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Wizard in Rhyme #2
The Oathbound Wizard
Matt Mantrell 20s is Lord High Wizard in world where poems are spells, and oaths unbreakable. After 3 years wait to marry love Queen Alisande, he angrily swears to take Ibile from evil Gordorgrosso. New pals - surly dracogriff Narlh, courtly cyclops Fadecourt, damsel Yverne, well-wist spirits, wee Puck, Robin Hood - join old - Sir Guy, dragon Stegoman, demon Max.
398 pages, Paperback
First published February 10, 1993
60 people are currently reading
472 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Stasheff
105 books300 followersThe late Christopher Stasheff was an American science fiction and fantasy author. When teaching proved too real, he gave it up in favor of writing full-time. Stasheff was noted for his blending of science fiction and fantasy, as seen in his Warlock series. He spent his early childhood in Mount Vernon, New York, but spent the rest of his formative years in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Stasheff taught at the University of Eastern New Mexico in Portales, before retiring to Champaign, Illinois, in 2009. He had a wife and four children.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
May 18, 2020
Matt is frustrated at Alisande's refusal to set a wedding date. When he finds out she's reluctant to marry him because he's not royal, he flies into a rage and swears an oath to God that he'll go win a kingdom and throne. And is promptly taken up on the offer, not by Alisande but by heaven. He tries to say "oops, didn't mean it" but decides he really did. So he's in the evil kingdom of Ibile and picking up friends as he goes. He frees a dracogriff from a sorcerer's trap, helps out a cyclops, saves a maiden from pursuit when she is fleeing from a castle under seige and runs into some old friends. And learns a lot about faith and watching his temper and his mouth......
December 28, 2019
Средненькое такое фэнтези с плохими стишками, призванными изображать заклинания. Раздражает ещё манера автора выставлять женщин, будь они отважные героини или даже королевы, совершенно несамостоятельными существами.
December 20, 2020
Nostalgia had me borrowing this one from the library after rereading the first one and... oof. I have almost no memory of this book, because I'd blocked it out apparently. Probably in part because of the awful Abbot and Costello-esque banter between Matt and Narlh (the half dragon/half gryphon that apparently Del Ray convinced Stasheff to add to the book.)
The other reason I likely blocked this book from my memory was the characterization of Matt. It's supposed to be three years since the end of the first book, and in that time Matt hasn't learned anything about keeping his temper in check or watching what he says. He hasn't figured out more about how magic works. He has somehow become a worse person than he seemed to be in the first book, not helping people clearly in need of help for no clear reason at all, unlike how he acted in the first book. (He wasn't fitting into the amoral skeptic cliche well enough I suppose, by leaping to their rescue without some external motivation.)
The other reason I likely blocked this book from my memory was the characterization of Matt. It's supposed to be three years since the end of the first book, and in that time Matt hasn't learned anything about keeping his temper in check or watching what he says. He hasn't figured out more about how magic works. He has somehow become a worse person than he seemed to be in the first book, not helping people clearly in need of help for no clear reason at all, unlike how he acted in the first book. (He wasn't fitting into the amoral skeptic cliche well enough I suppose, by leaping to their rescue without some external motivation.)
September 21, 2025
There’s enough insane stuff going on in this book to keep the story going but it’s not as good as the first one. It’s definitely taken a more comedic route which sometimes doesn’t work. Robin Hood randomly showing up makes up for it.
February 26, 2014
Forgotten pun-fun from quick minds. Original friends and foes - live flying stone gargoyles with metal teeth.
Matt Mantrell 20s, Lord High Wizard, angry at love Queen Alisande over waiting three years to set wedding date, vows to "kick that Ibilian monster-monarch off his throne or die trying" p 4, in this world where words have power.
Spells can surprise when he improvises, bumbling experiments with memorized literature passages, popular songs, even ad jingles, where lesser traditionalists rely on research of previous incantations. In Ibile, wands focus and direct to one target, skip boring quasi-science of sound p 138+. Rhymes do not need to be spoken, as long as thoughts in rhyme, end with command "imperative .. just because everyone knew it, didn't always mean it was true" p 10. In ripoffs, not always clear to me. May be more fun for reader who recognizes original - usually I skip spells.
