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This review was originally written on October 11th, 2019.
I give this charming tale of kids with magical powers...a 72/100.
Chris Colfer is a name that's popped up a lot in the entertainment business. Some of you may know him as the actor who played Kurt Hummel in the TV show Glee. Others may know him for his bestselling book series for children, The Land of Stories. He's made a pretty big name for himself in the past decade, and is still going strong from what I hear. But I've neither seen Glee nor read his Land of Stories book series, but his most recent book, A Tale of Magic, did catch my eye in my local Barnes and Noble. I was hesitant to read it, since other fantasy books I've read, such as Marabel and the Book of Fate turned out to be huge disappointments. Thankfully, A Tale of Magic is marginally better than Marabel, but it's unfortunately hampered with a lot of problems that hold it back from being truly good.
In case you're wondering, you don't need to know anything about The Land of Stories in order to understand what's going on in the book. From what I've heard, this is a prequel to Land of Stories, and it serves as a standalone, so no worries on that front. Anyway, the story begins as a fairy, Madame Celeste Weatherberry, is trying to start up a special school to train children who can use magic in an attempt to fight against the kingdom-enforced idea that magic is a sin, and anyone who has it is either evil or should be killed. When she gets permission from the king of the Southern Kingdom, she manages to recruit three new students: Brystal Evergreen, a book-loving girl whose affluent family refuses to let her pursue anything other than aspirations of motherhood and marriage; Xanthous, a timid boy who can set himself and anything else on fire at will, and Emerelda Stone, a girl who can turn things into gemstones. The kids spend their days at the academy learning how to manifest and control their powers and slowly bonding with one another. But when Madame Weatherberry begins disappearing, Brystal suspects something is going on, and when she and the kids learn the truth, its up to them to save their teacher by any means necessary, even though the world they live in isn't kind to people like them.
I really want to like this book more than I do. It has so much that I like in it, and I do want to gush about it, but I wouldn't be a good reviewer if all I did was just that. I'll get the negatives out of the way first and then get to the positive stuff afterward. One of the book's rather prominent problems is this: It's preachy as hell! Now, it's not as heavy-handed as, say, The Littlest Bigfoot or Elsie Dinsmore, but the book really lays on its morals thick, constantly hammering them into our heads without the least bit of subtlety. Its morals overall are rather basic ones such as "Don't oppress women," "Accept those who are different and don't reject them," "Reading is great," "Solve your problems head on," so on and so forth. They're good morals, and I appreciate the author's attempts at trying to weave them into a fantasy setting, but I feel the execution of them fell flat on its face because Colfer seems to think hammering them in your head over and over is the best way to convey them. Colfer, trust your audience. Let the story speak for itself. Kids are actually much smarter and more intuitive than people give them credit for.
Thankfully, unlike the two above books I mentioned, the heavy-handedness is mitigated somewhat by the likeable main cast of characters. Good characters can either make or break a story, and if the author doesn't care about them and their plight, then why should the audience? I thought the main characters, while on the cliche side, were fun, engaging, and had a great dynamic going on. Brystal is a budding intellectual who feels oppressed by her heavily patriarchal society, and she continually puts herself at risk in order to pursue her dreams, even getting in huge trouble, but she always perseveres and tries to make the best of things. She's a realistic, flawed main character who always means well, does make mistakes like any kid would, and does her best. Her friends are just as engaging, and I personally liked Xanthous. He's a shy kid who feels all he does is hurt people, even having killed some without meaning to, and he really blossoms once he comes to the academy. Madame Weatherberry and her apprentices Tangerina and Skylene were fun as well, and I really liked the former's character development near the end, even if it wound up ending in tragedy. While a little on the cliche side, I think Colfer has a good grasp on his main cast, and I loved reading about this eclectic group.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the side characters, namely Brystal's family and the group of witches that terrorize the northern continent. They were all just so...shallow, and by that I mean they only seem to exist just to either do stuff to advance the plot and nothing else. The witches were just there to be obstacles for the kids to overcome and didn't do much after that, and the ogres and orcs in the In-Between area were just stereotypically evil for the sake of being evil. Brystal's father is especially hit hard with this, as all he ever does is scream at Brystal over everything and be a complete dick (Still got nothing on Horace Dinsmore Jr, though!), and even her brothers never appear again once Brystal's trial ends. Her brothers and mother were the only ones I actually liked, and I wish Colfer had done more with them. Eh, A Tale of Magic does have another book coming out next year, as it's going to be a series similar to Land of Stories, so who knows? Maybe that'll be rectified in due time.
But I will say one final thing in the book's favor though: The prose and the overall writing. Colfer's descriptions and imagery are all very well done, and the writing has great flow. No scene is either too long or too short, and the story moves at a fairly steady pace. The prose is still accessible enough for children to read, but not to the point of being too beige or too overly purple. He strikes a good balance with his writing, something few writers can boast, even some of my favorite ones. It helps that the kids' dialogue is fairly realistic, and I didn't find a single line that sounded too silly or artificial, something many writers tend to struggle with a lot, even experienced ones. I hate to rate this book so low, as it does have a lot of elements that I really like, but it did turn out better than a lot of other fantasy stories I've read recently, so I'll probably read it multiple times if I ever want a light, fantastical read.
If your a fan of fantasy stories aimed at kids, but don't want to read anything too thought provoking or complicated, feel free to give A Tale of Magic a try.
