The Western Wizard

by Mickey Zucker Renshai

Reviewed by Coral

With the war over, the few remaining Renshai concentrate on surviving. Colbey faces enemies on all sides as he tries to train his young charges: the northern wizard believes he is the prophesized doom; the Northern tribes are determined to carry out their wizard’s wishes and eradicate the last Renshai, even if it means another war; and Emerald, mother of the child Rache left behind, hates what she sees her son becoming. Can the Renshai survive this newest onslaught?

The plot of this book seemed very disjointed.

I didn’t really like the wizard aspect last time and I still don’t. They have long lives and are tasked with interpreting prophecies and trying to influence man to be either good, evil or neutral. To me, they just seem to drag the plot down. I never really cared about the missing Western Wizard or if there would be a new one. And despite the back of the book claiming this was a central plot, it only really ever popped up here and there.

There was a lot of time spent on a relatively minor character winning a throne back and then the beginning of hostilities between the Northern and Western tribes and then the book just skips ahead ten years or so.

I found Colbey annoying. At times his actions and thoughts seem to contradict one another. He will swear he doesn’t want to repeat the mistakes that the Renshai have made in the past, but he turns around and does it anyways, then is horrified to find someone committing the same acts against his people.

Then the characters just seemed to wander aimlessly for the later stages of the book, with no real purpose.

Grade: C