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Book Review: The Long Dark Road to Wizardry by Richard K. Lyon

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.

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