Wizard's Eleven

Land of the True Game #3

by Sheri S. Tepper

The son of Mavin Manyshaped is back. Let the Players of the True Game beware.

A giant stalks the mountains. The Shadowpeople gather by the light of the moon. The Bonedancers raise up armies of the dead. And the Wizard's Eleven sleep, trapped in their dreams. Players, take your places. The final Game begins.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Young Adult, High Fantasy

187 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 1984

About the author

Sheri Stewart Tepper was a prolific American author of science fiction, horror and mystery novels; she was particularly known as a feminist science fiction writer, often with an ecofeminist slant.

Born near Littleton, Colorado, for most of her career (1962-1986) she worked for Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood, where she eventually became Executive Director. She has two children and is married to Gene Tepper. She operated a guest ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

She wrote under several pseudonyms, including A.J. Orde, E.E. Horlak, and B.J. Oliphant. Her early work was published under the name Sheri S. Eberhart.

Reviews

[Jane Jago · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peter, Jinian and enough twists and turns to make your head spin. What’s not to love

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have this fascination for the weird early books written by authors who would later develop their own styles/themes and move away from their freshman efforts--books that probably wouldn't have seen the light in today's publishing environment, but that have their own strange magic. I thought this little trilogy by Sheri S. Tepper was one of those. I don't think so any more.

The True Game is weird, yes, and the early books (#1-2) certainly lack the strength of Tepper's later writing. But wow! It all comes to fruition in this volume and I feel like I've just watched her writing develop in spades over the course of the short trilogy.

I wish this had been published today, because it would have been in one volume--which is really how these need to be read. The first book is sparsely drawn and the characters are flat on the page, and it's all too easy to put it down there; but by the start of this book, I was entirely caught up in unraveling the truth along with Peter.

My favourite two characters of the series (Jinian and Queynt) only come along in Wizard's Eleven, and the eleven themselves truly come to life here even though we've been gathering glimpses of them all along. I had tears in my eyes as they [spoilery spoiler] and it was all marvelous.

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am so glad Jininan was in this book! I don’t think I would have liked it as much otherwise.
I did enjoy Wizard’s Eleven quite a lot - excellent writing, wonderful characters (see above), the world was still interesting, Peter did grow up a bit, and it was a nice blend of fantasy and sci-fi.
But:
- the main villain was a caricature
- all the bad guys were relatively easy to deal with
- the revelations about “the Great Plan” and the ending felt rushed and not really thought through = unsatisfying.

I am interested in reading Sheri S. Tepper’s later books, though. Apparently, there are also other books set in the same universe, I might give these a try at some point.

[Helen Fleischer · Rating 5 out of 5]

#3 Exdellent

[Amethyst · Rating 3 out of 5]

It started very slow and I couldn't see why a third volume was needed at all. It only made sense in the last third of the book when there was a conclusion to the eleven gamespieces. Until then, the story dragged. I loved the Land of the True Game in the first two volumes but here, I couldn't feel its magic for the most part.

I didn't like the character of Chance and I didn't understand why there had to be a change of love interests. For that purpose, a new character is introduced - Jinian - who will be featured in her own series. I hope this will not just be a retelling of this book.

I still love Tepper's writing style, her worldbuilding and the background story and really hope that the next trilogy which is about Mavin Manyshaped will bring back the sense of wonder I felt during the first two books of Peter's story.

[Onefinemess · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quirky way to close out a quirky series! Enjoyed the worldbuilding, wished the series continued in the way the epilogue implied the characters lives would play out, if only to see more of the world.

I think I mentioned this in my "review" of one of the earlier books....but Tepper has a really interesting take on finale climaxes. Trying not to spoil anything but like shit just ends. I wish I could find some interviews with her about these books because I'd love to know if that was intentional, or just a result of her style, or a result of writing inexperience or what? I don't hate it, because it's fairly novel... I often joked as a kid about climaxes like hers, but I can't recall many other examples.

[Kees Witteman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice

[Jonathan Warner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent! A fitting conclusion to a great series. It doesn’t stand up to Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun, but by god it is a fantastic tale of science fantasy that few could tell. Highly recommend

[Marie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh, hello end-of-trilogy problems! The third book in the series includes a lot of world-building notes - lists of types of gamesmen, unusual fauna, more extensive maps. (Who doesn’t LOVE a map at the front of a book though, really?)

Tepper adds the old “It’s really SF!” trope as a journey to discover ancient artifacts leads to a ‘tower’ that is obviously a rocket ship and a cabal of eeeevil academians holding faculty meetings on the study of monsters while refusing to dirty their hands learning to maintain their increasingly faulty equipment.

