Blake CharltonRezensionen

Nicodemus Kras is een magiërsleerling met grote talenten. Hij woont dan ook niet voor niets in Sterrenstee: dé universiteitsstad voor magiërs. Hij heeft echter een groot probleem: hij kan niet spellen. In een wereld waar de magie bestaat uit het geschreven woord, is dat een grote handicap. Anders kan er van alles misgaan met je spreuk. Door zijn handicap is het voor hem onmogelijk om ooit een groots magiër te worden. Assistent van magister Agwu Shannon is alles wat er voor hem inzit. Toch zijn er aanwijzingen die er op wijzen dat hij het lot van de wereld in zijn handen houdt. Zijn leven en dat van anderen loopt groot gevaar, zeker als hij ook nog verdacht wordt van moord.

Blake Charlton is een schrijver met dyslexie. Als je deze wetenschap in je hoofd hebt, dan is De Taal der Spreuken een prachtige allegorie van zijn leven. Maar ook zonder deze wetenschap is het een lekker verhaal met een goed doordacht magiesysteem en heerlijke wezens. De magie zit overal in dit boek en geeft het verhaal echt een meerwaarde. De plot is rechttoe rechtaan: een eenvoudige jongen is voorbestemd voor grootste daden, die de wereld zullen veranderen. De uitwerking van dat plot is waar het om draait. En die uitwerking is zeer genietbaar. Hier en daar zijn de gebeurtenissen wat onlogisch, maar qua karakters zit het wel goed. Nicodemus is erg geloofwaardig en zijn vrienden zijn leuke types. Magister Agwu Shannon is aan het begin van het verhaal een soort professor Perkamentus, maar ontwikkelt zich toch iets anders. Een aantal karakters blijken uiteindelijk niet te zijn wat je in het begin van hen dacht. Een goed debuut dat smaakt naar meer. En gelukkig komt er een vervolg.

Excellent read. Fast paced, enjoyable.

1.5 stars. Very disappointing.

Given the blurb, I expected this would be a story about language, with a good deal of language/linguistic play. But it's not: it's a story about magic, with language treated as the magical stuff that gets thrown around. The language elements are very superficial.

Adding insult to injury was a particularly awful misuse of language. One of the characters periodically has fits or convulsions when her god takes her over. Naturally these happen at the most inconvenient times. She sometimes has some symptomatic warning that one of these is about to occur. At two such moments, she exclaims that she is "having an aura."

No. I'm sorry, but no. You do not "have" (as in undergo) an aura. You "have" a convulsion, or you "see" an aura, or you "have" (as in possess) an aura that other people see. This is just wrong.

There were some interesting ideas, so I do hope the author keeps at it; but overall I felt this was not ready for prime time. I have no interest in the sequel.

I read and enjoyed a unique short story of his in Unfettered so I did a little research to see what else he had available. Happily I found this freely offered story on his site: http://www.blakecharlton.com/freereads/endosymbiont/ It was originally published in Seeds of Change

Wow, what a great short story. 4.5*

I can't say anything for fear of spoiling it. I wouldn't want to do that. I can say, it opens with a young teen girl in a hospital room being treated for cancer. She is our main character. Its a slow reveal as to what is going on and it was an absolute pleasure to read it unfold.

Recommend!

ETA: I found it as a podcast, Escape Pod #280. I can't wait to listen vs read it. soon, soon. Here: https://escapepod.org/2011/02/18/endosymbiont/½

Spellwright is the introductory novel of Nicodemus, a young aspiring wizard who has been branded a cacographer because of his disability. Simply put, he has magical dyslexia - in a world where spells are visible as strings of floating, physical text, a mere touch by Nicodemus can cause a spell to be misspelled, gaining new meaning and often as not warping it from simple to potentially dangerous.

As with many fantasy novels, there is a prophesy, and depending on interpretation Nicodemus could be a savior - or the equivalent of the antichrist.

