Customer Reviews

Tomorrow's Magic (The New Magic Trilogy)

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

 

 

A sequel to "Winter of Magic's Return" this book deals with King Arthur's return to England, with the aid of a very young Merlin and his companions. Set in a nuclear winter where technology barely exists and magic is staging a comeback this is a highly amusing book. Merlin (for reasons explained in the prior book) is in his late teens and his two companions are also teens of that era. The three of them, plus Arthur are attempting to reunite the various duchis, kingdoms and principalities that England has become, against Arthur's old enemy Morgan Le Fay. While not as fascinating as the book that preceded it, this is still a servicable sequel, although i wish there were one to this as well.

I just want to know when Ms. Service is going to come out with a third book!

This is a magical follow-up to WINTER OF MAGIC'S RETURN, and it focuses on the trio of close friends, Welly, Heather, and the youthened Merlin, now known as Earl. Five centuries after nuclear devastation, magic finally returns to the world, and King Arthur as returned to Britain in time of her need. However, as evidenced in the title, there is a new kind of magic appearing in the world -- and there may not be any room for Earl's magic now! As fun a romp as the previous book!

I discovered this book during a junior high obsession with Merlin. A futeristic novel seemed interesting enough, and it certainly was. It's Merlin, it's Arthurian, and it has a healthy dose of sci-fi.

500 years in the future, the planet is stuck in a nuclear winter (darn those governments!). The survivors have banded together in almost archaic civilizations. And, of course, things begin to backtrack as a belief in magic begins to return.

The story begins with a boarding school where three friends lose themselves in ancient novels. Harmless enough, but things take a turn when one of them, Earl the resident orphan, shows odd abilities. Things get even stranger when a mysterious woman shows up claiming to be his long-lost relative.

Again, it's an interesting and entertaining story that gives many winks to the Arthurian legend. My only wish is that things could have been polished up a bit better, that we might have had to work to get story rather than depending on plot device.

i rate this book incredible! it was shockingly great.i devoured the pages as if they were ice cream! if you like king arthur and merlin and magic you will love this. the second book even though is alot smaller it has a ton of action and magic. in this book girls and boys triumph and they are all amazing.

this is a magical story.

Pamela F. Service's TOMORROW'S MAGIC is set five hundred years since a nuclear holocaust decimated the Earth's population, in Britain where mutants seem to be taking over. Wellington and Heather are concerned about trying to keep up school when their classmate discovers he's Merlin the wizard - and thus begins another Arthurian fantasy, this set in a future struggling for humanity and survival.

I thought this book would be so much better, but it lacked passion to me. It did no grip me, and want to read it again and again. The beginning of the book seemed to move slow, and was just boring. At the end of the book I was waiting for something big to happen and it just never did. For the most part it seemed like everything that happened in the book you know would happen. This book is an okay read, but I would not suggest to go out an buy your own copy of it. This book I would not likely read again.

I don't know why these ("Winter of Magic's Return" and "Tomorrow's Magic", the review is for both) were recommended to me. There's nothing special about them; their bindings are old standard-library issue with a blurred picture and un-breakable binding (I must add something: "Tomorrow's Magic" has someone on the cover and I can't figure out whether it's Morgan or Merlin). Maybe it was because my friend knew I was digging through Arthurian legends and needed a respite from Malory and his Bible-sized work, maybe it was because we were in the area and she needed to lure me away from the brightly illustrated "The Vampire Goes to the Farm". *snicker* Whatever the reason, the heart or the shoes...

Service's series tells the tale of a post-Apocalyptic world in which everyone but the British are dead (essentially). England (and Ireland, Scotland, and Wales) have been reduced to feudal states harried by "muties" (radiation-mutated humanoids). And, at some point or another, Merlin was nuked out of his cave. Yes, that's right boys and girls, now you can destroy magic with nukes-- maybe if we bomb Iraq we'll find the Holy Grail. Anyways... thanks to some arcane plothole, Merlin has gone amnesiac on us and is fourteen (he moans about not having a beard almost as often as he turns things purple). There's some stereotypical geeks who find their inner strength/beauty travelling with him and to find King Arthur-- though why getting Arthur from Avalon is a good thing isn't explained in "Winter of Magic's Return". Morgan is portrayed as the evil, petty, destructive witch, which grates on me since I subscribe to the Bradley-esque "Good Morgan" school of thought.

These books are absurd, badly written, and poorly contrived, but I would recommend them to any would-be-author-- they'll make you feel better about yourself.