Lawrence Watt-Evans
Night of Madness
Tor 2002
ISBN 0-812-57794-9
Monika says:
Ethshar has strict laws on who is allowed to do magic and who isn't.
The ruling class usually isn't allowed to. Besides, there are different
kinds of magic – anyone who has magical abilities may only do a certain
kind of magic, the Guild of Wizards seeing to this law being respected.
The different kinds of magic exclude each other and you'd better stick to
it because the guild doesn't shrink from drastic punishments. One night a
mysterious object falls from the sky, causing many people to wake from
nightmares and find out later that they can now levitate objects and fly.
Some of them are so disturbed that they roam the streets plundering;
others follow a mysterious calling and are never seen again. Lord Faran
and his nephew Hanner are among those who find that they have been turned
into warlocks during the night of madness as it is called later. Hanner
would like to re-establish order in the country, but he hasn't expected
some opponents of the current regime trying to take advantage of the
situation to overthrow the Overlord or the determination of the Guild of
Wizards who fears for its supremacy.
Lawrence Watt-Evans' Ethshar novels aren't a long-winded epos typical
for many contemporary fantasy writers, but a series of books set in the
same universe. They can all be read as stand-alones and in no particular
order. Ethshar is name of three cities forming an empire.
Night of Madness is the first Ethshar novel I read, but it is not
the first in the series. Even though the story didn't thrill me to the
point of not being able to put the book down, it was entertaining and a
good introduction to the world of Ethshar.
The slightly plump and not overly self-confident Hanner was a
sympathetic enough protagonist, some kind of "anti-hero" whose
development was interesting to watch. He tries to sort out the chaos
arising from the night of madness without violence if possible, in an
attempt to save his own life, too, because he is now a warlock himself.
What I find most interesting about Ethshar is the way the different kinds
of magic work, because your social position also depends on what kind of
magic you practice, not all of them being respected in the same way.
Another interesting aspect is the fact that those who rule the empire are
strictly forbidden to do magic, political power and magical skill
excluding each other in the three Ethshars. Lawrence Watt-Evans has
created a complex, original world getting by without the "usual"
ingredients of tolkienesque fantasy. I'll look for more books by this
author soon. |
Any comments? Write us:
Monika
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