Typos/inconsistencies? Gordogrosso is the one who should not be named aloud, cannot even be spelled, forsooth, but he does off and on, without rebuke or result. Matt suspects knight to "renege on all his promises as soon as he was out of sight .. But they could still hear him, chanting a Latin hymn, in a loud, off-key baritone" p 148.
Again Aesop's thorn in lion claw fable turns foe to friend. Dracogriff Narlh is crossbreed "And getting crosser" p 39. Cyclops Fadecourt has courtly speech. . Yverne is "riveting" p 106 damsel in distress.
Don de la Luce, alone but for well-wist spirits, defends island castle. How can Matt doubt reality of his beautifully forever young princess Sinelle of Ys (eess)? Poseidon keeps Atlantis-type underwater city residents young. Ghost brings them to old pals, beseiged, "run out of burial room" and food p 235, (from #1) Sir Guy, dragon Stegoman, entropy demon Max.
Matt loses others' respect cursing twig "Damn that stick!" p 128. Does he never learn? Like #1 converses with Saints, and angels. "Shoemaker stick to thy first" p 220, may be pun on shoe "last", foot model for cobbler, but goes over my head.
Why does Matt keep punching and swinging when he is the only one who can magic? Why not prepare zingers, knock-down repeatable winners? Do modern critics subjectively judge one poet better? Why does he leave villain unconfined, free to continue harm?
Navigating final tunnel to enemy is like Dungeons & Dragons game with traps and monsters, without rewards and treasures.
Matt Mantrell 20s, Lord High Wizard, angry at love Queen Alisande over waiting three years to set wedding date, vows to "kick that Ibilian monster-monarch off his throne or die trying" p 4, in this world where words have power.
Spells can surprise when he improvises, bumbling experiments with memorized literature passages, popular songs, even ad jingles, where lesser traditionalists rely on research of previous incantations. In Ibile, wands focus and direct to one target, skip boring quasi-science of sound p 138+. Rhymes do not need to be spoken, as long as thoughts in rhyme, end with command "imperative .. just because everyone knew it, didn't always mean it was true" p 10. In ripoffs, not always clear to me. May be more fun for reader who recognizes original - usually I skip spells.
Typos/inconsistencies? Gordogrosso is the one who should not be named aloud, cannot even be spelled, forsooth, but he does off and on, without rebuke or result. Matt suspects knight to "renege on all his promises as soon as he was out of sight .. But they could still hear him, chanting a Latin hymn, in a loud, off-key baritone" p 148.
Again Aesop's thorn in lion claw fable turns foe to friend. Dracogriff Narlh is crossbreed "And getting crosser" p 39. Cyclops Fadecourt has courtly speech. . Yverne is "riveting" p 106 damsel in distress.
Don de la Luce, alone but for well-wist spirits, defends island castle. How can Matt doubt reality of his beautifully forever young princess Sinelle of Ys (eess)? Poseidon keeps Atlantis-type underwater city residents young. Ghost brings them to old pals, beseiged, "run out of burial room" and food p 235, (from #1) Sir Guy, dragon Stegoman, entropy demon Max.
Matt loses others' respect cursing twig "Damn that stick!" p 128. Does he never learn? Like #1 converses with Saints, and angels. "Shoemaker stick to thy first" p 220, may be pun on shoe "last", foot model for cobbler, but goes over my head.
Why does Matt keep punching and swinging when he is the only one who can magic? Why not prepare zingers, knock-down repeatable winners? Do modern critics subjectively judge one poet better? Why does he leave villain unconfined, free to continue harm?
Navigating final tunnel to enemy is like Dungeons & Dragons game with traps and monsters, without rewards and treasures.
July 18, 2013
All of a sudden, this went from, "preachy with strong Christian overtones" to "so religious that if C.S. Lewis is at about a 6, this is a 12."
I don't think I'll be continuing the series.
I don't think I'll be continuing the series.
November 4, 2022
Note: I listened to an audiobook but as that edition is not currently listed on Goodreads.com I am placing my review here.
