Reviewed by: SingleEyePhotos
Genre: Fantasy/Satire
Approximate word count: 90-95,000 words
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Author:
Matthew
Lippert is very proud to call himself a ‘silly young man’. He always knew that he’d grow up (one day;
some day) to be a famous writer. In the
meantime, he teaches in Taiwan and writes in his spare time. He is now dipping his toe into having some of
his works from the past 15 years’ worth of spare time finally published. In an attempt to retain his mysterious
façade, he does not appear to have a web page or email address.
Description:
The Tain
Pek Academy of Magic and Advanced Gardening, like all good schools, allows
students who are struggling with academe a year’s sabbatical to ‘find
themselves’. And if they should find
other things besides themselves, well, that’s only the icing on the dragon.
Appraisal:
This is the
story of an apprentice wizard, Gidion, who is failing his magical studies. To avoid expulsion, and spending the rest of
his life working on his family’s mushroom farm (he hates fungi), he agrees to
take a year’s sabbatical from his studies.
He’s sent to the nearest town, where one misadventure after another
occurs. Strangely enough, most of the
misadventures seem to somehow be related to Gidion’s inability to perform magic
correctly. Thrown into jail, he meets
the troll Skuld; they escape together and become friends – only to be impressed
into the army of a nearby city-state.
From there, matters go from bad, to worse, to even worser.
The writing
is very light and humorous. There were
times when I felt that the humor was a bit over the top or forced, but those were
frequently counterbalanced by the times I snickered to myself over a silly
simile or snarky turn of phrase. I’d say
that this is a YA book in terms of the story, but the writing – separate from
the actual story – is more likely to appeal to a somewhat older audience who
can pick out the satire and appreciate how the author is poking fun at the
fantasy genre as a whole. The humor is
most evident in the first third of the book, then the tone changes somewhat,
and the humor in the main part of the story doesn’t seem to be quite as forced
as at the beginning. In my mind, that’s
a good thing. Even though I did laugh at
the silliness at the beginning, it was just that – silly, rather than clever,
satirical, or intellectual.
Basically
this is a traditional coming-of-age story with the usual cast of characters and
the hero goes through the typical adventures for the genre. It’s very light and easy reading – I finished
this book in one evening – and doesn’t have a lot of depth to it, but neither
do I think that depth is what the author was aiming for. If you like your fantasy mixed with
silliness, and a touch of sly poking-fun-at-the-genre, you’ll most likely enjoy
this.
FYI:
I think
this would be appropriate for all ages. The story is very simple and
uncomplicated on the surface. Older or
more mature readers may find greater depths or more hidden meanings than
younger readers will, but either should enjoy the tale. There was no objectionable content –
language, violence, sex, etc. – it was completely G-rated and family-friendly.
Format/Typo Issues:
None worth
noting. Formatting and typography were excellent.
Rating: *** Three
stars
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