I give this charming tale of kids with magical powers...a 72/100.
Chris Colfer is a name that's popped up a lot in the entertainment business. Some of you may know him as the actor who played Kurt Hummel in the TV show Glee. Others may know him for his bestselling book series for children, The Land of Stories. He's made a pretty big name for himself in the past decade, and is still going strong from what I hear. But I've neither seen Glee nor read his Land of Stories book series, but his most recent book, A Tale of Magic, did catch my eye in my local Barnes and Noble. I was hesitant to read it, since other fantasy books I've read, such as Marabel and the Book of Fate turned out to be huge disappointments. Thankfully, A Tale of Magic is marginally better than Marabel, but it's unfortunately hampered with a lot of problems that hold it back from being truly good.
In case you're wondering, you don't need to know anything about The Land of Stories in order to understand what's going on in the book. From what I've heard, this is a prequel to Land of Stories, and it serves as a standalone, so no worries on that front. Anyway, the story begins as a fairy, Madame Celeste Weatherberry, is trying to start up a special school to train children who can use magic in an attempt to fight against the kingdom-enforced idea that magic is a sin, and anyone who has it is either evil or should be killed. When she gets permission from the king of the Southern Kingdom, she manages to recruit three new students: Brystal Evergreen, a book-loving girl whose affluent family refuses to let her pursue anything other than aspirations of motherhood and marriage; Xanthous, a timid boy who can set himself and anything else on fire at will, and Emerelda Stone, a girl who can turn things into gemstones. The kids spend their days at the academy learning how to manifest and control their powers and slowly bonding with one another. But when Madame Weatherberry begins disappearing, Brystal suspects something is going on, and when she and the kids learn the truth, its up to them to save their teacher by any means necessary, even though the world they live in isn't kind to people like them.
I really want to like this book more than I do. It has so much that I like in it, and I do want to gush about it, but I wouldn't be a good reviewer if all I did was just that. I'll get the negatives out of the way first and then get to the positive stuff afterward. One of the book's rather prominent problems is this: It's preachy as hell! Now, it's not as heavy-handed as, say, The Littlest Bigfoot or Elsie Dinsmore, but the book really lays on its morals thick, constantly hammering them into our heads without the least bit of subtlety. Its morals overall are rather basic ones such as "Don't oppress women," "Accept those who are different and don't reject them," "Reading is great," "Solve your problems head on," so on and so forth. They're good morals, and I appreciate the author's attempts at trying to weave them into a fantasy setting, but I feel the execution of them fell flat on its face because Colfer seems to think hammering them in your head over and over is the best way to convey them. Colfer, trust your audience. Let the story speak for itself. Kids are actually much smarter and more intuitive than people give them credit for.
Thankfully, unlike the two above books I mentioned, the heavy-handedness is mitigated somewhat by the likeable main cast of characters. Good characters can either make or break a story, and if the author doesn't care about them and their plight, then why should the audience? I thought the main characters, while on the cliche side, were fun, engaging, and had a great dynamic going on. Brystal is a budding intellectual who feels oppressed by her heavily patriarchal society, and she continually puts herself at risk in order to pursue her dreams, even getting in huge trouble, but she always perseveres and tries to make the best of things. She's a realistic, flawed main character who always means well, does make mistakes like any kid would, and does her best. Her friends are just as engaging, and I personally liked Xanthous. He's a shy kid who feels all he does is hurt people, even having killed some without meaning to, and he really blossoms once he comes to the academy. Madame Weatherberry and her apprentices Tangerina and Skylene were fun as well, and I really liked the former's character development near the end, even if it wound up ending in tragedy. While a little on the cliche side, I think Colfer has a good grasp on his main cast, and I loved reading about this eclectic group.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the side characters, namely Brystal's family and the group of witches that terrorize the northern continent. They were all just so...shallow, and by that I mean they only seem to exist just to either do stuff to advance the plot and nothing else. The witches were just there to be obstacles for the kids to overcome and didn't do much after that, and the ogres and orcs in the In-Between area were just stereotypically evil for the sake of being evil. Brystal's father is especially hit hard with this, as all he ever does is scream at Brystal over everything and be a complete dick (Still got nothing on Horace Dinsmore Jr, though!), and even her brothers never appear again once Brystal's trial ends. Her brothers and mother were the only ones I actually liked, and I wish Colfer had done more with them. Eh, A Tale of Magic does have another book coming out next year, as it's going to be a series similar to Land of Stories, so who knows? Maybe that'll be rectified in due time.
But I will say one final thing in the book's favor though: The prose and the overall writing. Colfer's descriptions and imagery are all very well done, and the writing has great flow. No scene is either too long or too short, and the story moves at a fairly steady pace. The prose is still accessible enough for children to read, but not to the point of being too beige or too overly purple. He strikes a good balance with his writing, something few writers can boast, even some of my favorite ones. It helps that the kids' dialogue is fairly realistic, and I didn't find a single line that sounded too silly or artificial, something many writers tend to struggle with a lot, even experienced ones. I hate to rate this book so low, as it does have a lot of elements that I really like, but it did turn out better than a lot of other fantasy stories I've read recently, so I'll probably read it multiple times if I ever want a light, fantastical read.
If your a fan of fantasy stories aimed at kids, but don't want to read anything too thought provoking or complicated, feel free to give A Tale of Magic a try.
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