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| Author: |
Lawrence Watt-Evans |
| Barcode/ISBN13: | 9780765349019 |
| ISBN: | 0765349019 |
| Imprint/Brand: | Tor |
| Release Date: | 03 Apr 2007 |
| Format: | A Paperback |
| Series: | Annals of the Chosen 01 |
| Number of Pages: | 368 |
| Price in AUD: | $19.95 |
| Categories: | Fantasy Book |
Having trained to become a Swordsman for the archetypal Chosen, who protect their world by overseeing the Wizard Lord, young Breaker faces an unexpected challenge when the Wizard Lord's dereliction of duty makes it necessary to remove him from power. By the author of the Obsidian Chronicles.
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Series: The Wizard Lord: Volume One of the The Annals of the Chosen
Author: Lawrence Watt-Evans
Imprint: Tor (Tom Doherty Associates)
Published: 2006 (2007 in paperback)
Dark wizards. Chosen heroes. The greatest swordsman in the world. The most beautiful woman in the world. And a constitutional system of checks and balances intended to rein in excesses of the executive branch of government. Hey what?
Lawrence Watt-Evans writes unpretentious interesting fiction. He’s best known for his Ethshar books, particularly The Misenchanted Sword (though for my money the Lords of Dûs series is even better). If he’d focused on the military he might have been a Baen writer before there was Baen.
The Wizard Lord (you may cringe at the title now) is about ordinary people, made extraordinary but still ordinary underneath, put in extraordinary situations. The central character takes the simple farm boy trope to a new level: for instance, deliberately causing someone else an injury is pretty much a new idea to him. Despite being the greatest swordsman in the world.
Most of all it’s about a fantasy world ruled by laws rather than men (or women, elves or whatever). One that thinks even good people shouldn’t be trusted with untrammeled power. And that someone must watch the watchers.
It’s a refreshing change from fantasy’s usual paradigm of revealed truth, where an authority explains that Faction A is good, Faction B is evil, and if we just help Faction A kill all of Faction B the world will become a very nice place. (Traditionally the authority was a wizard in a pointy hat, but the recent trend is to do away with the wizard and just use the hat.)
It isn’t the best book Watt-Evan’s has written. It starts slowly and the plot is nothing special. But the core idea is innovative, the setting is interesting and the characters are both well-conceived and very human. More power to you, Lawrence.
