Customer Reviews

Witch Doctor (Wizard in Rhyme, Book 3)

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

 

 

This book is just a rehashing of The Oathbound Wizard. Nearly all of the major scenes are identical. The only difference is that they are told from Saul's POV. It's not really interesting, and I'm having a hard time reading it because it feels like like reading The Oathbound Wizard all over again. I understand that Stasheff was probably getting bored with the series, but he still could have done a better job with this one.

My main problem with this book is that it takes Saul's POV the entire time, and to be honest, his need to contradict himself all the time just annoys the heck out of me and takes up too much space. I'm surprised Saul has a guardian angel at all actually. Narlh is the best reason to keep reading. And how stupid is Saul to never realize that Matt is the Lord Wizard of Merovence despite being told that at least 5 times in 3 days??? That one fact alone nearly made me stop altogether, till I realized Matt had to show up sooner or later so I kept on.

This book is just full of wonderfully ironic happenings. The main charachter has a delightfully sarcastic sense of humor and the author relly did a good job of letting you know what he is thinking. This whole series is full of awsomly wierd creatures and the human element is definatly there. The book has a livley plot full of humor.

This book is magnificent! The characters are lifelike and they evoke a sense of excitement and glory. They also show us more of our human nature. All in all this book is a great contribution to the genre of fantasy

The Witch Doctor is a marvelous book. Complete with humour, a great plot and likeable characters, this book is a great read. I would reccomend this book to all readers who like humerous fantasy.

This is the second book I've read in this series and I found it just as interesting as the first one. The poetry is fun, but it makes you think at the same time. I found myself looking at our own world and the endless conflicts between good and evil, both between people and within myself

In the first book in the series Matt Mantrell is transported into a magical parallel universe version of France and must free it from a satanic sorcerer using rhyming based magical powers he has in this new universe. In this book Matt Mantrell's college chum, Saul, is transported into a magical parallel universe version of Germany and must free it from a satanic sorcerer using rhyming based magical powers he has in this new universe. See the difference?

The adventures are fairly similar, both characters go on a journey to fight the evil sorcerer and accumulate a group of quirky friends along the way. There are even ideas lifted nearly whole cloth from the first, Matt and Saul both independently get the idea to summon Maxwell's Demon in each of their books! The main difference between the books is Saul's personality. Matt was pretty agreeable about joining the forces of Good. Saul, however, is really prickly, and refuses to join either Good or Evil.

Now, since Saul is supposedly neither Good nor Evil,you'd expect him to do a mixture of good and evil things throughout the book. And your expectations would be unfulfilled. In practice Saul's refusal to choose a side amounts to him waffling a lot and being rude to the Emissaries of Good, but then to go ahead and do the right thing anyway. This is part of an annoying thread I've noticed in Fantasy books in general, namely the idea that Good and Evil are sides that a person joins, rather than evaluative statements about the morality of someone's desires and actions. Saul in spite of Stesheff's attempts to convince us otherwise, isn't an amoral person. He's a good person who's kind of rude.

In spite of these flaws this is still a fairly fun adventure novel and it has a few cool ideas. I will never forget the scene where Saul uses magic to remove someone's cancer. I also really liked the troll.