A Wizard in Mind
(The Chronicles of the Rogue Wizard, Book 1)
Christopher Stasheff
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy
***
DESCRIPTION: In the far future, humanity has spread to the stars... and left many stranded there for generations. Shifts in Terran politics left countless colonies
without resources or even contact with their interplanetary kin. As years and generations passed, the vast majority reverted to pre-industrial ways of life, losing memories of
their offworld heritage in the struggle to survive on alien worlds. Now, various factions from the still-starfaring branches of humanity seek to bring these "lost" worlds back
into the fold, whether they're ready or not.
Magnus D'Armand, an insterstellar meddler, uses his inherited gifts of telepathy and psychokinesis (among other talents) to help out where needed. He used to be an operative
helping to foist democracy onto all worlds, but came to the conclusion that it did not work for everyone. Now, he only steps in whena truly oppressive government needs to be
felled. His travels take him to Petrarch, a planet mired in the Middle Ages, where nobles seek to squeeze the life from a stronghold of free merchants who may bear the seeds of
progress and democracy. Magnus soon discovers that he isn't the only offworlder involved in the affair, which swiftly escalates toward all-out war.
REVIEW: The cover made this seem much better than it was, not an uncommon occurrence but still annoying. I was promised a "rollicking," "witty" tale. I got a bit of the former and not too much of the latter. The characters seemed dull and predictable, consistent more with the needs of the plot than their own integrity. The plot... well, it did move, I grant it that, but I still found it boring for some reason. Anyway, it was readable, and I did finish it without too much difficulty, but I don't foresee myself seeking out further installments of Magnus D'Armand's adventures.
You might also enjoy:
Sky Coyote (Kage Baker, Fiction - Working for a future company, an immortal cyborg impersonates a diety to "rescue" a tribe of Native Americans from European encroachment)
Frontier Earth (Bruce Boxleitner, Fiction - In the Old West, a man without a memory faces alien hunters)
The Star Rigger series (Jeffrey A. Carver, Fiction - Interstellar pilots navigate subspace via lucid dreaming)
Bone Wars (Brett Davis, Fiction - The famed rival paleontologists Cope and Marsh find that someone with highly advanced technology is beating them both to the fossils)
The Sword and the Cross (Fergus Fleming, Nonfiction - The true tale of an advanced culture's often-disastrous attempts to apply their own ideals to a place they don't belong, as the French attempt to tame the Saharan land and tribes in the colony of Algiers)
Dune (Frank Herbert, Fiction - Interstellar spice miners clash with tribes of colonists who have reverted to primitive ways)
The Brain and Brawn Ship series (Anne McCaffrey et al., Fiction - The brains of physically deformed infants are used to power sapient interstellar ships in the future)
Return to Top of Page - Return to Book Review List
Return to Brightdreamer Books Home
Brightdreamer Books is created and maintained by TBW, a.k.a. "Brightdreamer."
E-mail: tbweber AT comcast DOT net. (Remove spaces, replace AT with "@" and DOT with "." - please put "Brightdreamer Books" in the subject line, or your e-mail may be deleted as
spam! Thank you!