Althea M. (althea) reviewed on 9/16/2008 + 774 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

Another big long book, and the start of one of those giant epic fantasy sagas.
However, again, I'm not going to go get the sequels.
I like fantasy because it has such potential to expand our concepts of what human society can be, in different and unusual, often dramatic situations.
One can tell, reading this book, that the author is conservative, christian, and non-feminist. This only occasionally intrudes jarringly into the story, but there's absolutely nothing in here that would stretch the comfort zone of the most typical inhabitant of stereotypical middle-America.
The main character is a bored young man who lives in a utopian society of peace and plenty (where women know their place). But he's bored.
His family sends him to a center where the various disaffected (the bored, criminals, feminists) are trained and then sent out of the lovely, ordered kingdom of Recluce to make their way in the dangerous wide world, only possibly to ever return.
Our protagonist goes questing and along the way discovers he has the potential to be a super-powerful wizard. MORE TO COME.... in the sequels, of course.

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