Bonus Book! Master of the Five Magics

Happy New Year 2021! Here's one last entry for this crazy 2020. What better than a classic fantasy novel with a pop culture twist? More metaphysical thoughts can wait until January.

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Master of the Five Magics by Lyndon Hardy

Fantasy (1980* - 397 pp.)

Lyndon Hardy's Master of the Five Magics is a buried gem: first published by Del Rey in 1980, fallen out of print despite having a substantial following, only to finally see its second edition unearthed in 2016. Its hero, Alodar, is the son of disgraced nobles who proves himself in all five arts - thaumaturgy, alchemy, magic, sorcery, wizardry - to become the leading suitor to Queen Vendora. Unlike the trope of a quest being forced on a reluctant hero, Alodar is so proactive the other characters frequently attempt to stop him from achieving his goals for his own safety - but Alodar is determined.

Hardy's explanations of the five magics, what identifies and differentiates them, and how Alodar learns them, could be the subject of a trilogy.** Each of the book's first five parts is named after a magic art Alodar learns, until the final part, "The Archimage",*** which explains what Alodar has become by learning all of them. Only through using  the five magics, plus whatever other tools Alodar has at his disposal, can he repel a demonic invasion that comes closer and closer as the story advances. Hardy has broken down all six parts, 18th-century style, into chapters so short it is almost impossible to finish reading one without starting the next. 

The maxims of the magics are reflections of the difficulty Alodar has learning them. For example, when Cedric the Warmaster challenges Alodar to reproduce an alchemical potion, Alodar explains that "Using exactly the same ingredients in the same formulas does not necessarily produce identical results". (102) Sorcery's emphasis on removing the mind from the body is invaluable in a way other genres, like science fiction or any genre involving mysticism, would involve without any attempt at magic. Through the clues Alodar receives, in the form of a magic script, orbs and an artifact, he progresses through these lessons, much like a gentleman scientist learning sequentially more difficult areas of math.

The language in Master of the Five Magics is intentionally archaic, making the book surprisingly difficult to read at times yet in a way that fits the story perfectly. As Alodar finds understanding of the story his life tells, the reads finds understanding of the story Hardy writes. A line like "Thinking more rapidly than he thought possible, he worked the equations to produce four non-equivalent variations" (212) explains the workings of magic (including magic squares) well, but is tiring to read after a while. This is in stark contrast to the action scenes, which Hardy zips like an action movie, making me wish this were a movie. In "The Thaumaturge", Alodar and Aeriel have to escape a ruined castle: "Alodar's muscles tensed. His breathing turned to shallow gasps. Run, run, take the only chance that you have, his body said." (65) This may not seem like the most heroic passage, but much of the book consists of Alodar being humbled into greatness. Once Alodar has learned all five magics, he must battle demons: "Lightning flashed. Deafening thunder cracked through the air. As Handar reached Alodar's side, a cloudlet formed over the blaze." (317) Then there is the final battle, which is the highlight of the book, but who would dare spoil that?

Master of the Five Magics' enduring influence on pop culture extended into the '90s. In 1990, Megadeth released "Five Magics", a song blatantly based on the book, with certain changes made as artistically warranted:

In addition to this song, which made the rounds on my teenage-era CD players too many times to count, there's the enduring influence on Magic: the Gathering. Richard Garfield repeatedly cited Hardy as the inspiration for having five colours of mana, five different magics, in Magic. That paradigm has persisted to this day. You can see the colour wheel, of five different colours (magics), on every single card:

The lag in securing the second edition is one of the book's faults. Hardy had to self-publish it; I do not know who his editor was, but there are a few typographical errors (e.g.: "Aeriel" clearly autocorrected to "Aerial") and the Wikipedia links in the glossary are islands. The Times New Roman text reads like it came straight from Microsoft Word. The cover has a basic Microsoft Word font on it. By contrast, the cover of the first edition looks like what Master of the Five Magics is: the dawn of the classic '80s fantasy novel. On the plus side, the back matter contains an interview with Hardy in which he explains his thought process behind the creation of the laws of the magic, a novel concept for the time. It's like listening to a Venom album: while the source material is good, you know the best was yet to come.

Now for a lyric from "Five Magics" that may sum up Master of the Five Magics without spoiling it:

Magic if you please

Master all of these

Bring him to his knees

Ease of Reading: 6

Educational Content: 2

*I am reviewing the 2016 edition, but the original release date remains important considering the influence the book had.

**There were two later books with different characters and the same magic system, but they are largely forgotten. The point is that the subject matter of Master of the Five Magics could have easily filled three books.

***In order:

"The Thaumaturge" 

"The Alchemist" 

"The Magician" 

"The Sorcerer" 

"The Wizard" 

"The Archimage" 

Merry Christmas 2020 with an Album to Show!

Merry Christmas 2020!

