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Rogue Wizard #5
A Wizard in Peace
Under the nom de guerre of Gar Pike, renegade psychic wizard Magnus D'Armand travels the stars fighting injustice and oppression, like his father, Rod Gallowglass, the Warlock in Spite of Himself. But this time the Rogue Wizard may have encountered a tyrant even he can't a stern Protector who dictates the very thoughts of his "loyal" subjects. So successful if his regime that Magnus is hard-pressed to find anyone willing to oppose it--until a misguided handful of would-be aristocrats unwittingly provides a spark of rebellion. Here is Christopher Stasheff in top swashbuckling, stylish, and slightly subversive adventure from the author of the bestselling "Warlock" chronicles.
304 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 1996
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189 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 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 9, 2021
This fifth book in the series, A Wizard in Peace, is a fitting thematic follow-up and contrast to the fourth, A Wizard in War. Gar (the "secret identity" of Magnus, son of the hero of the Warlock series) and Dirk find a planet that's oppressed by strict controls and endless bureaucracy, and have to find a way to set the populace on the road to liberty. The books were beginning to feel a bit formulaic, but Stasheff's clever characterization and good humor are always a pleasure.
October 5, 2009
Pretty much the same as the first 4.
October 15, 2018
[3.5*]
October 9, 2019
Interesting world.
September 3, 2013
Magnus (aka Gar) and Dirk end up on their easiest assignment yet. In this book, they end up on a planet that is ruled by bureaucracy. In an attempt to create productive citizens to live productive and needs-met type lives, the bureaucracy has forgotten to allow for a certain amount of human agency and so travel, choice of marriage partner, and other (though alluded to and not mentioned) freedoms are, while technically allowed, denied due to the amount of red tape involved.
And so the book opens with a male citizen of that planet fleeing into the forest from the local authorities because he refuses to marry the mate that the local government agent has chosen for him.
Wait. Man flees to forest because he has crossed the ruling authority? How is this different from any of the four previous books?
Here's how! It isn't just one man, for in a different village some leagues away, a completely different man, a few muffins short of a dozen if you know what I mean, also takes off for the woods, believing himself to be the Prince of Paradime (a purposely misspelled "paradigm") who has been summoned into the tree-filled lands to meet his fellow nobles and live in his rightful splendor. Along with him comes a female peasant who is fleeing an arranged marriage.
Two people fleeing! Granted, they are both males. But still ... two.
Oh, and there aren't medieval nobles here. There are various classes of people: farmers/peasants, merchants, literati/bureaucrats, soldiers/guards/police, minstrels, and so on. But no hereditary titles and no fiefs.
With bureaucracy already established and the land in a quite peaceful - if disgruntled - mode, our unbeatable tag team has very little to do to change the rules to democracy from the sort of overly-bureaucratic dictatorship it was ... if it can be called a dictatorship where the dictator is selected by a process designed to identify the best administrator in the land and where the dictator is trying to wield his powers for the good of all the peoples rather than his own politically ambitious whims.
But this is an odd numbered book, which means that Magnus must make use of his mentalic powers (especially since he abstained in A Wizard in War). How does he do it?
Remember our gentleman with the missing muffins? Magnus' mentalics are just the baker that this gentleman and those like him need. And formerly-lacking individuals having a full dozen mental muffins are just what Magnus and Dirk and the fantastically sentient AI of the original space ship that brought the original settlers to the planet and the robots who inhabit the forest and the planetary citizens who wish to marry for love ... need in order to put democracy in place.
"How?" you ask. For that answer, you will have to read this book.
Why two stars? There wasn't really any challenge to our protagonists whatsoever. The society was functional and the characters weren't denied any of their needs; just their wants. Also, the society seemed primed to listen to whatever authority was in place and there was a vacuum of authority that was ambitious. (Politicians in a democratic system sure are ambitious!)
Also, the author stops just shy of actually making the connection between "the pursuit of happiness" and basic human rights (this could, very much, have been required course reading for a political science/pre-law course if the author had gone there and it was set up so nicely). While strongly influenced in USAmerican ideals, the book should have gone there and outed its biases.
The two-star tool tip was, "It was okay," and it was. A good, quick read.
-----///-----
@ 1.0% // Yet another book in this series that starts with a young man fleeing into the forest. This makes, what?, four books where this has been the introduction?
@ 7.0% // I find it amusing that the way we recap the characters' histories is that one character asks the other character to tell his background... even though both men have been living together on the same space ship for a few years with no one else to talk to. Very unnatural, author. Very unnatural.
