The Wizard of London....

[kyrielle]

Well. The good thing is I read it. Now I can give it back to the library.

A lot of this stuff doesn't seem to belong in the world of the Elemental Masters. It felt mish-mashed, wrong, heavy-handed, and fakey. And it annoyed me a lot because it incorporates as main characters (moreso than the Wizard of the title) Sarah and Nan, two characters from a short story (said short story being largely incorporated here) that I loved.

But they don't. Belong. In this world. And their development feels forced. As do several other parts of this book. Okay read at any point in time, but - not right.

It's a pity. Next book.

Comments

[jenett]

I was wondering about that (just saw it in Booklist yesterday, have it on reserve at the library.) I was very fond of the Sarah and Nan stories.

Ah, well. Will still read it, but glad for the library.

[jerusha.livejournal.com]

I agree. It felt, not only as if it were riding on rails, but that the rails were greased. Things happened, not because they were likely (or dictated by the structure of the world), but because the author needed them to happen.

SPOILER WARNING SPOILER WARNING SPOILER WARNING

Nan's introduction was a perfect example: Gee, Sarah's too reserved and needs a "best friend" at the school (told, not shown, via conversation between the adults). So who shows up at the gate? A girl of the right age, with essentially no family connection, who just happens to have a psychic talent, who can be gentled (with not much effort) and folded into the school. Or: Nan wishes for a special bird friend, like Gray to Sarah. In the next chapter they're on a field trip... to the Tower of London, where Nan is promptly adopted by a raven. Everything was just too *pat*.