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De Taal Der Spreuken (2010)

by Blake Charlton(Favorite Author)

3.61 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

9024532477 (ISBN13: 9789024532476)

languge

English

genre

Paranormal Fantasy

publisher

Luitingh Fantasy

series

Spellwright

review 1: For obvious reasons, writers are fond of writing about the power of books and writing. And when it comes to fantasy, this goes double, since the power need no longer be metaphorical: books can quite literally be magical. With "Spellwright", Blake Charlton takes this idea to its logical conclusion: the spells are the words required to write them, with each spell taking a physical form as it is cast after being written directly by the writer's body, no mediating pen and ink required. It's a clever idea, and it's also clever to use dyslexia (which Charlton struggled with as a child) as a crippling handicap for a would-be wizard, whose spells are misspelled in both possible ways. (Occasionally, though, Charlton is a little too clever: puns on "purple prose," and to a lesse... morer extent "logorrhea," are groaners.) Unfortunately, the rest of the book doesn't quite live up to its concept. It's not just that the writing is a bit stiff and the dialogue clunky, or that the debts that Charlton owes to the likes of Tolkien (and also "Star Wars", and "Dune") are all too obvious, or even that the characterization isn't all that great, though those are all issues. The main problem is that Charlton has spent a lot of time worldbuilding and he wants you to know all about it. The flow of the book is constantly being interrupted so that some character can explain to you, in an extremely didactic fashion, some point of background that you don't really actually need to know. The best example is probably the scene in which our hero, Nicodemus, is hiding in a ditch from a golem operated by his main enemy in this book, Fellwroth. The passage is obviously based on the one in "The Fellowship of the Ring" in which the hobbits hide by the side of the road from a Black Rider. The power of Tolkien's scene is that we don't really know what's going on and he doesn't tell us: all we have is the image of something horrifically both more and less than human hunting for Frodo and the Ring. Rather than supplying us with background, Tolkien uses our ignorance to help him build the sense of dread that pervades the book. By contrast, Charlton takes essentially the same scene and dissipates its power by having Fellwroth give multiple pages of exposition. There's never even any real possibility that Nicodemus might be discovered. By the time the scene ends, the reader is not scared, merely anxious to move on. Unfortunately, this is the rule, rather than the exception: every time something new is introduced, Charlton hastens to explain it, breaking the momentum of the story and reducing rather than heightening our interest. We don't need to know the details of the prophecies, or the history of the Solar Empire, or the origin of the word "pandemonium": not that these things aren't interesting (though sometimes they aren't since their source in some other work is all too obvious), but once the story has started moving they tend to detract, rather than add. Again, "The Fellowship of the Ring" is the model: the main expository chapter, "The Shadow of the Past", occurs before the story starts to move; subsequent exposition happens in Rivendell and Lorien, elven strongholds that are safely outside the story; and much of the detail is reserved for the appendices. Charlton, on the other hand, starts the story off with a bang right away, and doesn't really leave any gaps where what's going on can be explained without disrupting the action: the result is a stop-start motion that's not exactly smooth reading. "Spellwright" is hardly the first fantasy novel in which the quality of the writing doesn't match the quality of the ideas, but nonetheless I probably won't be reading the sequel.
review 2: This was a hard book to rate. It took me several (and I mean several, like half a year several) weeks to get into it. Part of that was because I've been reading other books at the same time. But the major part why it didn't hold my attention is because of how incredibly technical the first half is. There's so many new words in this book that I felt my eyes crossing. It took a LOT of explaining to understand the magic system, and the book focused on it so much so that we could understand what happens in the second half. There were also some pacing issues (the book takes place over a few days, probably about 3 or 4, but the last twenty pages or so covers several months). However, Charlton has an engaging writing style in spite of the overwhelming technical aspects. After I jumped over the hurdle of understanding the magic, the second half flew by and I found myself engrossed in the story. I especially liked Magister Shannon as a character. Unfortunately, I didn't feel very much chemistry between Nicodemus and Deirdre and I have a feeling that's where the series is going, considering she's the only "eligible" female character for him to have interest in (there aren't too many characters in this book, which isn't a bad thing). I almost gave this book 3 stars, because of the problems I Had, but when I realized I really wanted to find out what happens in the series and I want to know more about Nicodemus' choices, I had to bump it up to four. I will most certainly look for Spellbound next time I'm at the library or the book store. less

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Reviews (see all)

gphoebe

I read this book while recovering in hospital following surgery on a broken leg.When unable to sleep at night due to pain and the painkillers doing a complete lack of any pain killing, this book completely took me away from that (so Blake: 1 - Opiate Based Painkillers: Nil).That should be strong enough recommendation for anyone but if I was to apply a little more of a critique; this book did rely on some pretty standard fantasy tropes prophecy, demons, wise masters, young boy learning of his destiny type stuff(no hearty stew though). However, it is really elevated by the likable characters, brisk pace (perhaps a little too brisk at the end there) and a very cool and original magic system. I think the combination of the typical fantasy type story and accouterments allayed to an original the magic system lend this novel an almost fresh yet timeless feel. sidenote: I am liking this recent trend of really well thought out magic systems, Sanderson being the obvious touch point there.The 'twist' ending (4 letters) got me really good too. Looking forward, there is potential for this to become quite an epic series after spending a large chunk of this novel in a fairly small scale/intimate setting. I am looking forward to seeing how book 2 turns out.

sandylkc

I loved this book and enjoyed reading about a magical system that was different. I had actually read Spellbound first and finally got my hands on this one a few days ago. I finished it because it was near impossible to put down as I was able to finally fill in a lot of the information I was missing when I read the second book. I had read some reviews where people felt it bogged down in some of the lore, however, I would disagree. I feel that had the author failed to detail the lore that this would have been a mediocre story at best.

brooke

LOVED it! Particularly from the perspective of a prospective writer, the concept was brilliant.

angelov

I did not actually finish the book. I was to out there for me to follow

lulu

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