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Book Review: The Accidental Sorcerer by K. E. Mills

I like funny fantasy. I wish there was more of it. So I picked up this book because it sounded like it would be humorous, and it was. Some of the time. The Accidental Sorcerer is the first in the Rogue Agent series. Basically, the book is about Gerald, a very incompetent but goodhearted wizard living in a world with both technology and magic (the world is never explained very well). He gets fired from his job after playing a part in blowing up a magical factory and must find a new job, so he goes off to some other country with an insane king and becomes court wizard. Overall, this novel was mediocre. There were some great parts, particularly the beginning. I love the idea of a factory which makes wizards' staffs, and reading about it blowing up was even more fun. In general, I would have liked to know more about Gerald's word and how it operates, but instead I got dragged off to this unimportant little country which is still stuck in medieval times, like every other fantasy land. That was a shame.
Gerald is genuinely a nice guy and a sympathetic character, but a lot of the other characters weren't as well-drawn. Gerald has this best friend who is a talking bird (apparently she used to be human but was cursed to be a bird) and I didn't appreciate their relationship. I think the dialogue between Gerald and his bird friend was sulposed to be humorous, but, honestly, the dynamic seemed kind of abusive, with the bird constantly telling Gerald what to do, getting in arguments with him, and generally being rude and offensive. He is almost pathetically dependent on her, which she manipulates by abandoning him after arguments so that he apologizes and begs her to come back. It was a weird relationship, and the story glossed over this fact, seeming to insist that they were besties and this was a funny and heartwarming thing. I was not amused.
I also didn't like the villain. I knew exactly who he was from the beginning, even if the characters were in denial, and his motives were simple and unoriginal. This was a major problem for me which made the story predictable and uninteresting; I don't care about another villain who wants to take over the world for no reason, except maybe that he just happens to be a psychopath. There were no plot twists, no surprises or things that made me look at the story or characters in a new way. Also, there was a torture scene, and I am personally not a fan of torture scenes, especially not when the book is supposed to be funny. So, entertaining enough, but not that great. Maybe the next few books in the series are better. I'm afraid to try them, though, because what if they're not?

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