It's been a trying year, but here are a few of Toronto's greatest shots, all courtesy of me: https://myalbum.com/album/4ACpSvxmseGY

Arguably the most iconic. Casa Loma on March 5, 2020, less than two weeks before the city would see an unprecedented lockdown.

Which is your favourite picture?

December's Book: 4 3 2 1

4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster

Fantasy (2017 - 866 pp.)

Astoundingly, 4 3 2 1 is the first novel by Paul Auster I've discussed on this blog, and the first of his I've read in fifteen years. After being assigned his fantastic 1987 dystopian novel In the Country of Last Things as an undergraduate English student in 2005, and recommending it ever since, I somehow managed to evade the rest of his lengthy literary career until now. Why, I have no idea. Whereas In the Country of Last Things reminds me of 1984 and Brave New World, 4 3 2 1 reads more like Barney's Version. For an author to have that breadth of writing, from the chillingly dark to the heartwarmingly hilarious, is almost unheard of.

4 3 2 1 begins on Ellis Island, as so many stories of American immigrant families do. Auster's invented family, ex-Russian-Empire Jews who eventually land in New York City and New Jersey, resemble so many other families of the first half of the twentieth century... until Archie Ferguson* comes along. From that point, 4 3 2 1 follows four different paths Archie's life could have taken, from his birth on March 3, 1947** until the dawn of the 1970s. From a topsy-turvy childhood in the 1950s, to growing into LBJ/Vietnam-era political activism in the 1960s, Archie develops as a writer and student, sometime lover of various people,*** and conflicted family member, in four distinctly different ways.

Slotting 4 3 2 1 into a genre is of considerable difficulty. If you accept that there is some sort of multiverse theory at work, it is arguably science fiction. If you handwave the reasoning behind the different lives, it can be Night Circus-style low fantasy. If you truly do not care why Archie has these four storylines but simply enjoy Auster's sharp sense of humour, 4 3 2 1 is pure comedy.

Archie's timelines go back to the age-old question we all ask at various points in our lives: if I had made an important life decision differently, who would I be now? Archie's circumstances and decisions change drastically, from whether Amy Schneiderman is his girlfriend, his friend, or neither; which school he attends (Princeton or Columbia: not a bad set of options!); or even something as monumental as the duration of his young life. As I have explained using a decision tree, this is an insightful way to craft a character, seeing through the eyes of who that person could have become at any given time. Auster dumps four of those stories on the table, providing the hook for 4 3 2 1, making the reader think back to so many important life events. Like many a New York City-based writer, Archie never becomes a Republican: is this real life writing the plot?

4 3 2 1's best scenes are dramatic, comedic, or both. Auster packs 47 years of Ferguson family history/lore into the introduction, (1-29) which comprises the first 3.35% of the book; some of 4 3 2 1's most charming moments, all squashed together. Auster's description of a young Archie braving a rainstorm at Camp Paradise is one of the best uses of pathetic fallacy - a lightning strike - I have read in recent years. (184) Archie's early literary forays are described in detail, some with excerpts, such as the cute "Sole Mates", but the most all-encompassing is "Right, Left, or Straight Ahead?" (492) In that story, the protagonist Lazlo Flute takes three different paths at a key crossroad, much like Archie does in 4 3 2 1, much like Archie's writing (he's always a writer) is so drastically different in his four storylines. On a less introspective note, college humour takes the form of Archie and his roommate creating fictional character tennis matches, which, naturally, descends into a Dick Diver joke, (586) as 1930s fiction wasn't that old in the late '60s.

For all its emotional directions, 4 3 2 1 drags. It clocks in at an estimated 320,885 words, making it approximately thrice the length of a typical book in its genre. Its 866 pages move quickly, but Archie's girlfriends in different timelines often blur together, making the reader pause to wonder whether all their lovers from ages 19-22 were really just different varieties of student. When the storylines share common events, notably the political tumult of the 1960s, two of those storylines become almost interchangeable.^ Then there is the interminable obsession with sex: I don't recall my teens and early twenties being dominated by sexual thoughts, so is this simply how Archie sees himself? Lastly, the ending is unsatisfying, which after that much inkshed^^ feels as though the reader is being robbed. Without spoiling the book, the ending is abrupt, at an age when Archie's story is just beginning, and contains a "gotcha!" moment that arguably changes the book's genre.

How would I finish this entry? Ikh hob fargessen!^^^

Ease of Reading: 6

Educational Content: 2

*They are Jewish and their last name is Ferguson. This is explained in detail in the book.

**Paul Auster was born on February 3, 1947. The vividness of the current events discussion in 4 3 2 1 lends credence to the idea that, even if the book isn't semi-autobiographical, Auster was very much inspired by the events of his youth.

***Exactly who Archie loves depends on the storyline.

^I am not alone in this observation. On Goodreads, one reader went so far as to use four different-coloured Post-It notes for the four storylines.

^^Like bloodshed but with ink.

^^^When you read the first page of 4 3 2 1, you will understand this reference.