The Summoner – Gail Z. Martin
Posted on: 31 Maret 2013
- In: Fantasy
- 2 Comments
After reading a non-traditional fantasy in Among Thieves, I was ready for an old-fashioned one. The opening chapters of The Summoner showed some promise. A prince with undeveloped magical abilities was forced to flee from his home because his evil brother killed the rest of his family and seized the throne. I expected to read exciting adventures as the prince journeyed to a neighboring country and learned magic.
Well, he did experience some adventure with a ghost inn, a caravan, slavers, a haunted library, a warrior princess, but none of them was interesting.
He did learn about magic, but the description of how he learned was so vague that it didn’t give me anything to get excited about. In fact, everything related to magic in this novel was vague; I don’t understand why soldiers dislike and fear mages, why teleporting is limited to short distances, why certain things are forbidden in magic, other than because the author says so.
In addition, the characterization was very two dimensional. Such a pity. I was expecting great things, but now I don’t think I’ll continue reading the series.
Rak Buku Femmy 
16 Juli 2014 pada 4:56 pm
Soldiers fear a mage, well it depends on what the mage abilities, if they can cast a torrent/wave of flame then they can pratically decimate a regiment of soldiers.
but mage can be useful to them as well, by enchanting thier weapons
23 Juli 2014 pada 11:18 pm
I meant I don’t understand why soldiers dislike mages in this book. The relationship between magicians and the military can vary from book to book, and it is part of the world-building authors should consider in detail. The fact that this relationship is not described properly in this particular book is a major drawback for me.