I'll start by saying that this is not a traditionally-published novel, which is why you've never heard of it. It was serialized in the online webzine Bewildering Stories. Since that very same webzine just rejected one of my own stories, I thought I'd do a review of something they published. Yes, I am vengeful and petty. So let me get to the point: The Long Dark Road to Wizardry is a cliche fantasy novel with very little character development and a plot that was interesting but ultimately unsatisfying. Harsh, I know. This novel takes place in some medieval fantasy land where people say 'twas all the time. I don't mind this so much; I like a good classic medieval fantasy. The plot is more episodic than an actual novel plot should be, with the characters having dramatic adventures seemingly one after the other. There is an overall plot, but , think it could have been fleshed out more. Again, I don't really mind this. What bothered me was the lack of character development. We start off with Druin, who finds out he inherited some magic powers from his grandfather and now he needs to explore his talents in order to avenge the slaughter of his friends and family. Interesting premise, but I feel like it doesn't get developed beyond that. After a few adventures with Druin, we suddenly switch the point of view to his cousin Breen, who is predictably good at everything, has black-and-white morals, and is basically less interesting to read about. Druin seems to go from traumatized young man to hardcore wizard overnight, and we don't get to see any of his growth. It's disappointing. Also, there is a romance thrown in at the very end between Breen and some flat, helpless princess character, which is extremely sudden, unrealistic, and not well-written. This novel was written some time in the '70s, I think, so I can forgive some of the cliches, and I understand that this was probably meant to be a simple adventure novel. It was exciting enough that I read the whole thing, so there's that. But the plot and especially the characters needed to be developed more to make the story feel even remotely realistic, relatable, and satisfying. So there: I have taken my revenge on Bewildering Stories (insert evil laugh) Just kidding, I would have written this review even if my story had gotten published in this magazine. You can read the full novel here if you're interested.. Now to try and get my work published elsewhere.
Life has been crazy lately, but I finally have some time to do a post about the second book in Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series! I'm rereading all the Dresden Files books (actually listening to them in audio book form). I remembered this one as the Werewolf Book. I also remembered that Dresden gets beaten up a lot and has sex with Susan in this book. Going through it again, I was a little disappointed to discover that I had, in fact, remembered most of the key points. Much like the first book, Fool Moon opens with a grisly murder scene. I'm not a fan of detailed descrptions of blood and guts, but, if you are, than Jim Butcher is the author you should be reading. Then there are a lot of werewolves. The Alphas first show up in this book, and they don't appear to do anything useful. They just get themselves stunned in the climactic moments and then develop an adoring loyalty to Harry. It's cute, but not very integral to the plot, at least not the plot of this boo
Comments
Post a Comment