Several years ago I wrote a review of Lawrence Watt-Evans' Ethshar series of fantasy novels for this site (it's no longer online; it got scrapped following the redesign). In my review I praised the Ethshar books for their readability, their sense of humor, and most especially for their refreshing avoidance of the usual fantasy clichés: in the delightfully-realized magical world of Ethshar, the world rarely needs saving from Certain Doom, and impossibly perfect, larger-than-life characters hardly ever appear. As I explained in that earlier review, Watt-Evans excels at telling stories about ordinary people, people just trying to find happy lives for themselves amidst the wonders of the worlds they live in.

This unique approach to fantasy has served Watt-Evans (and his readers) well -- even in his deeper, darker, more sweeping stories (such as his recent Obsidian Chronicles), this genuineness comes through. His worlds come across not as mere stages, but as real places, with real histories, populated by real people who work for a living -- and who are forced to contend with realistic problems, dumb mistakes, and villains who are usually more greedy, stupid, or blasé than they are truly evil.

The Wizard Lord, Watt-Evans' latest novel, is more Obsidian Chronicles than it is Ethshar, but despite the sweeping plot (a young man and his allies on a quest to rid the world of a corrupt wizard), the down-to-earth storytelling Watt-Evans is so good at remains: nothing in the quest proceeds as planned, and the young man in question, called Breaker, often winds up confused as to what course of action he ought to take. Nothing is as clear-cut as it seems it should be.

The story is carefully linked to the setting: in Breaker's world of Barokan, powerful wizards exist, and in the past these wizards often caused problems for ordinary people -- unchecked, they roamed the countryside, murdering and raping as they pleased. To curb this problem, some of the more benevolent wizards got together and channeled their power into a single wizard, whom they called the Wizard Lord; utilizing superior magic, this Wizard Lord could keep these rogue wizards in line. And, just in case the Wizard Lord himself went bad, a special order of "Chosen" were created -- bearing special magical skills, these men and women could be called upon to remove him from the office. Over the years, several Wizard Lords have indeed gone bad and been removed, but by the time the book begins, the possibility of a new "Dark Lord" appearing seems remote, and therefore Breaker has few qualms about becoming the new Chosen Swordsman when the old Swordsman arrives in his village looking for a successor. Unfortunately for Breaker (and I don't think I'm giving anything too major away here; it should be pretty obvious from the setup), the current Wizard Lord eventually becomes something of a problem.

Central to the story and the setting are the magical ler; these are spirits that are found everywhere in Barokan. Every rock and tree and animal has its own ler, and Barokan is filled with a wide variety of them -- there are so many, and they possess such power, that humans are forced to broker numerous wide-ranging deals with them in order to live on the land itself. As a result, most of the people in Barokan live in small, isolated enclaves, and travel to other villages is usually risky without a special guide -- the ler of the wilderness are unfriendly and sometimes even hostile to humans (additionally, wizards obtain their power through the manipulation of wild ler, which links the magical system of the created world to the overall setting in a decidedly tidy way). The whole concept of ler, as presented by Watt-Evans, gives Barokan an alien feel -- this is a world that comes across as truly different from our own, which isn't something that can be said about a lot of fantasy settings.

Long-time fans of Watt-Evans' work are sure to pick up on some similarities to his earlier stuff: the idea of a land filled with potentially hostile magic is reminiscent of Arithei in his Obsidian Chronicles, and the emphasis on true names seems to come from there as well; the idea of a supremely powerful (but not quite sane) magic-worker is somewhat close to his character of Vond in The Unwilling Warlord; and Breaker's magical skill with a sword resembles Valder's "curse" in The Misenchanted Sword. Rather than seeming like a retread, however, the novel seemed more to me like a synthesis of many of his best and most intriguing ideas.

The Wizard Lord is excellent fantasy: clearly and lucidly written in Watt-Evans' easygoing style, the book posits some interesting moral dilemmas, makes good use of believable characters, and takes place in a fascinating and original world. Highly entertaining, highly readable -- this is great stuff. (Oh, and don't be put off by the Volume One of the Annals of the Chosen subtitle; though apparently the first book in a trilogy, the novel ends very neatly, with the major conflicts resolved).

---

back to trenchman.com