is going to be your standard coming-of-age magician tale, but then you realize it is so much more. It is philosophy, it is science fiction, and it is beautiful."

My 12 year old daughter had to read this for her summer reading assignment. She hated the book. She said it was disjointed, illogical, and plain hard to follow. She had to force herself to finish it and would not have if not for school. She has read hundreds of books and was the top reader in her whole school last year.

Against the backdrop of multiworlds a young wizard who is supposed to be incredibly gifted with magic struggles to to find out why she has none at all.Her future without magic looks bleak until she finds others like herself.A blend of ancient mythology and modern technology gives this tale a panorama of highly enjoyable,page turning reading.I am waiting impatiently for the next volume of Thea's quest for her power.

Thea has let everyone down - all of her life. As the "Double-Seventh" (seventh child of parents who were both seventh children), she was supposed to have tons of magic. Instead, she has none. It's gotten so bad she might even be forced to go to the Wandless Academy - what Thea considers "The Last Ditch School."
Thea knows it's All Magic or No Magic - if she fails, she will totally fail. If she can't be a bonfire, she shouldn't even be a flicker. This is the pressure she's under as a double-seventh.
It all amounts to nothing - and everything her parents have tried - from sending her to chanting school, to her Aunts and Uncles for summer trying different approaches to awaken her magic - has failed. Miserably.
And that's what Thea is: miserable. She sits in the car as her father drives her to a mysterious destination - knowing he's making a last ditch effort to save his daughter, his reputation. Trying to get her to do magic so she won't let him down - again.