Watt, Evans Lawrence Books

The Turtle Moves!: Discworld's Story Unauthorized

Lawrence Watt-Evans

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

So, you think you know Discworld? 5 out of 5 stars.
27 of 27 people found this review helpful.

So, you think you know Terry Pratchett's Discworld, do you? Even if you have read and re-read Pratchett's thirty-plus Discworld novels (and companion books), Lawrence Watt-Evans's "The Turtle Moves: Discworld's Story Unauthorized" will still teach you a new thing or two, I suspect -- new insights into characters, new ways of looking at the novels.

Watt-Evans, a noted science fiction/fantasy author himself, has created a respectful, genial, and thoughtful look at the Discworld universe, discussing each novel and story and placing them in context of "sub-series" (within the overall Discworld series). He does this with a tone of mock frustration ("How come Pratchett can write such an extraordinarily successful series of books and I can't?!?" -- well, maybe Watt-Evans's frustration isn't wholly fictional; surely, any author must envy such a creation), but it is clear throughout that Watt-Evans is first and foremost a fan of Discworld -- not blind to its occasional minor flaws, but overall deeply impressed with its high quality.

In his introductions, Watt-Evans explains that he is writing the book both for fans of the Discworld tales and also for those readers yet unfamiliar with them. Oh, and also to make money while trying to understand the roots of Pratchett's success (I am sure this is said tongue-in-cheek, although he wouldn't mind making the money).

"The Turtle Moves" is a pleasure, and as truly informative as it is amusing to read. As the cover blurb says: "The greatest British fantasy series by a living author who doesn't go by initials is Terry Pratchett's Discworld".

Editorial Review:

From the banks of the river Ankh to the walls of Sto Lat, the entirety of Terry Pratchett’s renowned Discworld series is explored in this expansive resource. Essays discussing a range of topics—among them Pratchett’s place in literary canon, the nature of the Disc itself, and the causes and results of the Discworld phenomenon—accompany a chronological account of the more than three dozen novels in the series. Perfect for veteran fans and neophytes alike, this is the complete guide to the world on the cosmic turtle’s back.

The Ninth Talisman (Annals of the Chosen, Vol. 2)

Lawrence Watt-Evans

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

All of the world is kept in a delicate balance under the supervision of the Wizard Lord. It is his duty to govern lightly and protect his domain…but if he should stray from the way of the just, then it is up to the Chosen to intercede.

 

The Chosen are the Leader, the Seer, the Swordsman, the Beauty, the Thief, the Scholar, the Archer, and the Speaker. These are magically infused mortal individuals who for the term of their service have only one function--to remove an errant Wizard Lord. 

 

The Chosen fulfilled this role when they removed the previous Wizard Lord and exposed treachery from within their own ranks.

Since their last adventure, the world has returned to apparent peace and prosperity. The new Wizard Lord rules benevolently...but with an eye towards modernization through technology, instead of magic. 

 

Do such plans jeopardize the delicate balance of power?

Is a Wizard Lord who is able to rule without magic a threat to the Chosen?

Ithanalin's Restoration (Ethshar)

Lawrence Watt-Evans

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Pleasant light fantasy 4 out of 5 stars.
8 of 9 people found this review helpful.

_Ithanalin's Restoration_ is Lawrence Watt-Evans's latest Ethshar novel. (Of late he has been alternating his more serious, and longer, Dragon novels with his generally light-hearted Ethshar fantasies.) The main character is Kilisha, the 17 year old apprentice to Master Wizard Ithanalin. One of Ithanalin's spells gets disrupted by a mischievous spriggan, with the unwitting help of a tax-collector, and Ithanalin's "essence" ends up distributed among various objects, including several pieces of furniture. The spooked tax-collector leaves the door open, and the furniture, having legs, escapes. It falls to Kilisha to track down the escaped furniture and to learn the spell that can restore the pieces of Ithanalin from the pieces of furniture to his inanimate body. Her job is made more complicated because the more senior wizards in the town are unable to help her, as they are concerned with a political crisis: a revolt in another town that may spread.

The story is quite fun, a fast and always enjoyable read, with plenty of clever sequences arising from the central situation and the use of limited wizardly magic (such as Kilisha's way of using a love spell to lure back an escaped rug). Also noteworthy is the basic decency and commonsense of the various characters in the book. This is, I think,a particular characteristic of most of Watt-Evans's work -- his characters are pretty normal people, for the most part, and basically act like decent ordinary people we know, with to be sure the occasional foible. To take just one example from this book, we are introduced to the city's overlord, after a scene setting him up to be a lazy fop (semi-evil overlord model 3B, or something). It turns out, though, that he's basically a nice guy, who maybe gets a bit tired of long meetings. I do like this aspect of LWE's stories -- which is present in most of them, though you do get some slightly more extreme characters in for example the Dragon books.

