The Wizard Lord by Lawrence Watt-Evans

Let me start by saying that I have not read anything previously written by this author, so I had no idea what to expect. I really liked this book. Is it "The greatest book I have read!" no, but is very good and I can whole heartedly recommend it.

I really like the way the world is set up. The basic premiss is this. Wizards once roamed the world, free to do anything they wanted to. Usually they did just that. Raped, stole, killed, had wars wtih each other that claimed innocent victims and ravaged the land so that it was no longer usable. So back in the day, they formed the Council of Immortals. This council then chose one of their own to become the "Wizard Lord". The wizard lord was given immense power and would use this power to control the weather, hunt down rouge wizards and generally keep the peace through out the whole land. With so much power that not even the council of Immortals could match, they needed a way to keep the Wizard Lord in check, thus they created "The Chosen". The chosen are 8 common individuals, given magic that the Wizard Lord can not really defend against and that magic is also linked with his own. If the Wizard Lord were able to kill one of the 8 Chosen, his power would be reduced by 1/8. So if he goes mad and is somehow able to defeat all the Chosen, then his power would be reduced to or below that of any common wizard and the Council of Immortals can take him/her out themselves.

The Chosen are made up of-

The Leader. He has powers of persuasion and can form plans of attack. It is he that will lead the Chosen to remove any wizard lord that has gone mad.

The Archer- His magic enables him to hit any target with his bow and enable him to move around undetected to make the shot that he needs to make.

The Scholar- His magic allows to remember any true tale that he is told. He is an overflowing vat of information.

The speaker- Can her the words of the Ler, the magic of the lands. Can speak any language and understand any language. Knows the true name of anyone or anything, which gives him/her power over that person/thing. True names are never used in this world, for they give power over that individual.

The Beauty- Is the most Beautiful person in the world. Can distract anyone with their Beauty and also has the power to heal others.

The thief- Can move unnoticed and can enter any dwelling or escape any prison.

The Seer- Can see various things. Is always aware of where the Chosen and the Wizard lord are. Knows if the Wizard Lord's presence is near and if he is using some animal or insect to listen and watch.

The greatest Swordsman in the World- His magic makes him the perfect swordsman. Able to anticipate an opponents moves, can move with blinding speed and is unbeatable in combat.

The Story begins in a town in the farth north hills of the land Barokan, with a small farming village celebrating the harvest. Three strangers are present, guests of the local preist. The local priest is the one who speaks to the Ler of thier village and is responsible for the successful harvests that they have and acts as leader of the village. The locals are curious who their guests are and offer thier hospitality. The visitors turn down the invitation to drink with them. They reveal that one of them is The Greatest Swordsman in the World and that they have been lead there by the ler to find his replacement. A local youth called Breaker, they don't use their true names, steps up and offers to become the swordsman. It is explained that he must train first and see if he can handle the job and then he best the current Swordsman in combat. The first to draw blood wins, Breaker trains every day with the swordsman and learns more about the role the chosen play. He has doubts about becoming the swordsman because he doesn't want to kill anyone. It is explained that there has not been a mad Wizard lord in over a century, so he really has nothing to worry about. After months of training, wizards are called to watch the duel to see if Breaker is worthy of taking over for the swordsman. Even though the swordsman can never lose a fair fight, he is able to throw the fight, letting Breaker win. The wizard lord, possess an animal so that he may be present to watch the duel. The original swordsman fights a bit harder than he is suppossed to and Breaker wonders if he is going back on his word to throw the fight. The wizard lord speaks durring the duel, distracting the old swordsman and Breaker draws blood. After he is bound with the magic by the wizards present, Breaker is told by the old swordsman that he has doubts about the current Wizard Lord. Breaker is a bit upset that he was not told this before he became one of the chosen. The old swordsman leaves the village and Breaker attempts to stay in his village, but finds need to leave and travel and seek out the other chosen that he has never met.

He journeys out and eventually finds two of the chosen. THe seer and the scholar. They inform him that they too have doubts about the current wizard lord. The trio investigate thier suspicions and find that acts have been commited and the Wizard Lord needs to be removed. They must first hunt down the other members of the Chosen and explain what they have found and get a majority vote to remove him.

Once they have gathered, the vote that he must be removed is unanimous. They offer him the chance to resign and live out the rest of his life in peace as a regular member of the Council of Immortals, but the wizard lord refuses. So the Chosen head off to face the Wizard Lord and destroy him for the crimes that he has commited.

I thought the characters were really good and well thought out. I liked the fact that many of the chosen, had never met any of the other chosen, so it made for some good conversation between them. There are other aspects of the stroy and the land in which the characters live, but I will let you discover those on your own. This story line does wrap up in this volume, which I didn't think would happen going in, since it is a book one, but really the strories that the author can come up with involving the chosen are endless, so I guess it doesn't realy matter. I really did like it and I think most fantasy fans will like it too.