| Reviewer: Troy D. '10
This
book is about a magid named Rupert Venables. Magids are sent by
important members from the "Upper Room" to keep the world in
order. Rupbert is only a junior magid but he has a lot of work to do.
The
book starts when his friend Stan dies and the emperor of Koryfos, a
country in another world, is assassinated. Rupert must find a
replacement for Stan and find out who the heirs of the emperor are. To
make matters worse, it is illegal in Koryfos to know if you are one of
the emperor’s children.
Stan
argues with members of the "Upper Room" and they allow him
to come back as a sort of phantom to help Rupert with choosing another
magid. Stan can talk and listen but he can not really move many things
and nobody can see him.
Rupert
decides to bring all the candidates for being a magid to one place. He
will bring them all together by tweaking their fatelines. Rupert has
already given up on an English lady named Maree Mallory because she
did a crazy dance for luck with her friend and held up traffic. Rupert
decides not to bring Maree to the spot he chose for the other
candidates to meet.
Rupert
decides on a convention in a Wantchester. Wantchester is a node of
power which he can use to bring them together. The convention is on
science fiction.
To
Rupert's surprise, and to Maree's, they both meet at the convention.
Maree does not like Rupert just as much as Rupbert dislikes Maree.
Also to their surprise the convention turns out to be much more odd
and confusing than they had thought.
The
book starts to get really exciting when Maree and her cousin Nick
accidentally follow Rupert when he is magically traveling to another
world. The world Rupert is going to is where his brother Will lives.
Will is also a magid but he lives in a world called
Thule
. Will tells Maree and Nick about magids and what they do.
Rupert
has also finds a computer that has information about the emperor’s
heirs. He copies the computer contents to two disks. Rupert works on
the second disk because the first disk melts. He gets the second disk
to say that someone called Knarros will supply the names of the heirs.
Rupert turns down many false Knarrosses until they find a centaur
named Knarros in the empire.
When
Rupert is in the other world he discovers that Maree has had half of
herself stripped away. Maree must walk a very cool and dangerous trail
to the
tower
of
Babylon
. As you read about
Babylon
you will discover castle gardens hanging in the air, and a very
mysterious bridge guardian.
What
makes this story so good is that it combines all three characters
points of view in an awesome way to tell an exciting story.
Winter
2002/2003 |