Editorial Review:

When Magic Goes Awry . . .
What is an aspiring apprentice wizard to do when she finds her mentor and master frozen in his tracks by mysterious magics?

Kilisha of Eastgate, a promising young student of wizardry in the city of Ethshar of the Rocks, still has much to learn before she can assume the robes of a journeyman enchanter. But when her teacher, the venerable Ithanalin the Wise, is overcome by a peculiar spell that scatters his soul amongst a collection of runaway household furnishings, it is up to Kilisha to find the cause and restore him to his former self. Adventure and mayhem abound.

Night of Madness (Ethshar)

Lawrence Watt-Evans

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Well written, fun, with charming characters 4 out of 5 stars.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Lord Hanner is a minor functionary until the night of madness. Suddenly, a new branch of magic attaches itself to thousands of citizens--including Hanner and his powerful uncle. Caught up in the joy and power of their new magic, many warlocks loot stores, create havoc, or use their power to exact revenge for past wrongs. The ordinary people, lords, and existing orders of magic are all threatened--and in turn threaten the warlocks.

Hanner gathers a small group of warlocks and tries to find a way out of the mess. He certainly doesn't want to accept exile or execution, but neither does he believe that the warlocks can or should use their power to control the government. The old rules of separation are still valid, but will the older magicians accept the new warlocks or will magic battle magic.

Watt-Evans has written a fascinating novel. Hanner, in particular, is an intriguing and likable character. His tendency toward pudgyness and his problems with the opposite sex make him more sympathetic and Watt-Evans builds on this nicely.

About the only flaw I could find in this book was in its characters' strange reluctance to pursue the question of what caused the outbreak of the warlock magic visitation and what caused so many warlocks to fly away from everything they knew into the mysterious north. I can't imagine characters such as Watt-Evans described not wanting to find the answers to these questions, yet they didn't--or at least they didn't try very hard.

With this one quibble aside, NIGHT OF MADNESS was an enjoyable romp of a novel--funny, but with enough social heft to give the reader something to think about.

Editorial Review:

Warlockry has been rare in Ethshar . . . until The Night of Madness, when a mysterious object falls from the heavens, sending out a wave of magic in the form of a dream. All who have the dream awaken in panic. But some of them also awaken to the power or Warlockry.

Throughout the land these newly made warlocks wreak havoc; looting and rioting, petty personal revenge, and uncontrollable madness run rampant. Worse, people are hearing a mysterious, irresistible call from which they never return.

Into this chaos steps the power-hungry Lord Faran, who seeks to use his new warlock powers to overthrow the government and take possession of the throne.

Who will dare to oppose him?

The Misenchanted Sword: A Legend of Ethshar (Legends of Ethshar)

Lawrence Watt-Evans

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 37 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

One of the best fantasy books nobody's read. 5 out of 5 stars.
18 of 19 people found this review helpful.

This little gem is the sort of book that you pick up at the used bookstore with twenty other paperbacks, not expecting much, and then end up treasuring for years.

Much modern fantasy relies on rather generic plot arcs and characterization that substitutes brutality for realism. Lawrence Watt-Evans falls into neither of those traps. The book starts with an apparently rather generic plot -- Joe Average soldier gets trapped behind enemy lines, meets friendly wizard, wizard makes him a magic sword then disappears, turns out sword isn't as beneficial as it first appears, etc.

But the interesting thing about this book is that the decency and common sense of the lead character manage to take the story in a very different direction from where such stories typically go. Rather than a generic plot-driven hero-quest fantasy, this book turns, in a very pleasant surprise, into a very enjoyable character-driven tale, and what's even better, one where all the main characters are likeable and act sensibly.

Far too much modern fantasy seems to be written by authors who think that "realism" means nothing more than an extra helping of cynicism, and 'characterization" means making sure all your characters are either brutal, stupid, or naieve. It's wonderfully refreshing to read fantasy where the lead character is just a sensible, reasonably intelligent man trying to lead his own life as pleasantly as possible with a minimum of fuss -- an ambition I'm sure we can all share.

Editorial Review:

The old wizard wasn't exactly happy with Valder, who'd led his enemy to his hut. Now hut and magical supplies were destroyed. But he'd promised the young scout a magic sword to get him safely back to his own lines -- and a much enchanted sword Valder would get!
The resulting sword gave perfect protection -- sometimes! It could kill any man -- or even half demon. In fact, once drawn, it had to kill before it could be put down or sheathed.
Army wizards told Valder that the sword would keep him alive until he'd drawn it 100 times; then it would kill him! It wouldn't prevent his being wounded, maimed or cut to pieces, but it wouldn't let him die. If his new job as Chief Assassin for the army didn't make him use up the spell, he'd be practically immortal.
Not bad, it seemed. There had to be a catch somewhere.
There was -- and it was a lulu!

