Book review: Masters of magic

I know, I know... why is he just reading when he could be painting? I actually read this as I travelled for work recently. It is pretty much perfect for that, as it is an easy and not terribly complicated read. I mean that as a compliment, really.

Seldom have I enjoyed a plot as basic as this one, so kudos to Chris Wright for managing to make (most) the characters interesting enough to captivate me and making a lot of a little. True, I am a sucker for wizards hurling lightning bolts at one another, but I like to think that there is some lower limit to what I will accept, and this book was well above.

The plot in short: A young grey wizard encounters an army of orcs led by a shaman. Stuff happens as the orcs rampage towards Altdorf, and more wizards get involved, some as part of wizardly intrigues and power struggles, and we are treated to many wizardly things, such as spellcasting, arrogance, manipulation, heroics and all such juicy things for the eager reader. It's all written fairly basic, vibrant and with just the right amount of depth for each character to make some sense and spawn some interest without anyone ever actually getting very complicated or too full of plot hooks (even though a number of famous Warhammer characters make at least an appearance) to be useful in the tale. I think we can all guess with some level of accuracy who will make it through this story alive, but there are a few surprises along the way.

So far, all good. Another good thing? The orc shaman. Described much like the shark in "Jaws" or some such, we don't get the god-awful attempt at describing things from his point of view. There ARE enough characters to switch through as it is, and none of them are too complicated, so adding another would effectively detract from both the added character and the ones you had already. The danger when describing battle wizards of the Empire always seems to be that one ever so easily ends up writing some cliche-ridden characters who each just embody their college, OR you end up with someone who is the polar opposite, because of how curious and interesting THAT would be... So yeah. Orc shaman who remains orcy? Big plus. Battle wizards who don't go too overboard in cliches? Big plus too. (Some of them may be a bit stereotyped, but fair play, mr Wraight)

I was recently asked if all of these books aren't just "one big battle scene after another". I strongly denied that filthy suggestion, but... Well this one kinda is. Let's not pretend that it does not contain a strong amount of spellcasting and violent battles. It does. the book is perhaps intelligently put together, but it would be a stretch to suggest that it contains much mystery or information. There is of course information about the colleges of magic, a tiny bit about spellcasting and greenskin magic, but that's all the cultural fluff/depth you get. No exotic region, no craftily hidden references for initiates (not me at least) and not much to make you cry out to dark gods for a sequel either really, though I imagine some of the characters turn up elsewhere, perhaps in Wright's other books.

Over all rating: 4 out 5. Solid. Delivers. "Give him the ball and he'll score."