Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

As I was reading this book, a line from THE MUSIC MAN kept running through my mind: "But ya gotta know the territory!" Let me explain: This is Robert Newcomb's debut novel. No marks against him there; everyone's got to start someplace. But not only has he not written fantasy before; apparently, he has only *read* one fantasy novel in his life. How someone can presume to participate in a genre in which he's not well-versed, I don't know, but Newcomb's lack of background shows in that he falls into the cliché-trap at nearly every turn. You've got an ancient war with prophecies and repercussions into the present day. You've got a gruff, inscrutable wizard mentoring the young, reluctant prince -- who happens to have unimaginably vast magical potential. There is no all-powerful EEEVILLLLL Dark Lord, but what there is is worse: the enemies are Sorceresses, the female magic-wielding counterparts of Wizards. Unlike in Robert Jordan's books, in which case there is a plausible reason for the schism between male and female magic users, here for some reason the women are just kind of randomly, innately evil. The author pretty much comes out and says that women, granted power, will almost inevitably use it for evil, whereas men, granted the same power, manage to maintain self-control and use it only altruistically. The writing is effective but pedestrian; in fact, it could use quite a bit of work. Newcomb has some pretty good visuals, but he often rambles on for pages of details when mere paragraphs would have been sufficient; he uses five words where one would work. The book is full of awkwardly phrased sentences, typos, and annoyingly frequent repetition of phrases such as "impossible angles," or the use of "the old one" to describe the wizard. Additionally, the violence is brutally and graphically depicted without being at all kinetic or engaging, making even the battles a chore to read. In terms of the plot, the novel opens hundreds of years in the past, at the end of a war between the Sorceresses and the Wizards. The Wizards, having won, make an unbelievably, and unforgivably, stupid decision -- they free the evil and powerful leaders of the Sorceresses to live in exile, rather than executing them. Needless to say, this altruistic act comes back to haunt them, as the Sorceresses, like the Wizards, have employed their powers to make "time enchantments" that make them effectively immortal. The Sorceresses, presumed dead in their exile, create a big army and. . .you get the picture. As for the magic itself, which is an important thing in a fantasy novel, it's pretty much a rehash of the old "Light Side of the Force/Dark Side of the Force" dichotomy with a few twists that pretty much make no sense. Further, there's very little sense of any kind of *rules* to the magic system; a Wizard seems able to do just about anything with magic without tiring or draining himself unduly. To close, I'll say this: I've seen this book compared to George R. R. Martin's books several times. I'd just like to point out that Martin's novels are not popular because they're big, thick fantasy. They're popular because they're good. Despite their length, they don't waste words. Every scene is important. Every character is important. And the events are not standard, clichéd fantasy fare. Readers are smart. They are not fooled by the fact that a book is long, and they recognize quality when they see it. This book is not quality fantasy. It is overlong, overdetailed, boring, silly, and far too self-important. I, for one, will not be reading any further volumes of this series.