To master five great arts of magic and win a queen was not enough for Alodar the Apprentice. He must do what no man dared...
"A stirring tale of adventure."

Release planned for Monday, April 26, 2004 at Postal Release in Chesterfield, England United Kingdom.

Offered on relay and accepted.

Arrived today, thank you DianeO!

Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. I was *so* crushed when I found out that I just could NOT get on with this book. On the face of it, it sounds like my ideal story. I adore fantasy books, especially those treading heavily into magical waters. I suspect that my main turn-off was Alodar himself; a character I just had no sympathy for at all. I didn’t really care what happened to him, certainly not enough to read pass 80 pages of this book (see, I persevered for 80 whole pages!)

Ah well.

Thank you DianeO for popping this in the post to me. My only problem now, is what on earth am I do with this book? Two one star reviews are hardly going to encourage anyone to read it! Answers on a postcard...

This is a book I've heard of, but never seen before. So when I found a copy at the unconvention, I grabbed it.

After two such unencouraging reviews, I feel almost ashamed to admit that I actually quite enjoyed the book. It's not one I'll keep, and I don't think I'll be looking for more by this author, but there was enough to keep my interest going for the whole book.

That said, there were plenty of things to put the reader off. The characters were mostly pretty week; Aeriel, who showed early promise, disappeared from the narrative for most of the book; and Vendora really only began to take shape as a character in the last couple of chapters. Even Alodar had problems with his motivations at times - he seemed determined to marry the queen, rather than considering other roads to his goal - which were not properly explored.

The book showed some of the characteristics of poor epic fantasy ("You have to visit every place on the map, whether marked or not", etc.), and I found the plot somewhat repetitive as Alodar served his first couple of apprenticeships. The world-building was good, but could have benefited from some more thought (and having named one of the five supernatural arts "magic", the author had no right to call them "the five magics" in the title!)

Anyway, enough of my rambling - time to send the book out into the wide world on the next leg of its travels...

Released on Tuesday, November 30, 2004 at about 3:00:00 PM BX time (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada) at Colliery Wheel in City of Dan in Whitwick, Leics., England United Kingdom.

RELEASE NOTES:

First time for ages I've released here. I feel like I've really come home now!

this book will apeal to adalt fans of Harry Potter, with its magical content.

I released it back to the wild on 8.1.05 at the cross in Diseworth.

Found on a bench in the village. Will leave it around the airport - hopefully airside.

CAUGHT IN DISEWORTH NR NOTTINGHAM EAST MIDLANDS AIRPORT DERBYSHIRE ENGLAND, UK