Reviews From an HBN (Wizard At Large - Terry Brooks)

Book three of the Magic Kingdom of Landover series.

It all began when the half-able wizard Questor Thews announced that finally he could restore the Court Scribe Abernathy to human form. All went well until the wizard breathed the magic dust of his spell and suddenly sneezed. Then, where Abernathy had stood, there was only a bottle containing a particularly evil imp, who soon escapes.

MY RATING: 3 STARS

My review as posted on GoodReads, etc.

It's good to see that this series has remained consistent so far. I can think of a few that have gotten more and more disappointing as they carried on, but that's not the case with this one. If anything, it gets to be even more fun.

That's the good news...the bad news is, this thing is starting to feel formulaic. Uh oh! Ben has somehow lost the medallion again! We have to get it back! There's an evil creature on the loose in Landover! We have to stop it! Nightshade is making trouble again! Something must be done about this! We must call... *moment of breathless suspense* the Paladin!

What kept this from dragging down for me was the focus on Questor and Abernathy. When the attempt to turn the scribe back into a man backfires catastrophically, the wizard tries to set things right, and it's HIS turn for some self-discovery (which is good, because if I had to sit through Ben trying to figure himself out again, it wouldn't have ended well. It's getting old.) And we finally learn a little more about Abernathy, and that information just popped him up to the status of my favorite character so far. He's only in this mess because a long time ago, he tried to do the right thing. Now he's stuck as a talking dog on Earth in the company of his worst enemy. Not good!

Strabo made another appearance, and while I like the dragon's sarcasm and irritability, I could see that surprise coming just by reading the summary. I'll admit, I was cheering Questor on in his attempt to persuade Strabo to help him save Ben and the others, and frankly that scene was the highlight of the whole book for me. It was just too funny! The other bit that stuck out was the climactic battle in which we may or may not have seen the last of Nightshade. Really, it's too soon to tell. Anyway, how she was defeated was pure genius.

Can I just say that I might have predicted by the end of the book that Questor would suggest trying to change Abernathy back again? I think I'm too attached to him as a dog to want him changed back.


Your humble book nerd,
Angels