The scientific elements are limited to the suits Dale and his lifelong friend wears, and to brief references that arise in conversations throughout the book. A little humorous at times, a little fearful, but Crystalwizard keeps the story elements fairly balanced.

The theme of Wizard's Bane seems to be that people need to learn to live together in peace. Another theme, in my opinion, could be: there will always be trouble to face so keep yourself prepared.

Wizard's Bane by Crystalwizard is highly recommended to the teen and young adult readers because of the relationship issues that arise amongst Dale's traveling companions. Crystalwizard p
roves that no matter your age or skills, you are important and your skills are important. This is not to say that other readers won't enjoy the story, for I'm certain any lover of sci/fi writings will love it. Can hardly wait to read the Second Book in the Sojourn Chronicles. Read more here

Alternative-Read.com
The "Inside Story" as told by Sassy Brit and her Gang!

A classical style fantasy novel that draws its influences from many recognizable sources, Wizard’s Bane captures the reader’s attention and draws them into the pages. In the opening paragraphs that are vaguely reminiscent of the start of Terminator: The Movie we meet Dale, a man from a technologically superior world who finds himself marooned in a land of magic. Dale has a penchant for attracting a rag-tag band of followers that, not surprisingly, ultimately end up matching the character profiles found in the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons.

This group of misfits sets out on a multi-focal quest to restore Dale’s missing powers, discover the truth about themselves, and what good fantasy novel would omit – save the world from sure destruction at the hand of otherworldly invaders. The pacing of the story takes a backseat to character development in this book, so not much progress is made towards the fulfillment of their quest, a good thing in this case as all of the characters possess strong but likeable personalities making it difficult to choose a favorite.

As this is book one in a series, the ending is very much a cliffhanger, since it ends rather abruptly right before they reach their first of many goals. Fortunately books two and three, Villenspell: City of Wizards (2005) and Wizards and Wanderers: Book Three of the Sojourn Chronicles (2006) are already available, and books four through six are written but not yet published according to the author’s website.

A few minor flaws: the proof-reading isn’t perfect, leaving behind a few errors that wouldn’t be caught by a spell-checker. The layout style is a little odd and takes a little getting accustomed to as there are an abundance of new paragraphs, the majority of which are only one sentence long.

Reviewed by Sarra Borne for Frontstreetreviews.com ( )

http://www.sfreader.com/read_review.asp?book=1132 ( )

Wizard's Bane - Crystalwizard (6/10)
Fantasy; book 1 of the Sojurn Chronicles; read for [FantasyFavorites].
A solid read that appears on the surface to be a standard "travelling" fantasy, but carries some interesting hidden depths. The growing suspicion of a historical war between magic and psionics and the contrast between the local inhabitants of the planet (a fairly standard fantasy setting) and the high-tech psi characters from off-world raise this up to a higher level. My main issue with the book, which lowered its score, was that I got very tired of the travelling, travelling, travelling and the way we just kept on and on collection more members of the company. All the same, certainly not a bad book. Give it a try. ( )