So I barely started this book before giving up. This book starts 3 years after book 1 and, surprise, surprise, the world based on a magically empowered Catholicism has failed to change. It apparently never even occurs to the author that a MC, even a Catholic one, thurst back in time would want to make improvements like, say, a printing press.
It doesn't help that the driving force of the story of this book is a childish arguement between two supposed adults who can't just talk things out. This is followed by the MC wasting time trying to avoid the mission he is on for God, even after witnessing murder and attempted rape by the bad guys the MC is suppose to be stopping.
Basically, in book 1 the MC can get away with acting in odd ways due to a lack of familiarity with the world he has been brought to. That is no longer the case here, although the author doesn't seem to realize it.
Still I got to the MC meeting a trapped creature in the mountains and that little bit of an adventure was fun and so two stars and the possibility of returning to this book under the belief the worst of it over.
Bottom line: Bad, stupid start. Maybe it gets better?
So I barely started this book before giving up. This book starts 3 years after book 1 and, surprise, surprise, the world based on a magically empowered Catholicism has failed to change. It apparently never even occurs to the author that a MC, even a Catholic one, thurst back in time would want to make improvements like, say, a printing press.
It doesn't help that the driving force of the story of this book is a childish arguement between two supposed adults who can't just talk things out. This is followed by the MC wasting time trying to avoid the mission he is on for God, even after witnessing murder and attempted rape by the bad guys the MC is suppose to be stopping.
Basically, in book 1 the MC can get away with acting in odd ways due to a lack of familiarity with the world he has been brought to. That is no longer the case here, although the author doesn't seem to realize it.
Still I got to the MC meeting a trapped creature in the mountains and that little bit of an adventure was fun and so two stars and the possibility of returning to this book under the belief the worst of it over.
Bottom line: Bad, stupid start. Maybe it gets better?
September 3, 2018
The follow-up to Her Majesty's Wizard sees Matthew and Princess Alisande still constantly arguing, leading to his swearing to kick the evil King of Ibile (an alternate version of Spain, as Alisande's Merovence is the equivalent of France) off the throne, temporarily forgetting how seriously oaths are taken in this world. So he ends up having to do it, but he's fortunately assisted by his old friends, as well as a few new ones including a dracogriff (the offspring of a dragon and a griffin) and a cyclops. He also summons Puck and Robin Hood to help out, the latter said to have lived in many different versions of England. Stasheff ties together a few different versions of the Robin Hood legend by explaining what happened after King Richard came back to England, and how he and the Merry Men were eventually made immortal. It doesn't really explore the world where it takes place much beyond what the first one had already established, but it's a pretty good sequel.
November 4, 2021
I haven't read this in so long that I'd forgotten pretty much everything. I did start to recall why I think I set aside the series after maybe the fourth book... I was hoping that Matthew's sojourn in evil-saturated Ibile would have been the reason for his stupidity - many of the things he does (and doesn't do) are quite annoying. I suppose they are all meant to be plot forwarding (or in several cases, plod forwarding), but someone as clever as Matthew would surely have actually learned a few things having lived in the Merovence universe for three years. If this had picked up right after the first book, one could understand, but he'd been playing at Lord Wizard for those three years and some of his actions are just plain stupid. But... I enjoyed Stasheff's books long ago, and I might still enjoy them.
[I forgot to note that there are a few horrendously bad puns, of the sort that the nadir of punning in fantasy, Piers Anthony, might think twice about including in his stuff.]
[I forgot to note that there are a few horrendously bad puns, of the sort that the nadir of punning in fantasy, Piers Anthony, might think twice about including in his stuff.]
May 26, 2025
A combination of de Camp's Compleate Enchanter and Dickson's The Dragon and the George, with a lot of added philosophising about morality and plenty of Catholic dogma, it's quite fun but is somewhat ponderous. The idea of magic being done through verse (not a spoiler as it's in the subtitle of the series) is clever, and the protagonist being powerful as a result of access to Shakespeare, Tennyson etc is very nice. Though I'm not convinced that you have enough time for a four line stanza to counteract the fireballs coming towards you at short range. Things fall into place rather too neatly and obviously and there is little sense of peril to the heroes.
