The Secular Wizard (Wizard in Rhyme)
This is the latest enjoyable installment in the escapades of Matt Mantrell and Saul ("Wizard of Sarcasm") Bremener, former graduate students now living happily in an alternate world where verse has magical powers. When the evil King Maledicto of Latruria ("Italy by any other name") is killed, his grandson Prince Boncorro, having determined to be loyal to neither Good nor Evil, introduces supply-side economics to his goods-based kingdom. Matt, now Lord Wizard of neighboring Merovence, investigates the changes Boncorro has wrought. His "incognito" expedition is a curious one, impeded by occasional contretemps and the specious reasoning and obtuseness of several characters (Queen Alisande, Matt's wife, is particularly ill-served by multiple scenes apparently intended to show that pregnancy can make a woman moody). Readers older than Stasheff's usual audience may be bemused by the presences of Chancellor Rebezo and a friendly ghost called Spiro. Fans of the series' previous volumes should find this one, though a progression for neither author nor reader, as pleasant a distraction as those. Science Fiction Book Club alternate.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.