School of Wizardry
by Debra Doyle and James MacDonald
School
of Wizardry, the first in the Circle of Magic series by Debra Doyle
and James MacDonald, often proved a tedious read. Although the book is written
adeptly, it is far too serious for a fantasy book. Fantasy magic should be fun.
Well, not in this book, where few people in Randal's world want to be a wizard.
As a young squire, Randal is training to become a knight. Then a mysterious
wizard named Madoc enters the castle gates. Madoc is called upon by the royal
family to lighten up a grim and gloomy atmosphere. Yet while Madoc's performance
garners him applause and awes Randal, the magic merely amounts to torches being
extinguished, colored lights appearing, and background music playing. Okay, I
realize this is magic, but I don't know?. It seemed lackluster. Or perhaps it's
the writing that makes it feel dull. When Madoc moves his closed fist over an
empty dish, and chants in an unknown language, Randal is the only one to see
water fill up the bowl and a picture to form in the water. After all the dinner
guests depart, Randal catches up to Madoc and asks him about becoming a wizard.
Madoc discourages him, insisting that he would spend most of his life getting
into trouble, being hungry, and traveling on the road. Despite this caution,
Randal persists. Ultimately, Madoc gives into Randal's pleas and enrolls him in
a magic school. There, discovering that magic comes less naturally to him than
his earlier vision, Randal immerses himself in studies just to pass. He also
meets gifted students who decide that magic is not fulfilling for them and so
choose other trades. School of Wizardry is ONLY about magic, whereas the
Harry Potter series is about family and friends and teachers and love and
loyalty and POSITIVE things. With its sole emphasis on wizardry, I found myself
taking the School of Wizardry series much more seriously and so having to
push myself to finish it. I do not recommend it. -- review submitted by Allison H.-F. - a customer of the Bennett Martin Public Library
Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?
New Customer Reviews appear regularly in the pages of the BookGuide web site. You can visit the Customer Reviews page
to see them all and/or submit
your own, or watch them
appear here in the BookGuide blog
individually as we receive them.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment