I picked up both of these books with a strongly favorable bias. I truly wanted them to succeed. But then, I want every author to succeed. I want every book I start to read to be wonderful. Unfortunately, regardless of how well I know an author, or how favorably disposed I might be toward him or her, I am usually disappointed.
Most books fail.
I do not mention the book in print. The Illusionists is a fantasy, set in a vast medieval city that still revolves around a fascination with the ancient mages who once ruled there. Scavengers still scrabble through the ruins of the mages' old palaces in order to find relics and artifacts, one such scavenger has found a globe that has a malevolent will of its own. By theft and murder it has finally come into his possession of the Vinculine, a man with Lyndon Johnson's lust for power and even fewer scruples than LBJ about how to get it. The only problem with the book, I believe, is that Miller is not yet aware of how much room there is in a novel.