Review: A dark tale that casts new light on a magician's lot
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 30, 2013
Think you've got a tough life? Consider poor Benen: Unceremoniously stuffed into a dirt cellar by his abrupt but well-meaning older sister, the boy ends up endangered anyway when an 800-year-old wizard shows up to claim his due.Benen is the only child of proper age in his village to satisfy the malevolent master magician's search for an apprentice. The boy is torn from everything and everyone he's ever known and imprisoned in a tower in the sky, where he's forced into slave labor under constant threat of punishment.When he finally gets a chance to start learning the ways of wizardry, Benen finds himself subjected to even more physical and mental trials. But through the help of an unlikely ally, he begins to expand his knowledge, build his power and forge a plan to fight back.Author Eric Guindon has crafted an inventive tale that looks to the heavens to explain the magician's craft. Benen's education is no Disney-esque sorcerer's fantasy, and his often cruel master is far from the benevolent, distinguished-looking Gandalf of J.R.R. Tolkien's and filmmaker Peter Jackson's prodigious imaginations.But poor Benen's suffering isn't for naught, and Guindon leaves his readers curious to find out what else awaits the young wizard as he begins the next phase of what promises to be a very long, adventurous life.Good thing for Benen fans that Guindon's sequel, "Journeyman," in the three-novella "A Wizard's Life" series is available now.