Adorb points: black and green screens. Most dramatic irony ever as the dunderhead in charge makes it easier to launch ‘the defenders’ not knowing what they are or why they require five sequentially-turned keys. “I just put them all in and turned them so we just have to flip the switch.”

Now, generally I don’t mind this sort of thing. I love mixing my F and SF. I didn’t mind it here, but I felt like soooo much more backstory was crammed in than necessary, as though Tepper was told she had to explain her entire world before she could finish the trilogy.

There’s a passage which I read and re-read and fear implies that being born with disabilities makes you evil. EECH. Hopefully not intended at all by the author.

And then there’s another thing that drives me nuts. A villain in the previous book, Huld, whom I took to be one of the old “Honorable lawful evil” types, who spends most of his on-screen time lamenting the excesses of his evil-er kinsman whom he is duty-bound to follow, is re-introduced here as LITERALLY a baby-eating monster villain. It made him less interesting by far and just felt… forced. Like someone critiqued an early draft of the book complaining the villain wasn’t evil enough.

Oh… and then theres’ an attempt at a love triangle? Maybe? Which also seems rather forced.

I did enjoy how the book tied things together and of course I enjoyed reading it - though I was absolutely stuck for a few days on the last chapters due to waning interest / increased abdominal pain.

[John Loyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

The third book in The True Game trilogy. In Necromancer Nine Peter went to the magician's caves found they had machinery there to take the essence of someone and put it in a blue game piece and put the body in some sort of suspended animation. After using the machinery to reintegrate one blue and body the machine failed and Windlow was stuck as a blue. After a year with Mavin, Mertyn and Himmagery, Peter feels like a fifth wheel in the High Demesne. He comes up with the idea of going to Xammer to get Silkhands.

I recently read Jinian Footseer which describes some of the same events from Jinian's point of view rather than Peter's. It was a bit of a spoiler, not too bad, but it also gave me a chance to compare how the two described the same situations, and retroactively laughing at some of the things Jinian says.

Events in Xammer lead Peter to the north, away from the High Demesne, and ultimately towards Hell's Maw and a battle with Huld and his legion of bones.

There were some clever twists, like how Peter handled the mirror men. The end of the battle against Huld and his army of dead wasn't as satisfying. Good fun read, and wonderful characters.

[Carole O'Brien · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Book was the last in a series about Peter a necromancer, the whole series kept me gripped to the end, this book has plenty of adventure, thrills and spills, as well as hard situations our Necromancer has to try and get himself out off, there are a lot of fantasy characters not found in any other book that I have ever read.



This book was written in the 1980's, but for me you have to enjoy every book on it's own merits and not compare it to others, that way you will not be disappointed and enjoy it more for what it is and also enjoy the story the author was to convey more.

[J L's Bibliomania · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the journey told in Wizard's Eleven, but found the villain to be badly developed and the ending unsatisfying. While I can't say much without spoilers, I think parts of the resolution were insufficiently forshadowed and came out of nowhere. But we got to meet the connecting characters that lead to the other 6 books set in the same enchanting world.

Read as part of the True Game omnibus, which collects the first 3 published novels by Sheri S. Tepper

[Drini Cami · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best in the True Game series, this book shows a lot of a advance in Tepper's writing style. Not only did the characters gain a depth and strength not shown in the previous books, but the story moved much faster than the others. Though still not a 'brilliant' piece of writing, a good start to a writing career!

[Andy Bird · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good. This book is the last book of a trilogy, you cannot really read it as a standalone, and in many ways you have to judge it as part of the trilogy. Therefore the comments from the first two books also apply to this one. In its own right, this book is a very good ending to the whole story. You must read this if you have read the first two books.

[Joshua Castleman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another 3.5
So close to a 4! I wanted to give it 4 stars, but she just shot herself in the end by rushing it. The payoff could've been so much better, but again she falls victim to the brevity of her stories. Still a good read, nonetheless.

[Rhiannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just another book in a wonderful series that if you love wizards, magic and the such then you will really love this series.

[Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Come on Peter, you have all that power in your hands, literally, use it already! Love the sausage groles! Sheri S. Tepper is AWESOME!

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing

[Bracicot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pulls the trilogy together and hints at the larger cosmology explored in the Mavin and Jinian books. Awesome.

[Tim Weakley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable read. Though it still feels a little juvenile to me, but in a good way.

[Robyne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last of the True Game trilogy.