Read for Fun: The Book of Wizardry

This is a book I bought a long time ago at a bookstore on a whim. I started reading it soon after but I stopped for reasons that I will explain in the review itself. I finished reading it last month or so. Yes, this book's review is much delayed in coming. It is not a novel so I can't use my usual criteria. Instead, I'll just write my impression in a couple paragraphs.

This book is basically arts and crafts + choose your own adventure with a frame narrative to pull everything together. An elder wizard, Cornelius Rumstuckle, has been chosen by the Wizard's Guild to teach anyone who picks up the book how to use magic. The bulk of the bulk is written as lessons for the trainee/reader and the last bit is the "Wizard's Journey" which serves as a test for the trainee/reader.

 

It is written so that it sounds as though the elder wizard is talking to the reader instead of sounding like a schoolbook, such as Cornelius anticipating questions and responses. Of course, this is a work of fiction so that's not actually happening but it is remarkable how it keeps up the act. After making the four magic tools, for instance, he says that the trainee/reader is not going to be taught how to use them for anything until they have "joined the guild", that is, finished the book.
It is the magic tools that made me pause reading the book for a while. One of them is making a fan from bird feathers and they have to be found on the ground (gifts from the birds, as Cornelius puts it). Not only is that time consuming (and possibly unhealthy via disease) but it can be difficult in some areas. Combine this with how the trainee/reader is not supposed to read lessons out of order, and you have a recipe for someone putting the book away and forgetting about it.

There's also the "magic" of astrology, where a wizard can look up connections between activities and constellations and/or planets and do a little ritual which supposedly helps in mundane tasks, like finding a rare music CD. Yeah, the magic is doing things the non-magical way with invisible and unnoticeable back up.  At least there's still the "you'll be taught the big stuff later" thing as with the magic tools.

However, at some points, the author doesn't try. Like the magic method of memory, which is the Memory Palace method started up by an ancient Greek who the author says was never magical.

The "Wizard's Journey" at the end is a choose-your-own-adventure thing. Out of all the lessons from earlier in the book, only the astrology stuff is really necessary. I find it annoying because of the numerous fake outs. The ending, where the trainee/reader finds the entrance to the Wizard's Guild tells the trainee to send a letter to the publisher saying as much. I haven't done that because this is an old book so whoever was responsible for responding is probably not doing it anymore.

Bottom line is that this is a fun read. It is certainly better at the "I want to be a wizard" wish-fulfillment angle than any novel due to its frame narrative.

Trickster Eric Novels gives "Book of Wizardry" a B

Click here for the next book review (for fun): World of the Shining Prince

Click here for the previous book review (request): Gothon's Campaign

Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).