Cav's Place

Note: This is one of the books I took with me when I got thrown back to Bucharest, over 11 and a half years ago. A few months later, after learning that Andra returned to England, this time for good, I just stopped reading, and since I don’t reread books, those left became something of a small collection of connections to that period, not to be “used” by reading for as long as possible. Did read a few since, I remember three and there’s a chance that one or two more may be slipping my mind, but those were picked from those not registered on BookCrossing and I don’t think any of those I may be forgetting came after the last one of them that I marked as read, in 2011. So, after Magician: Apprentice was the first, this is the second one “used up” in such a manner in several years, and also the second one that’s also registered on Bookcrossing since way back then, which is also why the rating is out of ten instead of out of five.
I’ve been considering giving in when it comes to these for quite some time, even bought Silverthorn and A Darkness at Sethanon back in 2014, to have this whole part of the cycle, but managed to keep holding off until now. But as more time passes, everything crumbles more and more, so here I am. Definitely not making it available on BookCrossing though.

Oddly, seeing as the two are actually a single book which was split for this extended edition, Magician: Master is noticeably better than Magician: Apprentice. The first few chapters are more or less the same, “immature” remaining perhaps the most accurate way to describe pretty much every aspect, but chapter four suddenly takes everything to a different, higher level. While reading it, it struck me as something which must have been written by an entirely different person, and a much more skilled one at that.
After that it goes up and down and dedicating more than two chapters to the aftermath makes for a rather anticlimactic finale, but there are a fair number of good sections in between and, on average, it remains a clear improvement. The genre even switches from heroic to epic fantasy, though the story remains focused on a few characters and some small areas, a short scene towards the end underlining just how small. The action is still terribly rushed, a whole lot is still skipped and details are still lacking, harming depth, immersion and character development, but somewhat more attention seems to be paid to the parts taking place in Kelewan and the overall impression is of one book that had everything not essential to the story itself cut out of it, while I was saying that Magician: Apprentice at times seemed more like a collection of connected short stories. A few bits of wisdom may even be said to have been thrown in as well.

Kept thinking of Betrayal at Krondor while reading this. In spite of technical limitations, made more notable by the fact that I played it several years after release, I definitely remember how well it managed to generate the feeling of immersion, and that I described it as “playing a book” when mentioning it to someone a decade or more later. Now I wonder how my impression of that outstanding game would have changed if I’d have played it after reading some of the relevant books… And if it’s not a case of a game being better than the books…

Rating: 8/10