The Spriggan Mirror (Ethshar)

Lawrence Watt-Evans

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Somthing Lacking -- not bad just . . . not good either 2 out of 5 stars.
3 of 6 people found this review helpful.

This novel tells of a storekeeper who sells magical reagents -- mundane items used by wizards -- who is hired to find a magical mirror that is causing immense problems by spitting out indistructable creatures. The characters are cute, and the plot straight forward. Altogether, though, I was simply borred. Watt-Evans is an experienced author, but his latest few novels seem to lack passion.

Editorial Review:

Limited to only 500 copies, this is the hardcover edition of the new Ethshar novel from Hugo Award-winning author Lawrence Watt-Evans!

Every wizard in Ethshare knew that if you needed something special, something difficult to find, that Gresh the Supplier was the man to see. He was expensive, but always delivered. So when the Wizards' Guild finally got fed up with the little green nuisances that called themselves "spriggans," the Guild hired Gresh to fetch them the magic mirror that had created the troublesome imps in the first place. The wizards thought finding it looked impossible. Gresh thought his methods would do the job.

But no one had asked the spriggans what they thought!

Dragon Venom (Obsidian Chronicles)

Lawrence Watt-Evans

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

After many years of peace in the Lands of Men, there came Dragon Weather: a wave of incredible heat, oppressive humidity, dark angry clouds . . . and dragons. Dragons with no remorse, no sympathy, no use for humans; dragons who destroyed an entire village and everyone in it. Everyone, that is, except the young boy Arlian. Orphaned and alone, Arlian was captured by looters and sold as a mining slave. He finally escaped, fueled by years of hatred and a personal vow to bring justice to all who had wronged him.

After killing those who enslaved him, Arlian sought out The Dragon Society, whose sworn purpose was to stand against the dragon menace. It was there, among his peers, that Arlian discovered he is humanity's best hope for defeating the dragons . . . permanently.

Now, Arlian seeks his final vengeance: death to all of dragonkind. But as he begins to destroy the evil beasts, wild magic seeps into the Lands of Men, sowing chaos and destruction in its wake. Will Arlian's all-consuming quest for justice consume humanity as well? The answer may lie within his ancient foe's most lethal weapon: Dragon Venom

The Unwilling Warlord (Cosmos)

Lawrence Watts-Evans

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A STAR RISES IN THE SOUTH
When the foreigners confronted Sterren in Ethshar of the Spices he was uneasy; when they all but abducted him, taking him to an obscure kingdom in the south, he knew he was in a terrible predicament.


A predicament some might actually find appealing -- he was by heredity the Ninth Warlord of Semma, least of the small kingdoms; he was a noble, and his rank afforded him material privileges, even in a place as insignificant and obscure as Semma.


But the office also carried certain terrible responsibilities: he was to win the war the stupid King had stirred up by his arrogance. Two larger and stronger Kingdoms were preparing to invade Semma.


And if the country lost, the first thing likely to be forfeit was the life of the Warlord.


And if it won . . . if it won, the fate and shape of Ethshar would change forever.


For deep in the south there are secrets of magic not even Sterren can imagine.


A LEGEND OF ETHSHAR

The Dragon Society (Obsidian Chronicles)

Lawrence Watt-Evans

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Outstanding work 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I'm the first person to admit I'm a mark for LWE's work, but this series is outstanding. LWE is certainly not the most eloquent writer, but he doesn't have to be because he ALWAYS has a great story to tell, and this one is no different.

The dialogue is fantastic, and the reader is generally left with a sense of impression and understanding about the characters. Each character in Dragon Weather and Dragon Society has a unique role to play for our "hero", and throughout the course of the book, LWE continually provides you with snippets as to each character's motivation. Good stuff from a highly underrated writer.

Editorial Review:

One Man Must Stand Against the Dragon Menace!

It all began with Dragon Weather: a wave of incredible heat, oppressive humidity, dark angry clouds . . . and dragons. Dragons with no remorse, no sympathy, no use for humans; dragons who destroyed an entire village and everyone in it. Everyone, that is, except the young boy, Arlian.

Orphaned and alone, Arlian was captured by looters and sold as a mining slave. Years later he escaped, fueled by years of hatred for the dragons, bandits, and slavers that took away his youth—and a personal vow to exact retribution from those who have wronged him.
Arlian seeks out The Dragon Society, whose sworn purpose is to stand against the dragon menace. What he learns there is shocking: that he may well be the best hope humanity will ever have for defeating the dragons . . . permanently.