July 1, 2023
I have always loved Christopher Stasheff novels as his humor and satire of the human condition is always forefront of whatever story he is telling. His Wizard Series of which this is only one example and his science fiction and fantasy series along with his collaborations and short stories and even his films and scripts bring me joy and happiness and are always hilariously entertaining. Read the series or read Starship Troopers or whatever catches your fancy with his name on it and you too will have a blast reading his works.
November 9, 2024
Humor and great warmth
Christopher Stasheff wrote another book of the wizard of words, and again it tells a story of love, of courage, and of faith.
Well worth the time taken to read it.
Christopher Stasheff wrote another book of the wizard of words, and again it tells a story of love, of courage, and of faith.
Well worth the time taken to read it.
March 29, 2020
This author gives himself more time to explore and weave a story than he does in the other Warlock/Rogue/Heir series. In a way it’s jarring as if another person wrote it.
September 4, 2021
Bit too much religious stuff maybe, bit predictable maybe, but nevertheless a very good and well written read. Onto the next in the series.
January 21, 2024
A story striving to blend sci-fi and ethics. A dubious theist's thesis on a world that emulates the fantastic sense of our own in an artistic fashion.
May 16, 2012
Originally published on my blog here in September 1999.
Sequel to Her Majesty's Wizard, The Oathbound Wizard continues the story of student Matt after he has been thrust into another world in which he is a powerful magician. The best thing about the first book was the idea of a fantasy novel which took medieval Catholicism seriously, and that is carried over in a diluted form into The Oathbound Wizard. (The power of faith is somewhat lessened, probably to improve the verisimilitude of the plot.)
Matt has been unable to marry his beloved Queen Alisande of Merovence, because she cannot feel it is right for her country for her to marry one not of noble blood. (Because of the idea of the divine appointment of rulers, she usually instinctively knows the right course of action to take for the benefit of her people. Though she does feel that it would be right to marry Matt, her scruples derive from the suspicion that her love for him is overcoming her supernatural knowledge.) After three years, Matt is very frustrated, and in a moment of temper swears an oath that he will overthrow the evil usurping sorcerer holding the throne of the neighbouring kingdom of Ibile. Meaning this as a figure of speech to express his emotion, he has forgotten the spiritual power of words in this world, and so he is committed to a quest.
In this second novel, Stasheff is not quite so careful about the background as in Her Majesty's Wizard. He manages, for example, to get the names of the kings of England wrong. This is in discussion with Robin Hood, conjured up from another parallel universe, and I suspect that the reason that the king following Richard and John is named Edward rather than Henry is related to his background reading on the Robin Hood legend. The tales, now traditionally associated with Richard I's crusading, apparently developed during the reign of Edward III, and it may be that Stasheff assumed he followed the earlier kings.
As the novelty of the first in the series has worn off, the second does not seem nearly as good.
Sequel to Her Majesty's Wizard, The Oathbound Wizard continues the story of student Matt after he has been thrust into another world in which he is a powerful magician. The best thing about the first book was the idea of a fantasy novel which took medieval Catholicism seriously, and that is carried over in a diluted form into The Oathbound Wizard. (The power of faith is somewhat lessened, probably to improve the verisimilitude of the plot.)
Matt has been unable to marry his beloved Queen Alisande of Merovence, because she cannot feel it is right for her country for her to marry one not of noble blood. (Because of the idea of the divine appointment of rulers, she usually instinctively knows the right course of action to take for the benefit of her people. Though she does feel that it would be right to marry Matt, her scruples derive from the suspicion that her love for him is overcoming her supernatural knowledge.) After three years, Matt is very frustrated, and in a moment of temper swears an oath that he will overthrow the evil usurping sorcerer holding the throne of the neighbouring kingdom of Ibile. Meaning this as a figure of speech to express his emotion, he has forgotten the spiritual power of words in this world, and so he is committed to a quest.