I have to confess, I've wanted to read this book since it came out a few years ago, and anticipation breeds its own expectations that reality can rarely match. As is oft said, I wish Goodreads would let us use 1/2 stars. Charlton's book is right on the cusp between 3 and 4 stars, but ultimately I couldn't round up.

The cons, for me, were twofold. First, mechanically, I found the text to be agonizing to follow in some places. It is almost worst that this is an inconsistant problem, because the rest of the time you can get a sense of Charlton's emerging voice. Future books will not suffer this problem, and you can tell. Charlton can tell a story, but that fact is buried in this first novel, and only shining on occasion.

Secondly, and perhaps this is another writing advancement that will come in the future, there are far too many info dumps. In fact, this book is an amazing example of show, don't tell. There are so many cases where if Blake had stepped back and given pause, he could have demonstrated his point, leaving the reader to "discover" the truth on their own (and therefore feel both a minor sense of accomplishment, as well as feel more involved in the story).

I read the book in five days, with a real life interrupting. In my world, that means the book was a quick read, so caveat lector.

Did like this one as much as the previous one. Seemed far to long and in parts it was tedious. That said, the concept of the magicians and characters using words and runes to create spells is a good one, just felt that it needing editing better.

A magnificently intricate and innovative magical system underpinning a world that... well, honestly, we don't see much of it at all since we never leave the bounds of the magical system. This book started really strongly, with fascinating magic used by interesting and sympathetic characters in complicated situations that they never bollocksed up themselves. All good things. However, towards the late-middle, it started to get so enmeshed in its own systems that the only way forward was info-dumps, and conversations of the "Why can't I just do X?" / "Because Z." variety, which rather takes the shine off things. It dribbled to an end, rather than going out with a portentious bang, which is unfortunate in a first-in-a-series book.

Good. Not great.

I continue to find this series original in many ways, layered, surprising, interesting, and, at times, confusing. I liked the new characters, especially Francesca - she's awesome and I love the strong and skilled female character. I also really appreciate how the books deal with disability - this is unusual for SFF, I think.

I had trouble keeping all the factions and characters straight. The story can be slow at times (or maybe that's me mostly reading on the bus these days), but the magic is new and different, and there were a few curve balls I just didn't see coming. I've got number three lined up and ready to go.

It took me a little while to get into this, to understand how the text-based magic worked in this world, who the characters were and what the conflict was. But about a third of the way through it all clicked, and now I'm looking forward to the sequel.

High fantasy novel with a complicated magic/divinity system

Please find my review of Spellwright by Blake Charlton at http://www.myshelf.com/scifi_fantasy/10/spellwright.htm

SPELLWRIGHT, by author and medical student Blake Charlton, focuses on Nicodemus, a cacographer spellwright (one who misspells magical texts by touching them, thereby wreaking occasional havoc). Nicodemus may or may not be the answer in saving the world from the demonic Typhon, but first he must recover the emerald which will cure him of his misspellings.
There’s no way I can suitably sum up the multiple adventures Nicodemus experiences. There are plenty of well-written combat scenes that never carry on too long. The descriptions of magic and sorcery are sometimes mind-blowing. The intelligence behind this world-building is evident; mythological and scientific references run throughout.
This is the first book in a new trilogy, and I for one can hardly wait for the next volume! SPELLWRIGHT is intelligent, satisfying, and thought-provoking. I recommend this adventurous book to all fantasy readers.

A book which starts out very promising, but then is let down by a much weaker second half.½

Nicodemus Weal, flawed wizard, must learn if he's a force for good or for evil: to tell the righteous from the tainted and take his place as battle leader in upcoming war. I like the idea of language as Creator, sustainer and end, hero seeking wholeness, very creative world -- cross between myth/fairy tale/fantasy, good suspense, great creatures. I loved the yellling librarians under Book Worm attack!

SPOILER WARNING:
I've tried to keep spoilers out of this blurb, but it turned out to be a bit more difficult than I thought. So, in case you haven't read Spellbound yet, I would encourage you not to read my ranting ;-p


I finally finished reading Spellbound! I loved it! I hope this doesn't come across either rude or fanboy-ish, but I was truly surprised :)
The beginning had me all kinds of confused and uncertain, but once THOSE two met, it completely and utterly got me hooked. I don't claim any vast and intimate knowledge of fantasy as a literary genre, but I've read enough to draw my own semi-informed conclusions. I can't wait to read what the author has in store for the third novel. As for his latest novel, there's two elements that have forever spellbound me to his current and future works :p

First of all, I'd like to tell you that I have never encountered such a heart-warming and well-executed romance (sub?)plot in any of even my favorite fantasy and scifi novels. I'm a sucker for romance, but they rarely or never satisfy me to the extend that Charlton has. The long conversations between Nicodemus and Francesca were an absolute delight to read, and sometimes I would wish for them to continue endlessly, ignoring any semblance of other main and subplots.

Lastly, I wanted to mention the aerial battles between the hierophant fleets. Although I hardly understood most of what was going on, and how exactly the "ships" looked like or reacted, it didn't stop me from building on what the author wrote and expanding on it within my mind. All in all, it is a scene that I would love to see acted out on the big screen. I bet it would be breathtaking and nothing short of epic. (Though, I don't think any film budget would be large enough to ensure such a scene would be handled well, heh.)

Worried about sounding too much like a fanboy (I've always been quite moderate in my passions, however contrary that may sound. I like works, not authors.), I was going to mention that not all of it was as much to my liking. But f*** that. The good elements wipe out any trace of complaints off my mind. Thank you for a great novel, Mr. Charlton!

Boring crap, weak characterisation, really annoyingly unimagine take on libramantic magic ... Stumbling worldbuilding. I see no reason to spend more energy on this!

What if your "handicap" was instead a higher order ability-- interesting ideas and a solid first in series fantasy.

Loved his talk at ALA, but this book was pretty dull. After about 50 pages I still had no idea who anyone was, because they all seemed to have the same personality, i.e. not really any.

I absolutely loved Blake Charlton's first installment in this series, Spellwright. It wasn't without flaws, but overall it is one of my favorite books. The sequel, while good, didn't live up to the promise of the first book.

I found myself kind of drifting through the second book. The writing was dense when it came to talking about the magic, and then the dialogue took on a flippant quality that was almost too far in a high fantasy world.

Also, the author has terrible repeat-shit-itis, though not in the same way I normally comment on. He tended to overuse certain phrases. I lost count of how many times I saw "...still wet from the last rain." in the book. We get it. It rains a lot.

I think some of the downfall of this book is having SO much time pass between book one and book two. Why does ten years pass? What is the point? There isn't really any point to that time gap.

A lot of the "twists" I saw coming a mile away. The second dragon, and the tidbit revealed at the end. It lacked the surprise that would have had me clamoring for the next book.

I am interested to see how the series ends, and I still really like the world Charlton has built, but the second book just wasn't what I expected after having read the first.½

I dithered between rating this as a 4 stars and a 5 stars. In the end I settled on 5, because I really thoroughly enjoyed the book.

First, some cons.
The book doesn't have much exposition in it. You are launched immediately into a world where language is magic and expected to just get it. At the beginning the timeline is a little confusing. The prologue makes it seem like the first murder happens some time in the past, but it doesn't. The story is very complex and a little convoluted at times. And the story is somewhat exhausting. There were times when I looked at my progress and went "Dude, that is seriously all I have read???". The last con is that despite everything that happens near the end, the actual ending of the book didn't instill me with an immediate need to get the next one. It wasn't a cliffhanger ending. It was just an ending that left me to pick up the next book at my earliest convenience.

The story is also edited a little strangely with breaks in it that don't make much sense as there isn't a change in perspective or time. It utilizes visual breaks in the pages where either a further break (swapping POV, ending the chapter) would have been more effective, or a lesser break (new paragraph instead of such a visible break) would have been sufficient.

A note on the characters in the cons category. I like that Nico is of limited/different ability. I like Shannon's ability to see magical text. I didn't like Nico's attitude through a lot of the book... he seemed stubborn when he didn't need to be. And I feel so bad for poor Dierdre. SAVE HER NICO!

Now, some pros.
The book, for a first novel of a non-literary major, is fantastically written. It is not bogged down by a lot of useless exposition, though it does border on too-sparse at times. The story is fantastically in-depth and the literary-based magic system with a dyslexic hero (who isn't really THE hero as we find out at the end) is unique. While the ending itself doesn't have that sense of urgency to dive into Book 2, there were plenty of jaw-dropping moments that kept me reading past my bedtime. Blake Charlton knows how to drop a bomb, he just needed to drop one near the end as well.

I feel really attached to some of the characters in this book. Especially the nightmares. I want them to not be completely gone.

I might come back later and edit this to add more, but for now that is it.

This review has been crossposted from my blog at The Cosy Dragon . Please head there for more in-depth reviews by me, which appear on a timely schedule.

Nicodemus Weal is both blessed and cursed. Once thought to be the saviour of humanity, his ability with spells is actually warped so that he misspells everything creating chaos. This sound bad enough, but add re-emerging golems and a couple of murders and you have a real recipe for disaster.

The idea of this book came from the author's own dyslexia which I think adds a lovely depth and essential detail to the novel. Personal experience can be such a weath to mine and produce something wonderful. In this case, it is an extremely complicated and novel system of word forging. As the novel progresses, the reader is introduced to more of the complex spellwriting languages.

The introductory chapter of this book was unnecessarily wordy, even if it did explain well the system of magic operating in this world. The magic system was what redeemed this book for me, and I only wish there had been a better way of explaining how it worked, and I also would have liked some more information about the other languages.

Nicodemus and Shannon are really flat, transperant characters. Nicodemus was sure he was the chosen one, even when he wasn't obviously one. Even with the million hints pointing to him being something else, he wasn't able to realise that! Plus he should have kept a better grip on that damn emerald. As if you wouldn't sew it into your skin so you didn't lose it again. I actually liked Shannon, and although he wasn't fleshed out, I still empathised with him, and felt sorry for him.

The twist with the Druid wasn't lead up to properly, and I didn't understand her stupid fits at all! Nicodemus was far too trusting, and noone seemed able to make the obvious connections that were there. The rest of the time the Druid didn't make sense, and her place in the Arc's protection was not obvious. The reader wasn't even able to make the same connections as Nicodemus about her magic abilities, because they weren't given enough information.

The perspective changes in this novel could have been used more, but they did work for me. I just wished I had had more information on the motives of all parties, rather than the focus on Nicodemus (although he was the main character, the other characters were equally important I think).

I'd say that this book was suitable for both teens and adults in terms of content, although the style of writing is certainly for adults. It wasn't a bad book, just not an outstanding one because I didn't connect with the main character. There is another book in this series (it is a triology) and although I enjoyed this book (mainly due to the magic system, not the characters), the sequel is not on my ever-growing to-read-soon list.

ISBN: 9780765317278
Publisher: Tor
Pages: 350

Nicodemus is a young, gifted wizard with a problem. Magic in his world requires the caster to create spells by writing out the text but he has always been dyslexic, and thus has trouble casting even the simplest of spells. And his misspells could prove dangerous, even deadly, should he make a mistake in an important incantation.
Yet he has always felt that he is destined to be something more than a failed wizard. When a powerful, ancient evil begins a campaign of murder and disruption, Nicodemus starts to have disturbing dreams that lead him to believe that his misspelling could be the result of a curse.

Even though it took me quite a while to read Spellwright and at times it was a bit complicated, I really enjoyed reading it! My favourite character was Shannon because of his caring nature and determination.
I really like the cover of Spellwright, the subtle meaning of the image and it's colours makes it all the more beautiful.

