Spellwright

Blake Charlton

Nicodemus Weal is both blessed and cursed. Once thought to be the saviour of humanity, his ability with spells is actually warped so that he misspells everything creating chaos. This sound bad enough, but add re-emerging golems and a couple of murders and you have a real recipe for disaster.

The idea of this book came from the author’s own dyslexia which I think adds a lovely depth and essential detail to the novel. Personal experience can be such a weath to mine and produce something wonderful. In this case, it is an extremely complicated and novel system of word forging. As the novel progresses, the reader is introduced to more of the complex spellwriting languages.

The introductory chapter of this book was unnecessarily wordy, even if it did explain well the system of magic operating in this world. The magic system was what redeemed this book for me, and I only wish there had been a better way of explaining how it worked, and I also would have liked some more information about the other languages.

Nicodemus and Shannon are really flat, transperant characters. Nicodemus was sure he was the chosen one, even when he wasn’t obviously one. Even with the million hints pointing to him being something else, he wasn’t able to realise that! Plus he should have kept a better grip on that damn emerald. As if you wouldn’t sew it into your skin so you didn’t lose it again. I actually liked Shannon, and although he wasn’t fleshed out, I still empathised with him, and felt sorry for him.

The twist with the Druid wasn’t lead up to properly, and I didn’t understand her stupid fits at all! Nicodemus was far too trusting, and noone seemed able to make the obvious connections that were there. The rest of the time the Druid didn’t make sense, and her place in the Arc’s protection was not obvious. The reader wasn’t even able to make the same connections as Nicodemus about her magic abilities, because they weren’t given enough information.

The perspective changes in this novel could have been used more, but they did work for me. I just wished I had had more information on the motives of all parties, rather than the focus on Nicodemus (although he was the main character, the other characters were equally important I think).

I’d say that this book was suitable for both teens and adults in terms of content, although the style of writing is certainly for adults. It wasn’t a bad book, just not an outstanding one because I didn’t connect with the main character. There is another book in this series (it is a triology) and although I enjoyed this book (mainly due to the magic system, not the characters), the sequel is not on my ever-growing to-read-soon list.