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Read The Wizard Of London (2006)

The Wizard of London (2006)

Online Book

Rating
3.72 of 5 Votes: 1
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ISBN
0756403634 (ISBN13: 9780756403638)
Language
English
Publisher
daw

The Wizard Of London (2006) - Plot & Excerpts

When Isabelle's heart was broken by David Alderscroft, a young Elemental Master who was rising in his power and fame within the magical society of London, she fled to India where she found true love with a commoner like herself. Now, she and Frederick have returned to London where they've opened up a school for children who, like themselves, are not masters of magic but rather possessors of more occult talents including extrasensory perception and prophecy. It is to this school that little Sarah, a youngster who possesses a few remarkable gifts, is sent by her parents who are concerned both for her safety in their home of India and for her education in the occult arts. At the school, which is staffed by a rainbow of cultures including Hindu and Buddhist, Sarah finds a home filled with love and understanding, where she begins to thrive. It is not long before she's helping others, including a young girl named Nan who has been abandoned by her mother and forced to beg for a living. Nan, too, has some interesting gifts and the friendship that blossoms between the two is strengthened by their individual talents. Unfortunately, those very talents have roused the anger of a formidable foe in London, one who will stop at nothing to destroy the threat that the two little girls present to her plans for power and immortality. Using Isabelle's former flame as her pawn, she is ruthless in her quest for domination. Can Isabelle, Frederick, Sarah, Nan and the rest of the school's staff, with a little help from two very special birds and one very powerful "godling", stand against her icy wrath? Or will they, too, be frozen and relegated to the nether world to which she's sent scores of children before them?The first two thirds of this book was wonderful and promising. I enjoyed getting to "meet" little Sarah and Nan and see the changes that came over each of them as their friendship developed and as they benefited from the teaching at the school. Isabelle's own story was also interesting, though I couldn't help but feel that David's character was lacking. He didn't provoke any strong feelings in me and it was hard to really root for him as a protagonist (or even to boo at him as an antagonist!) Because not much of the book is dedicated to him, that was not such a huge flaw that it detracted from the majority of the novel. However, as the focus shifts more towards him at the end, it caused the final scenes to be something of an anti-climax. I couldn't help but feel that the author had built up a great deal of tension surrounding the little girls then suddenly shifted the action toward David, losing my interest in the process and making the denouement a letdown. An okay book but certainly not one of the better in the series and NOT an example of what Mercedes Lackey can do at her best!

Probably more of a 3.5 stars, but I enjoyed it.The best part of this book was the magical world presented. It's an alternate history, set in England in a past much like ours. There was a world of elemental mages, with the power to control an element and the magical creatures associated with that sphere, and those with more psychic gifts-- like speaking with the dead as well as various battle related skills.The characters were also interesting, particularly David Alderscroft. He's a basically good guy being lured by the pull of power, led by a mentor who is much more than she appears. Isabelle also had an interesting story, linked long ago with David's. After their relationship ended, she went to India, and found her husband. Together they have built a very satisfying life, including a school for children of British citizens living abroad-- particularly those with magical talents of the non-elemental variety.At the center of the action are two very talented young girls. I had a problem when reading that if their age was given in the first part of the book, I missed it. If I'd been reading a print version I would have gone back to check, but that's much harder when listening. I kept trying to guess, and my estimates ranged from 8/10 to 15/17. I did figure it out, but I think I would have liked the book better if they had been older. As it was, it felt more like events were happening to them, and they weren't mature enough to make good decisions about their involvement.I'm planning to go back and fill in earlier books in the series. I don't think they are particularly tightly linked, but I'd like to explore this world a little more.

What do You think about The Wizard Of London (2006)?

Skip this one, if you have the power. (I, too, have felt the urge to finish terrible books just because I started them, and to start them just because I've read the rest of the series. I feel your pain, completionists, especially where this book is concerned, and I support you in your coming time of trial.)This is one of the most mindnumbingly boring books I've ever read, and I've read The Grapes of Wrath. It's based on "The Snow Queen," a very odd and confusing fairy tale to be sure, but that doesn't have anything to do with how boring this book is because the book doesn't seem to have a thing to do with the fairy tale.What it does have to do with is two special kids in a boarding school and their animal companions. Two sickeningly average special kids in a boarding school and their sickeningly average animal companions. Seriously, the majority of the book is the two little girls doing... Well, not much of anything. It's SO day-in-the-life that MY life was infinitely more interesting, and it took me about three weeks of two or three chapters a day to get through this beast.I did like the new things Lackey incorporated into the magic system, how it's all very systematic but still complicated, but still a lot of elements just seemed stuck in there to take up space. I also liked how sensible the characters (mostly the kids) were, always telling someone else where they were going and when they'd be back, etc., but at the same time, they keep foiling the villains' plans and the plot never goes anywhere.The one character I liked never stuck around longer than a few pages. (And it's not the woodland spirit you might be thinking of if you've already read it. It's the husband.) The depths that were available were never plumbed. I kept reading hoping it would get better, but it never did. Skip it.
—Hannah Givens

This held my attention but others in the series seemed to be more successful to me. I think perhaps Lackey has discovered with there being only four elements, that that rather limits the story lines. In this one she is bringing in psychic talents as well as the original elemental mages. The problem is, the story is very black and white. I'm still not so clear as to why the talented children were attacked in the first place and who the attacker was. I felt that the attacker was supposed to tie in with the bad guy (ok, lady) but if so, I missed that part of the story. It rather seemed as though two stories were jammed together into one and it wasn't all that smoothly done. At one point in fact I thought that perhaps these had been published as short stories and then republished as one story. The reason why I thought so, was a completely unnecessary recap after the first big incident of the children being attacked. The next chapter had a recap of the various characters and what their talents were that just seemed completely out of place. One of the more successful characters was that of Robin Goodfellow, a powerful member of the fey, the oldest in Britain. Otherwise other characters just weren't all that interesting. Nan was probably the next most interesting followed by the two birds. I'll try the next in the series, but may abandon this series if I am not satisfied with that title.
—Joan

Lackey's books can get fairly formulaic (being as prolific as she is, I imagine new and surprising twists can sometimes be difficult to obtain), so I was very pleasantly surprised when she introduced Talented characters instead of strictly Elemental magicians. I would really like to see more stories surrounding the Talented. I think they have a lot to offer.Lord Alderscroft is a ninny and the biggest arrogant sod I've read about in a great while. I don't like him. I don't like him in any other book, and I doubt I ever will. I think this was supposed to make him more human (something he desperately needed after The Serpent's Shadow), but I don't honestly see much change there. Every time he's mentioned, Alderscroft is aloof, classist, sexist, and arrogant to a fault. He's not a villain, but he's also not some snuggy bear we'll fall in love with because of a tacked on epilogue. Sarah and Nan were my favorite characters. I like to think it's supposed to be that way. I would also like to see more of them in upcoming books. Or get a series of their own.This all being said, I did enjoy the book, more than I thought I would. This is mostly because the sections of Lord Arrogant were few and far between with a lot of Nan and Sarah making up the majority of it.
—Renee Faller

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