Meanwhile, the women can be divided into impossible love interest and achievable love interest. There isn't a naturalistic line in the entire narrative. Their dialog is so stiff that you could starch your drawers. The world itself is a slapdash sword and sorcery style world, where there's no need for a map, history and politics are shallow, and all those fussy world building details don't matter much.Īt the same time, the characters are stiffer than wallboard and more difficult to swallow. These differences lent themselves well to each distinctive type of of story. Lyndon's exploration of magic proved rather fun, as each magic had its own twists, turns, and downfalls. This broke down towards the end, making the episodes slide one into the other, presumably because the story just worked better as a singular narrative as opposed to a sequential narrative. The episodic breakdown worked out rather well, giving the reader a coherent tale for each segment. The structure of the story is rather fun, with the early parts of the book acting as independent stories, and the later part acting as a single story. The book itself tells the story of Alodar, who desperate wants to be a suitor to the Queen, so that he can restore the fortunes of his once noble heritage. The episodic breakdown worked out rather well, The Master of Five Magics (1980) by Lyndon Hardy sits at that annoying place between being a good and a bad book.
The Master of Five Magics (1980) by Lyndon Hardy sits at that annoying place between being a good and a bad book.