@ 79.7% // Granted this is a torture scene that I know must end well, for the book must have a happy ending, but I still find myself uncertainly rooting for the newly-deranged Countess to tell just enough cryptic truth to have her entire torture testimony dismissed as a flight if fancy.
@ 82.8% // I am sure that it is simply because the author grew tired of writing the adventures of Magnus and Dirk that he had those two crucial characters disappear about 75% of the way through this book. That said, I do enjoy Miles, who has inherited the title of protagonist in the absence of the eponymous Wizard.
@ 84.0% // I spoke too soon. They are back!
@ 100% Reading Hours: 10.0 // Next to read: Albert Pike's "Morals and Dogma". Only 861 pages. Looks like fun.
And so the book opens with a male citizen of that planet fleeing into the forest from the local authorities because he refuses to marry the mate that the local government agent has chosen for him.
Wait. Man flees to forest because he has crossed the ruling authority? How is this different from any of the four previous books?
Here's how! It isn't just one man, for in a different village some leagues away, a completely different man, a few muffins short of a dozen if you know what I mean, also takes off for the woods, believing himself to be the Prince of Paradime (a purposely misspelled "paradigm") who has been summoned into the tree-filled lands to meet his fellow nobles and live in his rightful splendor. Along with him comes a female peasant who is fleeing an arranged marriage.
Two people fleeing! Granted, they are both males. But still ... two.
Oh, and there aren't medieval nobles here. There are various classes of people: farmers/peasants, merchants, literati/bureaucrats, soldiers/guards/police, minstrels, and so on. But no hereditary titles and no fiefs.
With bureaucracy already established and the land in a quite peaceful - if disgruntled - mode, our unbeatable tag team has very little to do to change the rules to democracy from the sort of overly-bureaucratic dictatorship it was ... if it can be called a dictatorship where the dictator is selected by a process designed to identify the best administrator in the land and where the dictator is trying to wield his powers for the good of all the peoples rather than his own politically ambitious whims.
But this is an odd numbered book, which means that Magnus must make use of his mentalic powers (especially since he abstained in A Wizard in War). How does he do it?
Remember our gentleman with the missing muffins? Magnus' mentalics are just the baker that this gentleman and those like him need. And formerly-lacking individuals having a full dozen mental muffins are just what Magnus and Dirk and the fantastically sentient AI of the original space ship that brought the original settlers to the planet and the robots who inhabit the forest and the planetary citizens who wish to marry for love ... need in order to put democracy in place.
"How?" you ask. For that answer, you will have to read this book.
Why two stars? There wasn't really any challenge to our protagonists whatsoever. The society was functional and the characters weren't denied any of their needs; just their wants. Also, the society seemed primed to listen to whatever authority was in place and there was a vacuum of authority that was ambitious. (Politicians in a democratic system sure are ambitious!)
Also, the author stops just shy of actually making the connection between "the pursuit of happiness" and basic human rights (this could, very much, have been required course reading for a political science/pre-law course if the author had gone there and it was set up so nicely). While strongly influenced in USAmerican ideals, the book should have gone there and outed its biases.
The two-star tool tip was, "It was okay," and it was. A good, quick read.
-----///-----
@ 1.0% // Yet another book in this series that starts with a young man fleeing into the forest. This makes, what?, four books where this has been the introduction?
@ 7.0% // I find it amusing that the way we recap the characters' histories is that one character asks the other character to tell his background... even though both men have been living together on the same space ship for a few years with no one else to talk to. Very unnatural, author. Very unnatural.
@ 79.7% // Granted this is a torture scene that I know must end well, for the book must have a happy ending, but I still find myself uncertainly rooting for the newly-deranged Countess to tell just enough cryptic truth to have her entire torture testimony dismissed as a flight if fancy.
@ 82.8% // I am sure that it is simply because the author grew tired of writing the adventures of Magnus and Dirk that he had those two crucial characters disappear about 75% of the way through this book. That said, I do enjoy Miles, who has inherited the title of protagonist in the absence of the eponymous Wizard.
@ 84.0% // I spoke too soon. They are back!
@ 100% Reading Hours: 10.0 // Next to read: Albert Pike's "Morals and Dogma". Only 861 pages. Looks like fun.
April 9, 2014
These books are starting to feel all the same. I decided to skip the next four - read the first couple of pages and the last few to refresh my memory and have now gone on to the books about Magnus's siblings.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews