James Patterson is an immensely popular
author he holds the the Guinness World Record for being the first person to sell 1
million e-books. Does that mean that hes any good? Im not so sure. Lets
assume in this collaboration that, as the senior author, hes done the world-building
and plot outline, and Emily Raymond has done the bulk of the writing. Now, Ill admit
that Ive picked up the fifth (and last) book of a series, without reading any of the
earlier novels. But, I still expect to get some kind of feel for the setting. Which
isnt much.
There is a City, somewhere in a dystopian future. Somewhere outside it is
a desert where Horsemen come from. And thats about it. Theres no
infrastructure, and certainly no "rest of the world", so how do all these people
get fed? There is technology and there is magic, so this qualifies as urban fantasy
except for some reason the magic felt more like a super-power, giving a comic book quality
to the whole thing. This might have something to do with the over-the-top no-limitations
nature of magic in Witch & Wizard. Or it might relate to the way a major character
submits to the excision of magic, having their power removed by machine-generated
infrasound of all things. No, I didnt understand why why that would work, or
why anyone with any kind of gift allow it to be arbitrarily removed.
The plot seems to be mainly about the recycling of old villains so the
sibling Witch and Wizard can save their City from darkest evil (yet again, apparently).
There are some good bits, some exciting scenes, and some excellent lines for which
I think we must thank Ms Raymond. I particularly liked, when the TV came on with ranting
villain at 5am
"If this dictator business doesnt work out, hes got
a great future as an alarm clock". The fans seem to be divided, but to me this feels
like a sausage of a book, made of bits and pieces, a link in a chain, churned out without
much thought or care. And, frankly, I did not much care for it, either.
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