The Wizard of London (Elemental Masters, Book 4) (Hardcover)

by Mercedes Lackey (Author)
Key Phrases: ghost girl, shadow woman, Lady Cordelia, David Alderscroft, Harton School (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
Lackey's latest Elemental Masters novel is set in Victorian England. The Harton School for Boys and Girls, run by Isabelle and Frederick Harton, is one of the few schools that takes students whose magic doesn't pertain to the elements, and who are, therefore, frequently ignored by the Elemental Masters. Such unheeded gifts include clairvoyance, telepathy, and the very rare ability to truly communicate with the dead. Sarah Jane's parents, missionary healers in Africa, send the 12-year-old to Harton, and she is happy there, especially after she befriends Nan, a street urchin. After an attempt is made on Sarah and Nan's lives, it is clear that a powerful Elemental Master wants one or both girls dead. Isabelle Harton must seek the aid of the Elemental Masters of London, though the Masters' Circle is led by Lord Alderscroft, who once cruelly jilted her. Interestingly drawn characters hold our attention to the end, even if the good ones are very, very good, and the bad are full-blown villains. Frieda Murray
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description
Set in Victorian London-where magic is real and Elemental Masters control the powers of Fire, Water, Air, and Earth-the fourth novel in this best-selling series tells the story of Lord Alderscroft, Master of the British Elemental Masters Council-the most powerful Fire Master ever to lead the Council. Loosely based on The Snow Queen, The Wizard of London delves into Lord Alderscroft's youth, when he was bespelled by an evil Elemental Master who hoped to use him for political gain.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: DAW Hardcover; First Edition edition (October 4, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0756401747
• ISBN-13: 978-0756401740
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #611,411 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 4 in The Elemental Masters Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Better than "Serpent's Shadow", but . . . , November 7, 2005

By	BAW "BAW" (Charleston, WV United States) - See all my reviews

still not up to Misty's usual standard.

Each of the books in the Elemental Master's series--and FIRE ROSE, which, although set in the same 'world', using magic that works the same way, is not counted as it is set in the US, while the others are in England--is based on a well-known fairy tale. FIRE ROSE, was "Beauty & The Beast", SERPENT'S SHADOW was "Snow White", etc. This one is based on Hans Christian Anderson's "The Snow Queen", with the title character in the place of Kay.

Like a previous reviewer, I had read the "Grey" series, about the two little girls in the school in London, and very much enjoyed them; they were sort of 'Frances Hodgeson Burnett meets E. Nesbit'. When I heard that Ms. Lackey had worked them into a novel, I looked foreward to reading it, and those parts of the novel worked very well; however, the "Snow Queen" parts did not mesh well with the "Grey" parts--it felt thrown together. And the character of Lord A. (the 'Kay' figure) didn't seem very interesting or compelling; I, at least, didn't care enough about him to want him to be saved. Even worse, he didn't seem hateful enough for me to NOT want him to be saved.

That being said, it was a good read, even if not quite up to Ms. L.'s usual standards.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A blend of Victorian London and Magic in The Wizard of London, December 29, 2006

By	Rebecca Huston "telynor" (On the Banks of the Hudson) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Wizard of London (Elemental Masters, Book 4) (Paperback)

Over the years, I don't read quite the number of fantasy novels that I used to. Now I am a touch more selective in my reading tastes, and a book needs something unique to catch my attention -- say, a setting that isn't the usual Tolkeinesque, or medieval world, or characters that aren't just pasty little copies of heroic warriors or wicked sorcery and the like. After a while, they get very dull and forgettable.

However, there is one genre of storytelling that I've always enjoyed -- that of the fairy tale, and it's proved to be a nearly inexhaustible ground for writers and artists. Popular author Mercedes Lackey has written several novels in her Elemental Masters series, with The Wizard of London being the fourth one published so far.

The story opens in a world that is very much like our own Victorian London, where poverty and riches exist side by side. On a dockside, a woman, Isabelle Harton, is waiting for a child from Africa to arrive. Officially, Sarah is being sent to live in England for her health, the heat and diseases of the Congo being too much for a little girl. But the reality is that Sarah's missionary parents, who are Elemental Mages, are not able to train her as her own talents demand, and have persuaded Isabelle to take her into her school.

As we see, Isabelle and her husband, Frederick, run a school for children in one of the more seedier parts of London. They try to manage on what few funds that they do have, but it's a struggle -- the couple are more concerned with providing a safe, comfortable place for their charges instead of having the latest in deportment or dancing lessons. Most of all, they are trying to teach them how to protect and use their paranormal gifts.

Of course, they can't always keep the outside world out. For the school, it is a child of the streets, Nan, streetwise and pure Cockney. An act of charity causes her and Sarah to meet. Despite some wariness on both sides, Nan and Sarah become friends, and Nan is taken into the school as well. And for Sarah, her beloved parrot, Grey, is returned to her from Africa.

