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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thoroughly Enjoyable to the Man and His Word Series, May 12, 2004
Princess Inosolan is bored. Bored with the tiny kingdom of Krasnegar, bored with her Aunt Kade's attempts to give her some polish and just bored of being somewhere where nothing ever happens! However, she is simply stunned to discover that her father, King Holindarn, is sending her to Kinvale with her Aunt Kade to find a husband. Inos doesn't feel ready to marry and has never even been interested in boys that way. Well, there was Rap, the stableboy, whom she rode horses and played on the beach with, but he surely didn't count. After all, Rap wasn't a boy he was just Rap. Inos hated Kinvale when she first arrived. She wasn't good at any of the maidenly pursuits that were focused on there and she really didn't care about embroidery or anything of that nature anyway - until Sir Andor arrived...Sir Andor was everything a maiden dreams of marrying - strong, handsome, charming, witty, attentive to a woman's every wish and desire. If Inos got to select her husband, and her father said that she may, she would surely pick Sir Andor. However, before they could reach a firmer understanding on the matter, Sir Andor up and left for the winter and Inos began to despair of ever seeing him again... Meanwhile, back in Krasnegar, Rap was working hard with the horses and trying to improve his station in life from stableboy or goat herder to wagon driver, but he couldn't stop thinking about Inos. Oh, Rap well knew that their stations in life were so different that there could never be anything between them, but that didn't stop him from loving her. He just hoped that he would still recognize her when she returned from Kinvale and that they would still be friends. So Rap was thrilled to befriend Sir Andor, a visitor to the small kingdom of Krasnegar who seemed to have selected him specially to be a friend who helped to get his mind off of Inos. Rap would do anything for Sir Andor and, when he discovered that Inos was in danger, he left everything he knew behind to travel overland with Sir Andor to rescue his princess. But Rap quickly discovered that Sir Andor was not what he seemed and that he was far from being an ordinary stableboy... Magic Casement is the first book in the Man of His Word quartet and it is a wonderful kick off to a thoroughly enjoyable series. My favorite character was Rap. It is true that he was not necessary a quick thinker and that he didn't react to things in the way I visualized a hero would, be he was dogged, determined and dependable and he fought through everything to give Inos the chance to take over her kingdom and rule. Inos was also a good character, but I didn't find her quite as interesting. I found myself rushing through the parts of her story to get back to see what was happening to Rap, but I liked the way Duncan dealt with both main characters at the same time by changing perspective so that you knew what was going on wherever they were. In addition to Rap and Inos, there is a host of engaging and intriguing secondary characters that readers will delight in getting to know including the witches/warlocks who guard the segments of the kingdom, the different races who populate the land, Sir Andor, the minstrel Jalon, the scholarly Dr. Sagorn, the monster Darad and the unexpected Little Chicken. Though this series is out of print, the books are readily available and they are also found in ebook format. Another great series by David Duncan - highly recommended for fantasy fans looking for a new twist on an old theme.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Read this till it fell apart, September 17, 2005
I loved this series so much. It plays with the usual fantasy cast, but they are very sincerely and beautifully developed. You have your honest young stable boy (not very good-looking, just to shatter one classic fantasy role a little) who is bent on following his childhood friend Princess Inosolan all over the world if need be to help her regain her kingdom. This all takes place in a rich, well-developed world with interesting races based on historical places in our own world. Like the imps, dark-complected people with an interest in empire-building and a very well-organized Romanesque military. The story is exciting, with great twists and interesting developments. The system of magic is unique, and I adored all the characters.
I have all the books in this series and the sequel series, A Handful of Men, and I have read the first four until the pages are starting to fall out of the book. I think it is a true gem among some of the typical fantasy that's out there and I hope to spread the word about it!
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A little bit of magic..., February 11, 2001
goes a long way in the case of "Magic Casement". Those that are tired of books with a horde of 'main' characters that seem to get nowhere even through a handful of 1,000 page tomes, will be most pleased with the start of this four book series. Two main characters: the shy but faithful stableboy Rap with a curious knack for horses and the quite unladylike princess Inos, grow from their juvenile beginnings into adults as the story unfolds even just in volume one. For Inos, life holds far more than the world of the pampered royalty in embroidery and casual tea party chat that her father whisks her into after it becomes a necessity for her to wed so she can ascend the throne after her father's death. And for Rap, a denial of the acceptance of power could very well prove fatal for him as he finds that life gets much harder than being a mere stableboy. Duncan's pace is impeccable. Like "The Gilded Chain" and the books following in their wake (which came many years after this series was written), he sets the story in brisk motion and keeps us trekking across the continents along with the two centers of the novels, entwining many more characters into their lives to complicate things even more, yet he never strays too far from the gels that hold the story together. Tightly well written, introducing a very unique magic system which becomes very important as things come to a head, and an assortment of savagely likeable characters who are far beyond the cliched bunch found in other novels, "Magic Casement" is the start of a very good thing, and a must read for anyone who loves fantasy with a bit of an original edge.
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