Wizard War

Wizard War Chronicles #1

by Hugh Cook

FROM THE BOTTOMLESS WELL OF SECRETS.

...deep in the heart of the Forbidden Zone, in the 'mysterious Dry Pit, an object has vanished. It is a simple artifact, yet potent enough to conquer the / world. And it has been stolen by an evil wizard named Heenmor.

Three men of the mystical arts have been sent by the Confederation of Wizards to seek out the renegade, destroy him, and recapture the lethal magic he has stolen. They are a powerful lot....Green-eyed Miphon is a wizard and skilled healer; ancient Phyphor is learned enough to be very dangerous; and apprentice Garash is impulsive, careless, and some say, amoral. Together they will join forces with fierce Rovac warriors to contend with burning battlefields, magic bottles, and dragons run amok — and ultimately, the traitor and thief who lurks among them.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Sword and Sorcery, Science Fiction Fantasy

447 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Hugh Cook was a cult author whose works blend fantasy and science fiction. He is best known for his epic series The Chronicles of an Age of Darkness.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cook writes totally gonzo fantasy for sure and Wizard War lead the way. Wizard War was also published as The Wizards and the Warriors, but Lancer gave it a new title here. The first of his books I read, The Walrus & The Warwolf (Planet Stories (Paizo Publishing)) by Hugh Cook, comprises the fourth book of his 10 part Chronicles of an Age of Darkness, of which Lancer published 'pieces parts' for the US audience in the 80s.

While this starts off as a classic 'quest' novel, do not expect any normal fantasy tropes from Cook, who packs in more adventure and whimsy into a book than any author I have ever read. We start off following three wizards, send by the Confederation of Wizards, tasked with tracking down another wizard who 'stole' from the 'dry pit' an ancient artifact, the Death Stone. Their mission: kill the wizard and bring the Death Stone back.

To make sense of this story requires some background. Roughly 5000 years ago, a high tech society collapsed after the 'long war' (which Cook never really gets into), leaving a world largely stuck in the feudal era. Wizards are around, however, and can be very powerful; forget trying to slot the 'magic system' of Cook's world here, however, as it is like nothing else in fantasy. Basically, wizards meditate and amass power, which can be released. The power rests 'between the worlds' of chaos and normality. In any case, two of the wizards on the quest can use firebolts and stuff, while the third has an affinity with animals and rocks (he can get into their minds and influence them). The logic behind including the third wizard is that Heenmor, the wizard that possesses the Death Stone, has a snake as a familiar, so Miphon (the third wizard) can control it while the other two fry Heenmor.

Every step of the wizard's journey, however, is fraught with trials and tribulations! They pick up some allies of a sort (swordsmen from a land that hate wizards!), make alliances with a corrupt king and go aquesting. There are over 60 chapters in the book and each one constitutes and adventure, so I will not even attempt any more plotting here. Expect dragons, strange 'swarm' creatures from the South, ancient and odd cities from 'way back', all kinds of strange cultures and peoples, angry rocks, sword play (of course!), odd magic and artifacts, ancient feuds and vendettas and more and more. The writing is deft and razor sharp, often punctuated with dry humor. I can see why this became and underground classic. 4 strong stars!!

[Stephen Coney · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all, this book is identical with The Wizards and the Warriors, which has its own entry. What stands out about this book is that it does not follow the expected flow of a normal narrative. There are many characters and the importance of any particular character waxes and wanes as the story moves forward. The story does this in a manner that also does not correspond to reader expectations. Some scenes are lengthy with a lot of detail, and other, far more important, points in the story are skipped over in less than a page. Several very important turning points are told as a brief flashback.

If Hugh Cook had written The Lord of the Rings, it would be in a single volume and the entire time in Moria would have been narrated by Aragorn in Lorien and he would have taken only a paragraph to do it.

It is impossible to know how significant various obstacles and antagonists will be in preventing the protagonists (who these are changes in the course of the book) from reaching their goal. Sometimes there is the long, nail-biting confrontation one expects, but many problems go away in a puff. Because Cook skips past so much in the story, there is a lot of story. Today, a publisher would insist on turning this into at least a trilogy, and it would not have been hard to do so. Because of this feature, I did get tired of the book a few times, but I will give this three stars because I believe that these features are intentional and I admire Cook's unpredictability and his boldness in breaking the conventions of the fantasy genre as well as those of Western narrative, even if I consider the result to be more failure than success.

I would not go out of my way to read this book, but if you want to have a tour of 80's fantasy, consider adding this to your list.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

All four stars are earned for the dizzyingly original and wonderful system of magic, and the realistically drawn characters (not to mention the insane destructiveness, everything is destroyed constantly in this book).

I was a little put off by the usual tedium that accompanies the fantasy genre in the form of characters walking across the map. There is a lot of walking.

While the characters feel real, Cook only consistently penetrates the personalities of a couple and one is a badass swordsman from a Spartan resembling race who just constantly whines and moans about how his friend is no longer as chummy with him as he used to be. A perplexing amount of words are spilled covering his emotion and it becomes even more tedious than the walking. The amount of annoyance I felt when this came up was augmented by my desire to get back to the kick ass magic and destruction, or at least another great character moment from the woodsman.

[Hugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was one of the weirdest reading experiences I've had in a while.