In this second novel, Stasheff is not quite so careful about the background as in Her Majesty's Wizard. He manages, for example, to get the names of the kings of England wrong. This is in discussion with Robin Hood, conjured up from another parallel universe, and I suspect that the reason that the king following Richard and John is named Edward rather than Henry is related to his background reading on the Robin Hood legend. The tales, now traditionally associated with Richard I's crusading, apparently developed during the reign of Edward III, and it may be that Stasheff assumed he followed the earlier kings.
As the novelty of the first in the series has worn off, the second does not seem nearly as good.
January 11, 2012
Decent fantasy about an alternate universe where the state of your soul before God is even more important than your mighty deeds, and where pagan and Christian mingle in a world where both God and the Devil are very real beings.
Matt is a person from our world, who in the other world is a wizard who uses poetic rhymes to cast spells. Rashly, he vows to win a kingdom so he can marry his love, the queen Alisande. Little did he know that unlike our world, an oath spoken even in thoughtlessness must be obeyed, and soon he is off to rescue the kingdom of Iblis, gathering companions along the way.
It's not preachy at all, but simply posits a world where the spiritual realm matters. You have to shrive your enemies or offer them the chance to repent because they will be tormented in hell, and despite what they do on earth, they at least deserve the chance to repent and make amends in purgatory. God and the saints take a very active part in people's lives. It's very refreshing because most fantasy novels tend to have characters that can be atheistic sociopaths. (Not that atheists are, but in the sense where they are in a world full with magic, but never really think about gods or spiritual beings except to kill them.)
The book itself is not bad. It drags on a bit long and has a tendency to throw in new characters at the drop of a hat. You wont understand a few things if you haven't read the first book, mostly Max. The creativity in plot and situation make up for it though, and it's an enjoyable off-kilter fantasy.
Matt is a person from our world, who in the other world is a wizard who uses poetic rhymes to cast spells. Rashly, he vows to win a kingdom so he can marry his love, the queen Alisande. Little did he know that unlike our world, an oath spoken even in thoughtlessness must be obeyed, and soon he is off to rescue the kingdom of Iblis, gathering companions along the way.
It's not preachy at all, but simply posits a world where the spiritual realm matters. You have to shrive your enemies or offer them the chance to repent because they will be tormented in hell, and despite what they do on earth, they at least deserve the chance to repent and make amends in purgatory. God and the saints take a very active part in people's lives. It's very refreshing because most fantasy novels tend to have characters that can be atheistic sociopaths. (Not that atheists are, but in the sense where they are in a world full with magic, but never really think about gods or spiritual beings except to kill them.)
The book itself is not bad. It drags on a bit long and has a tendency to throw in new characters at the drop of a hat. You wont understand a few things if you haven't read the first book, mostly Max. The creativity in plot and situation make up for it though, and it's an enjoyable off-kilter fantasy.
April 4, 2014
Another great story! It's in the tone of the first one, but with a new layer of issues to deal with, and a new set of wacky characters to meet and enjoy. Similar quest format from the first, though this one spends somewhat less time exploring the rules of this universe, focusing more on expanding the geography and peoples of it. Good fun and an enjoyable read!
April 2, 2008
The second in the wizard series, it continues to tell of the Wizard who uses poetry to perform his magic. GREAT STORY!!!!
April 29, 2008
Continues the story of her majesty's wizard. I listened to this one too. It kept to the same formula.
October 5, 2009
Continuing the adventures of the rhyming wizard.
October 24, 2009
Another fun and interesting read...enjoy.
Oh! And if you're ever in The same world as Matt...be careful, oaths are REALLY binding there.
Oh! And if you're ever in The same world as Matt...be careful, oaths are REALLY binding there.
November 11, 2011
While the series starts out as quite entertaining, it starts to fall off in plot quality after the first four titles.
December 21, 2013
since coming to rhyme the wizard did not know how much it would cost him to stay
March 1, 2012
Due to the ad-hoc nature and lack of rules for magic in this series this book left the impression that it was just resorting to deux ex machina to solve every problem within the plot.
February 11, 2015
Enjoyed this one also. Again. And the third is up in my bookshelf if I can be bothered to stand up and go retrieve it.
August 7, 2012
a continuation of the story
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews