A Large Book

Next in the Magic Kingdom of Landover marathon was book three, Wizard at Large. The story starts when court magician, Questor Thews, approaches King Ben Holiday with exciting news: he believes he's discovered a magic to transform court scribe Abernathy to his original human self. (A spell cast decades before the start of the books has left him as a dog who walks upright and who retains the power of speech.) But the "reversal spell" misfires and transports Abernathy to Earth, specifically to a castle where the evil, de-throned king of Landover (who sold his kingdom to Ben) resides.

At the same time, the spell has transported one of the deposed king's magical possessions into Landover, a sort of evil genie-in-a-bottle known as a Darkling. When the bottle goes missing, the characters have two problems to solve -- retrieving the bottle and recovering Abernathy.

Of the original three Magic Kingdom books Terry Brooks wrote, I think this one is the best. It starts right in with the action immediately, with Abernathy "exiled" to Earth by the end of chapter one. In fact, I think this is the fastest onset of "the main problem" in any of Terry Brooks' novels, in any series, and it is quite effective.

The Darkling subplot is also very strong. As the characters track the evil bottle, it passes through the hands of all sorts of different characters; it becomes a device by which, once again, all the side characters that appeared in previous books can be brought into the tale again. And it feels very natural. You look forward to the return of each character, because it doesn't take long to realize that's what's coming.

The ultimate resolution to the tale is perhaps a bit easily won, but then that might just be part and parcel of this being more whimsical fare than Brooks' usual "high fantasy." Nevertheless, it's still a great book I rate an A-.