One Wizard Place
D. M.
Paul
Reviewed
by
Jenny Salyers
Behind
the glass doors, guarded by stone statues of giant winged
creatures, is
the headquarters of numerous governmental offices. These include the
Mythical
Bureau of Investigation (MBI) and the Incantation Enforcement Agency
(IEA).
Justin Kasey Hobskin (known as Kace), works with his partner Murdox as
an agent
of the Counter-Curse division of the IEA. This is a position he took
after a
very nasty curse left his father turned into a wolf, and Murdox a
talking
wolf-dog(an unfixable condition that has left him very out of sorts).
The
counter curse department is a small one whose agents are in charge of
righting
magic that has gone wrong. It's a tough job to have. It is too bad that
there
are only the two of them doing it.
After returning back to the office after a long, tough job of clearing
a house
of a particularly nasty infestation of nixies, Kase and Murdox are
given their
next assignment. The elf king of Greylock has accidentally drunk a
potion which
is slowly turning him to stone. Upon visiting the king, the partners
discover
that in order to cure him they need a very rare and hard to get
ingredient.
They will have to travel far, find the needed ingredient, and get back
to the
king with only ten days before the spell becomes irreversible!
In this, his first novel, author D.M. Paul has created a wonderful
world where
technology and magic mix. He introduces us to city named Cloudview that
is a
hundred levels high, each level a city in its own right. Where its
inhabitants
travel around by slug system(what was once the bus system), the
vertical train
(between levels), and the horizontal tube(a one level train-like
system) It is
populated by a myriad of inhabitants who don't always seem to be what
they are.
This book, while written for younger readers, will enchant and delight
adult
fans of fantasy fiction as well. This is the first book in a three book
series,
Book two Sentinel will be released later in 2006.