There were a lot of cons in my opinion:
1. The characters that we start the book with that we are supposed to like end up being the characters that die or aren't involved very long.
2. The characters we don't like become the main carriers of the story.
3. The stakes seems very high in the first half of the book when it seems that the wizards have limited power. Then in the second half the stakes are seemingly thrown out the window.
4. The deaths of some of these characters could have been drawn out and told with more meaning but instead it just seems that the author wanted them dead and that was that.

There are more that I can't think of right at this moment. But mainly I was disappointed because it seems like the author, a fellow Hugh I might add, just got bored about halfway through the book. And then everything goes insane. It's a story which spans so much time (months to years possibly) in one book that it makes the LOTR look like a short story. Seriously, we get told basically the whole life story of some of these characters in just one book. This is a result of tons of summarizing and not enough 'showing' of the events.

I can't emphasize this enough, the last third of the book seems like it exists in a different universe from the first 2/3. It's mindboggling the type of magical power available to the wizard(s) at the end of the book compared to the majority of the rest of it.

I had no expectations going into this so I can't say I was disappointed. But I don't think I could call myself pleased either.

[Danny · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, a few hundred pages into the book I realized that I had read it before. I plunged on regardless, as I couldn't remember a thing about it.

In a few years I'm sure I won't remember anything again. Except for a few descriptive events the book is wholly a forgettable story of bromance scorned and incredibly poor decisions by the group of 'heroes'.

The book isn't horrible written, but surely you have something better to read for 600 pages.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unexpectedly wonderful read during lunch breaks.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book. Always a good read.

[Ollie Aurandt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t normally write reviews, I just rate books. However, this one was difficult to finish. The best way to describe this novel is anticlimactic. Several times important events were told matter of in the past tense as a brief summary. Like “anyway this happened”

Spoilers:

Phyphor’s death: this seemed like an odd choice so early on and didn’t make much sense as a plot point.

Actual meeting with heenmor after hunting him for the first half of the book, nothing much happened there besides a fight with a snake and casually acquiring the death-stone.

Also the hostage/exchange with Ohio??? It’s literally a page worth of past tense exposition.

To be honest I personally didn’t really like Morgan Hearst or want him to become the central character.

The beginning of the book was great, but the rest fell flat.

[Scott Law · Rating 3 out of 5]

Something I read a long time ago and mostly was interested in recalling the bottle magic that was going on. Nice to reread, but just an ok book.

As an aside, I really like the Science Fiction and Fantasy section over at stackoverflow. Someone recommended them to me and twice now they have been able to help with finding a book that I had only vague information about and no clue about the name or author.

[Catfantastic · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was really disappointing. I’d read another of Cook’s books years ago, and loved the protagonist and the dry wit, but this had neither. All the characters were alike, and not very interesting. The stakes felt remote. I got vague impressions of a world here and there, but it was eclipsed by a bunch of warrior bonding stuff, with weird pacing and virtually no narrative tension.

[Berta Kleiner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amusing read - surprisingly good. Also occasionally quite grim. 3 likable heroes, and you get to know what they eat when traveling.

[Robyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book in my early teens, compelled by the very interesting and colorful cover. Unfortunately, I found it to be rather bland and forgettable. It took me several tries to get through, as pacing lags, often. The plot itself is a bit muddy, and I was consistently confused as to precisely what the main characters were trying to accomplish. The only thing that really saves this novel is the "pox doctor" wizard, a properly unlikely hero who is generous and kind, though his efforts tend to go unnoticed, and even mocked. I found him likable, and enjoyed his part in the story. I can't say the same for the rest of the cast, however. The other two wizards who accompany him in the beginning of the book are just hateful. There were some interesting fantasy elements, such as the endless bottle, and there were a few tense and exciting moments, but in all, this book could have been much better.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had this book lying around my shelves since college, unread. Picked it up recently for light bedtime reading. Not an awesome book. A fairly conventional plot with seriously uneven pacing and characters whose personality traits drift over time. A lot of "just so" plot twists and poorly-developed antagonists. Not bad enough to avoid if you happen to have a copy, but not good enough to seek out.

[Lurple · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent swords & sorcery novel, with engaging characters, bloody action, interesting magic, dragons, pirates, and more. It's too bad that the sequels aren't very good, as this first book is excellent. Fortunately it's a stand-alone novel, so there's no reason to bother with the sequels unless you really feel the need to read them.

[Adrian Martinez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Its been quite awhile since I've read it but it was my favorite book for a long time... I loved the way the author described the sorrow of the mountain that killed itself... there were many other many other great aspects of the book but since I no longer have this book and have not read it in a long time I do not remember everything lol

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A truly grim and dark fantasy world, very realistic in it's grittiness, filled with ruthless soldiers, psycho rulers, and twisted wizards, with only the occasional sympathetic, if not exactly moral, characters. The concept of magic in this setting is quite intriguing.

[Audrey Hare · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think this might actually be the worst book I've ever read. The combination of purple prose, nonsense "fantasy" words, and sentence fragments makes reading a chore, and the unlikable characters and slap-dash plot don't make slogging through worthwhile.

[Ntharotep Dragon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I rather enjoyed this book in my younger reading days. The magic "gimicks" are probably what made it most itneresting to me. The over all plot needed a little work but the characters were interesting and, at the time, it was nice to read a non-typical non-epic piece of writing.