‘Spellwright’ – Blake Charlton (Tor)

I told you that there would be at least one book review by the end of the week! Hopefully things will get back to normal over the next week or so (we’ll see)...
If you go back a couple of pages (or even better, just click here) then you’ll be treated to the sight of me saying how cool it can sometimes be to partake of a little ‘old school fantasy’ every now and then. You know what I mean, the kind of thing where you pretty much know how it’s all going to pan out so you can just concentrate on enjoying how the author takes his reader to that conclusion. This is the sort of reading that I’ve been in the mood for these last few days so when ‘Spellwright’ found its way to the top of the reading pile I thought I might be in for a bit of a treat. If the cover didn’t let me know what kind of fantasy I was in for then the blurb certainly did! I’d also heard some good things about ‘Spellwright’ and was looking forward to giving it a go.
It was a shame then that what I found didn’t match my expectations...

Nicodemus Weal has come to terms with the limits of his magical ability and ekes out a peaceful yet meagre life at the famed magic academy of Starhaven. He was once thought to be the Halcyon, a mage prophesised to save the world, but Nicodemus’ ability to unwittingly misspell any spell he attempts (or even touches) means that this cannot possibly be the case. Can it?
An important mage is murdered on the eve of the Convocation at Starhaven and both Nicodemus and his mentor are prime suspects. As further chaos is wreaked, it becomes clear that Nicodemus has been singled out for exploitation by an ancient evil. The only course for Nicodemus is to escape Starhaven and head out into a world that he barely knows...

‘Spellwright’ opens in an impressive fashion and promises good things for the rest of the novel. There’s no better way to immediately get to grips with a new magic system than to see it being used and Charlton wastes no time in introducing both the magic system and the villain in a swirling face off of magical text and pure evil. What a great way to start a novel! I enjoyed the literary nature of the magic and the hidden menace in Starhaven oozes evil off the page; I knew that I had to read more...

Once this initial confrontation is over, we’re left with a murder mystery for the characters to solve. This part of the proceedings lost it’s appeal for me quite early on as I already knew who the murderer was! I’d seen him commit the act... It is fun to watch the characters work their way to a conclusion that’s suitably explosive and promises an exciting sequel. The ensuing pages also gave me the opportunity to get know the main players a little bit better. Nicodemus is the archetypal ‘scullion boy with a destiny’ (although he’s a trainee wizard but you know what I mean...) but this is offset by the fact that Charlton gives us an insight into Nicodemus far beyond what we would get normally. The reader gets a really clear picture of a man limited in his magical capabilities and living on the sufferance of a magical community that he hopes will pay him as little attention as possible. It’s not a nice way to live...
Nicodemus’ mentor, Shannon, gets the same kind of treatment and seeing these character’s motivations lends fresh emphasis to their actions. These actions are not down to predetermined character tropes but more reactions based on who these characters actually are. I felt like I got to know Nicodemus and Shannon really well, certainly well enough to be genuinely interested in what happens to them next. The environs of Starhaven were also suitably atmospheric for a seat of magical learning and I enjoyed Nicodemus’ wanderings through it’s halls and towers. I’m a big fan of world building and I think that Charlton can be credited with getting this aspect of the story spot on.

Despite all of this though, it was sometimes a close run thing as to whether I continued reading ‘Spellwright’ or put it down never to pick it up again...

Charlton has an unfortunate habit of explaining everything in the plot and I do mean everything. I’ll happily concede that some things do need to be explained if the reader is going to get the best out of a novel, especially if the author is introducing a magic system for the first time. What I’ve got an issue with though is pages of explanation where perhaps a few paragraphs would have done nicely. Charlton launches into masses of explanatory text every time Nicodemus asks a question and to be blunt it stifles the story when things should be pushing on. Nicodemus may need to learn (he’s an apprentice wizard after all!) but does the reader really need to learn everything that he does? I for one don’t. A little bit of background information is fine, massive info-dumps never work. In this case, all they did was to completely inhibit the growth of the story, making it all about the background when it should have been about what was actually happening in the plot.

It’s not just the info-dumps either, Charlton also likes to have his villains spill their evil plans when they think that they have the upper hand. As a fan of James Bond films I think there’s nothing wrong with this in moderation but it didn’t quite feel right in this instance. Having the chief demon spell out his plans at length came across like Charlton was talking to his readers rather than the two characters talking to each other. This approach jarred me out of the flow of the narrative and it took a little while to get back into the swing of things.

‘Spellwright’ made for some infuriating reading at times. I could see a potentially very good story itching to get out from underneath a mass of unnecessary text, very much like Nicodemus’ latent powers in fact! There was enough here though for me to want to come back and see what happens in the sequel, in particular two leading characters whom I was more than happy to invest my time in. I’m just hoping that Charlton won’t feel the need to dress the sequel up with quite so much background...

Six and Three Quarters out of Ten