Book Review: A Wizard In the Way

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

A Wizard In the Way     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Christopher Stasheff
Class/Genre:   Fantasy
Series: Rogue Wizard # 8
Tor, Sep 2000, $22.95, 224 pp.

THE WARLOCK IN SPITE OF HIMSELF is one of SCENT’s more powerful agents. Rod Galloglass is dedicated to finding the lost colonies and bringing democracy to them. He is permanently assigned to the planet Gramarye, a medieval type of place with potent psychics. Rod’s oldest son Magus is one of the most powerful psychics in the universe.

Although he no longer works for SCENT, he and his companion Alea and their ship Herkimer roam the galaxy trying to save people from tyrants. Herkimer picks up television signals from a lost planet of Old Earth. Magnus AKA Gar Pike and Alea learns the cities have deteriorated and a nasty feudal society exists. Most of the residents are mistreated serfs while the overlords are magicians who control the local ghosts (energy forces that acquire the memory of the dead) used to frighten the peasants. Gar and Alea with the help of some intrepid locals begins a revolution that brings the planet one step closer to democracy.

Christopher Stasheff has provided his fans with many pleasant novels that center on the exploits of Rod and his kin. The latest tale, A WIZARD IN THE WAY, is another entertaining combination of science fiction and fantasy in a universe where the mundane, magical, and technological live side by side. Anyone who relishes an action adventure tale set on a distant planet in a far away galaxy will want to read this book and its predecessors.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner