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"The Wizardy of Od"
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Od is a gray-haired giantess who wanders the land of Numis, healing animals with her magic. When her wizardry saves the life and throne of the king, she asks only that she be allowed to set up a school of magic in an old cobbler's shop, in the Royal City of Kelior.
+3
The school expands and thrives, and Od wanders off into the world. She is sighted so infrequently that succeeding generations of students believe she is a legend. The kings of Numis keep the magic in their kingdom under strict control and the school becomes very conservative in its teachings.
Of course, 'conservative' is not a state of affairs that will last very long in a McKillip fantasy. The School of Magic's new gardener, a teacher-wizard, a new student, a street magician, and the king's daughter combine in Od ways to shake the stodgy foundations of the school and the kingdom of Numis.
As always, McKillip's characters seem a bit dazed by life, dazed even by their own good deeds. The bad guy is only a villain-manqué and never really gets a chance to commit evil before he is swept up in the movement to bring wild magic back to the Kingdom.
Unfortunately this author's books need an honest-to-satan slime-ball villain to bring them into focus. Otherwise the reader is inclined to wander through the plot, hypnotized by McKillip's strange and beautiful settings, until the novel glides to an end and he or she says, 'Huh, did I miss something?"
Beautiful surfaces, matched by a very beautiful jacket illustration by Kinuko Y. Craft, but not much depth to "Od Magic." I'm hoping for a sequel that brings all of the characters together against a much more formidable villain. Even the wild magic comes tamely to the denouement, about as threatening as someone's collection of pet rocks.
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This fantasy story is about a young man who doesn't know the extent of his magical powers. Brenden lives in the far north and has an innate connection with plants. He doesn't so much talk to them as instinctively nurture them and understand their healing properties. One day, he is visited by the great wizard Od, who invites him to become a gardener at her wizard school in the city of Kelior, far to the south. The Kingdom of Numis, with Kelior … more
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Elaine Lovitt (starmoth)
I'm a retired geek whose goal is to move to Discworld and apprentice myself to Granny Weatherwax. I have degrees in Astronomy and Computer Science, but was seduced by the Dark Side a few years before … more
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Delicately skirting the edge of preachiness, World Fantasy Award–winner McKillip (Alphabetof Thorn) demonstrates once again her exquisite grasp of the fantasist's craft in this slender stand-alone novel. Generations ago, the seemingly immortal wizard Od saved the city of Numis from destruction, not out of altruism but because it seemed like a nice place to found a school of magic. Over the years, the practice of magic has come more and more under the king's control. Deciding to stir things up, Od recruits Brenden Vetch, a gardener from the northlands with tremendous raw power and no taste for politics. As Brenden arrives in Numis, so does a fabulous street magician, Tyramin, whose sleight-of-hand looks suspiciously like unauthorized wizardry. King Galin's attempts to control Brendan and arrest Tyramin only scare them away and earn him the scorn of his daughter, Sulys. As with the Narnia books and other fantasy classics with religious or political agendas, if you can shut off your awareness of worldly context, you'll find this an otherworldly delight.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.
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Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.
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