Book Review: Spellwright by Blake Charlton

I picked up Spellwright by Blake Charlton when I got an alert it was on sale for just 75cents. This was an incredible price and while I could always just get it from the library, I decided to just buy it and give it a try. I had heard about it a long time ago and had it on my to-read list, just never high enough. Here is the Goodreads blurb:

The fresh, original first novel of a magical fantasy trilogy, about a dyslexic wizard who cannot spell his spells, yet is destined to contend with an ancient evil that threatens to destroy not only all the magic in the world, but all the people as well.

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. But before he can discover the truth about himself, he is attacked by an evil that has already claimed the lives of fellow wizards and has cast suspicion on his mentor. He must flee for his own life if he's to find the true villain.

But more is at stake than his abilities. For the evil that has awakened is a power so dread and vast that if unleashed it will destroy Nicodemus... and the world.

Read on for my spoiler-free review.

Overall Impression

This was quite an interesting novel. It takes some familiar elements of fantasy, like druids, demons, dragons, etc but spins them around an intriguing magic known as spellwriting. The plot is fairly basic, but with some twists and turns and the characters are decent enough. The main selling point is the amount of detail spent into describing how the magic works and how it ties into everything that's going on.

Plot

Spellwright starts of in a magic school and has a clever system of providing background information about the world and the magic in it. While some authors just info dump, Charlton has constructed plenty of dialogue scenes that help reveal the world and even a classroom session that help both build up the characters and also explain how aspects of the magic work. The conflict behind the plot is a bit mysterious and has a few twists and turns as we, alongside the main character Nicodemus, learn more. Overall the pace is pretty fast too and straight to the point. Only at the end did it falter a bit with what seemed to be a very extended epilogue after the climatic moments.

Key to the plot is a prophecy, which while detailed enough to include information about a scar the prophesized one will bear, it's also vague enough that multiple interpretations exist. Will the Chosen one be the Halcyon, the Peregrine, the Storm Petrel, something else? Some interpretations are dangerous, others are only beneficial for some small group of people.

Characters

The main character is Nicodemus Weal, a spellwright known as a cacographer because he suffers from dyslexia. In a world where magic is spelled, having such a condition is extremely limiting. He has a connection to the prophecy that drives the plot, but his cacography is an unexpected blocker. His struggle to accept that and find a cure is also very central to his character. Other notable characters include Magister Shannon, the druid Deirdre, and fellow cacographer Simple John, among many others. It's clear the story is focused on Nicodemus, but Shannon had some interesting scenes particularly towards the beginning of the story.

Setting / World Building

The world behind Spellwright is fascinating. Even after finishing there are many mysteries left open. There is a lot of talk about the Solar Empire and gods and demons that feels like it will be fleshed out more in the other novels in this trilogy. Beyond all that is the system of magic. There are multiple languages of magic consisting of a system of runes written on various media, such as a human body, a piece of wood, metal, etc. By correcting writing the various runes in the appropriate medium you can produce magical effects. There are a variety of languages but the ones the wizards use most often is silvery Magnus and golden Numinous. Not only is it visually striking, but also remarkably logical. There's also talk about something called Language Prime, which may be a precursor to them or one used by the gods.

The gods and demons are another interesting aspect. They appear to be far more prevalent in this world, with some people directly interacting with them. Exactly what makes a god or a demon or something else is something I expect may be developed further. They're certainly players in the greater conflict so understanding that would be neat.

Final Thoughts

I enjoyed this book quite a lot. I had heard about it a long time ago but never picked it up at the time. It was more than I expected and I was entertained by the amount of time spent describing how the magic works in this world. The plot was pretty fast-paced, though the characters could have stood out more. I look forward to reading the rest of this trilogy.