At first, the story is based more on introducing the various characters in the school, from Sarah, Nan, the Hartons, and assorted servants. But then we get to see that there is something that is hunting the children of London after the girls are lured to an empty townhouse and nearly killed by a powerful Elemental spirit. And then Isabelle is forced to confront her past, when she was heartbroken by none other than the Wizard of London, Lord Alderscroft...

David Alderscroft is not a particularly sympathetic fellow. He's cold and manipulative and the only time the reader really sees him is when he is interacting with Cordelia, a society lady who is just as snobbish and proud as he is. How the various characters' lives intertwine is handled in a leisurely fashion by Lackey as this story of passion and malice plays out in the streets of London and the verdant countryside of an English summer. I really don't want to give away much more of the setting or plot away, as part of the enjoyment of this story is the gradual unfolding of the plot.

Yes, at more than four hundred pages, this does drag a bit, and it does get bogged down in the details of Victorian life, social customs and the magical system that Lackey has built for this alternate world. On the other hand, this attention to the little things does provide much needed colour to the story, and at times I could easily picture the scenes as they took place.

On the downside, the plot occasionally crawls to a glacial pace, and the urge to give the characters a good kick and a poke to get a move on was there. Too, while she does try to make her various people a bit more rounded, it's hard to feel much for the villains of the piece, they're so bloodless that I had a hard time catching any sort of motivation, or even why I'm supposed to care. Eventually the story does build to a climax as a monstrous plot is uncovered, and I did find the ending to be a bit of a surprise in some cases.

The good stuff is Lackey's picture of a magical England, and this time, not just having Elemental Mages in it, but also others sorts of paranormal behavior, from the old, old spirits of a more pagan past, and those who can communicate directly with the dead. I also like how she handled the moral questions of magic itself, where abuse can happen, and how a magical society could deal with it. Most of the interest of the story lay with Isabelle and Nan, who get most of the action and plot development, along with the depth that a good novel needs to succeed. With the intensity, these should best be saved for teenagers, and those adults who don't mind an excursion to Faerie now and then.

I don't know if there is going to be any more books in this series of adaptations of fairy tales, but I do hope so. They can be read in any order, and while there is a slight crossover of characters from one story to the next, each book is self-contained and complete. Nice to have in this world where series tend to get overblown and lumbering along as volumes reach the double-digits.

Highly recommended.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Spirits and the Sprite, August 6, 2006

By	Arthur W. Jordin (Smyrna, GA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The Wizard of London (2005) is the fourth Fantasy novel in the Elemental Masters series, following Phoenix and Ashes. In this novel, Isabelle Helen Harton is headmistress of the Harton School For Boys and Girls, a boarding school for the children of expatriates in India and elsewhere. The school is staffed by Isabelle's former servants and friends from India and thus provides a sense of home in the strange homeland. Unlike many other boarding schools, the Mems'b and her staff are always willing to let a homesick boy or girl cry on their shoulders.

Then too, the Harton School provides special training to boys and girls with different Talents than Elemental Magic. The Mems'b has various psychic skills such as telepathy and psychometry and some of her staff have similar talents. Frederick Harton, her husband, also has some precognitive ability.

The Harton School has been praised by mages and psychics around the world, especially for its warm and caring atmosphere. The parents of Sarah Jane Lyon-White have heard about the school and have written to reserve a place for her. Isabelle meets the ship at the dock, sorts out Sarah's luggage, settles her in a cab, and then welcomes her with a hug.

Although she loves the Mems'b, Sarah is still lonely at Harton. She gets along with the other students, but lacks real friends among the children. She also misses Grey, her parrot and protector.

Since she is more used to conversing with adults than children, Sarah's best friends are the Gurkha, the Sikh and the Muslim warriors who protect the school. One day she is asked to help Karamjit pass on a basket of food to poor children at the back gate. There she meets Nan, a gifted child of the streets. After several talks and one very frightening experience, Nan joins the school as a student who pays her way by helping in the nursery. Sarah and Nan bunk together and become best friends.

Sarah has the unusual psychic ability of communicating with ghosts. While false mediums are very common in Europe, only a few have real talents. One day Sarah and Nan accompany Mems'b and her friend to a seance and expose a fraudulent medium. Thankfully, Sahib Harton and the three warriors are nearby to protect them from a dangerous situation.

After this incident, word of Sarah's ability becomes common knowledge among the Talented set. Isabelle always refuses any request to use this talent; after all, Sarah is not surrounded by ghosts clambering to speak to their parents or other loved ones. Then a cabby comes to the door with orders from Isabelle to pick up Sarah and Nan and deliver them to a fashionable address; only Mems'b has no knowledge of these orders, the house is almost empty, and something evil lurks upstairs.

As in the previous novels of this series, the flavor of England's past suffuses every page. In this case, the tradition of the late Victorian era is a very pertinent factor in the storyline. It is a time when women of the gentry are only expected to provide "an heir and a spare" to their husbands of convenience. After all, even the Queen defers to her male advisors just as she had to Prince Albert.

Highly recommended for Lackey fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of mysticism, courage and even an Old Sprite.

-Arthur W. Jordin