Available at Amazon.co.uk.

If you haven't met Nicodemus Weal, you should. He's the kind of character that will touch your heart and change your perspective.A brilliant debut by a talented writer, Spellwright's story is all the more intriguing because it parallels the author's own struggles with dyslexia. The story of Nicodemus Weal, a dyslexic apprentice wizard who becomes hunted by several factions when it's thought he could be the long awaited Halcyon, who will bring unity and power to defeat the dark forces threatening their world. Others fear he could instead be the storm Petrel who will bring destruction. So Nicodemus finds himself on the run, wondering who he is and who to trust.Spellwright takes place in a well crafted and interesting world where words are not just communication but a force to be reckoned with. They can be harvested as weapons or shields by those with the gift of magic who learn to control them. The journey of Nico and his mentor, Magister Shannon, grabs hold of you and never lets go, taking you on a fascinating and compelling ride.The background of author Blake Charlton (http://www.blakecharlton.com/) is as unique and interesting as that of his main character. On his own website he writes:As a child, severe dyslexia placed me in special education for most of elementary school. Only with the support of my saintly parents did I improve enough to be mainstreamed into a normal fourth-grade classroom. I was still pulled out for remediation in half of the classes. Each year, I just barely advanced to the next grade. At twelve years old, I still couldn’t read a book by myself.But his parents were persistent and began reading fantasy to him: Robert Jordan, Terry Brooks, Tad Williams... As his interest grew, they began to read to Blake less and less, faking sore throats or other ailments, but always leaving the books behind. Blake writes:I became obsessed with fantasy. I snuck Robert Jordan and Robin Hobb paperbacks into special ed study hall and read them under my desk when I was supposed to be completing spelling drills. My grades improved only marginally, but my height increased exponentially. The football coach at a local high-powered private academy noticed this and helped me get into his school. About that time I started reading science fiction (Frank Herbert, Orson Scott Card, etc.) and discovered more classical fantasy: Grandpa Tolkien, John Gardner, Ursula K. LeGuin, and Mary Stewart. Suddenly school wasn’t so bad: I discovered that Shakespeare and Spenser weren’t so different from Tolkien, chemistry not far off from alchemy, physics the closest thing to magic. Though I still loved football, I began to live to put my nose in books.But this dyslexic child went on to graduate from Yale Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, with distinction in the major and Trumbull College awarded him the John Spangler Nicholas Scholarship. His fascination with reading fantasy and science fiction, soon fed his creativity and he began writing. A college dean encouraged him to take time out upon seeing an early draft of Spellwright. And in 2006 Tor, seeing promise in Spellwright, offered Blake a three-book deal. Stanford Medical School, seeing the value of a career in writing and medicine, offered him admission.Since then, Blake's completed the preclinical years of medical school and taken the US Medical Licensing Examination. During that time, he twice rewrote Spellwright, while Stanford provided financial support in the form of a Medical Scholars Research Fellowship to write fiction.But overcoming his own disability still wasn't enough. In addition to his desire to help people through medicine, Blake has been an English teacher, a learning disability tutor and a football coach. His passion for learning disabled kids is part of his inspiration for Nicodemus Weal and Spellwright's story of the power to overcome any struggle and succeed.Blake is preparing his draft of the followup Spellbound to turn into the publisher shortly and it should be out by the end of year. Maybe he'll give me an early review copy, if not, I know I'll be waiting outside the story.A great read, a unique world, a fun adventure. Spellwright is highly recommended.

The second book in the planned trilogy begins ten years after the events of Spellwright. Nicodemus Weal has been living with the kobolds and plotting how to get the emerald back from the demon, Typhon, who is holed up in the city of Avel trying to begin the Disjunction. Meanwhile, Dierdre has been fighting the demon's influence and finds a healer, Francesca DeVega, whom she believes will help Nico defeat "the second dragon," whatever that might mean.

I really enjoyed the inventiveness of Spellwright, in particular, the way magic works as languages and the inherent wordplay Charlton develops as a result. I had high hopes for this second book, hoping that it would have the pros of the first book with perhaps less of the wordiness and explication that just seemed to take away from the pacing (in the first book, for example, Typhon explains his master plan at length in the middle of the climactic scene). Spellbound has the same inventiveness, the same difficult-to-guess plot, the same wordiness. I had trouble picking it up when I was not reading it, but enjoyed it well enough when I had it in hand. Though a little disappointed, I'm still interested enough in learning what happens to the characters to read the next book when it comes out.½

*Spoiler alert - if you've not read this book and you want to, there are some spoilers in the following review.*

I got this book from Blue the other week and thought that it sounded really good so I took it on holiday to Wales with me. Initially I found it really hard to get into, although I wasn't sure if that was because I was just too tired to take it in. The first few chapters seemed to assume that the reader is already familiar with the world it's set in as there's no real introduction to any of it and no explanation as to who people are or how it all works. I think this is partly what made it so hard to get on with as I spent a good portion of the early chapters being utterly confused.

It was certainly an interesting take on a magical world and the way the magical types in that world did their spells. I liked the idea of having to write and create a spell, rather than just wave a wand and say a few words. On the other hand, creation of the spells seemed to be so long-winded and took a lot of time. I wasn't so sure about the aspect of forging runes from the body, that seemed to be kind of strange especially when it's not just limited to arms, hands and legs, but also includes lips, tongue and face.

Despite being highly interested in languages, how they're used and all of that, I found that there were just too many languages involved. There were there two main wizard languages that were introduced at the start - I forgot more or less straight away what each one did - and then more languages were introduced later on. It all got a bit confusing because they all had different colours and different usages. I also wasn't sure about the idea that if you didn't know a language then it couldn't be seen. This doesn't make sense, because if I happened to write in Welsh for example, a person reading it who doesn't know Welsh can still see the text, even if ze doesn't know what it says.

I have to say, I spotted the golem a mile off. I'm not sure if it was supposed to be hard to work out or not, but it was rather obvious. As soon as the clay arm was mentioned, I knew immediately what it was.

There was an awful lot of repetition in the book, the reader was constantly being reminded of certain points such as the baddie not being able to cast spells within Starhaven or Nicodemus saying that he wasn't a natural cacographer, it was forced onto him and if he could find the emerald all his problems would be solved. I did not need reminding of these things every half a dozen pages. I don't know what the point was of the baddie not being able to cast spells within Starhaven, especially when the inhabitants could. It didn't seem feasible either, how would the ward or whatever it was that controlled this be able to tell the difference between an inhabitant and a non-inhabitant? Does this include visitors too? Or was it just for that one baddie? And how did he even know this? It was all a bit vague.

I didn't like the idea that being a cacographer was so abhorrent to Nicodemus. I can understand that no one likes to think they're not perfect and being able to blame flaws on an external agent is very nice but the way his mind was fixed on this seemed to be too much. The idea of a flawed hero is nothing new, but never has there been one who whined about his flaw so much. Nico started off as being quite an interesting character but his whinging got to be too much and he became really annoying. Then at the end of the book, he became really big-headed too and I just didn't care about him any more. Deidre seemed to be far more interesting. Although talking of Deidre, the mention of a relationship between the two at the end seemed to come right out of the blue. Did I miss something? There didn't seem to be any indication of it at all.

The book fizzled out really badly at the end. Once they'd all escaped from the cave, I was surprised by how much of the book was left and wasn't sure what it was there for. It seemed to just make the book longer and dragged it out. It would have been much better put at the start of the second book - obviously, there is going to be a sequel, although I think it would have been much better as a one-off with it all wrapped up at the end. It was quite hard going, the pace was up and down throughout which didn't help and lots of info dumps made it quite boring in places. It's an interesting idea but I'm not sure the execution was as good as it could be.