Blake Charlton - Spellwright

Title: Spellwright (Spellwright, book 1)
Author: Blake Charlton
Pub. year: 2010
Pages: 467
Editor: HarperVoyager

Summary: In a world where words can come to life, an inability to spell can be a dangerous thing. And no one knows this better than apprentice wizard Nicodemus Weal.
Nicodemus Weal is a cacographer, unable to reproduce even simple magical texts without ‘misspelling’ – a mistake which can have deadly consequences. He was supposed to be the Halcyon, a magic-user of unsurpassed power, destined to save the world; instead he is restricted to menial tasks, and mocked for his failure to live up to the prophecy.
But not everyone interprets prophecy in the same way. There are some factions who believe a cacographer such as Nicodemus could hold great power – power that might be used as easily for evil as for good. And when two of the wizards closest to Nicodemus are found dead, it becomes clear that some of those factions will stop at nothing to find the apprentice and bend him to their will…

Since I am willing to be a speech therapist, this summary caught my eye. The beautiful cover helping, I bought the book pretty quickly after discovering it. I'm glad I did.

The author's way of bringing his handicap through the story is really clever and brings something special to it. And it allowed people to start understanding what it feels like to suffer that kind of disorder. Nicodemus isn't perfect, he's got his problems, his faults, his dreams, like anybody else. But if I liked his personality, I was a bit disappointed because I couldn't really become attached to the characters. Even if some of them have really interesting parts. It was like I was watching from beyond a veil. I really hope it gets better in the next 2 books.

Apart from that, I really enjoyed the story, the magic inside. I loved the different creatures we heard about, even if the beginning was a bit confusing and we don't really know what we are dealing with. I also appreciated to see different civilisations with their own beliefs. The frame is well written and well thought. But I am disappointed with the last 2 chapters, they should have been in the next book, not at the end of this one. It breaks the 'to be continued' end there could have been. The end is interesting, but it is not a end to me. It is a beggining stopped at a point where it shouldn't be.

Anyway, as you can see, it's hard to feel the whole stuff just after this introduction book, so I'm looking forward to read the following ones.

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Robin Hobb - The Dragon Keeper

Title: The Dragon Keeper (The Rain Wild Chronicles, book 1)
Author: Robin Hobb
Pub. year: 2010
Pages: 553
Editor: Harper Voyager

Summary: Too much time has passed since the powerful dragon Tintaglia helped the people of the Trader cities stave off an invasion of their enemies. The Traders have forgotten their promises, weary of the labor and expense of tending earthbound dragons who were hatched weak and deformed by a river turned toxic. If neglected, the creatures will rampage—or die—so it is decreed that they must move farther upriver toward Kelsingra, the mythical homeland whose location is locked deep within the dragons' uncertain ancestral memories.
Thymara, an unschooled forest girl, and Alise, wife of an unloving and wealthy Trader, are among the disparate group entrusted with escorting the dragons to their new home. And on an extraordinary odyssey with no promise of return, many lessons will be learned—as dragons and tenders alike experience hardships, betrayals . . . and joys beyond their wildest imaginings.

Robin Hobb has written some of my favorite books ever. So, when I saw that she wrote another part of The Realm of Elderlings, I couldn’t wait to read it! And since I didn’t want to wait for it to be translated in French, I bought it in English when I was in London last summer.


For those who don’t know Robin Hobb’s Realm of Elderlings, these are the books you can find in it (I’ve read those in red):

The Farseer trilogy: 

Assassin's Apprentice - Royal Assassin - Assassin's Quest

The Liveship Traders: 

Ship of Magic - The Mad Ship - Ship of Destiny

The Tawny Man: 

Fool's Errand - The Golden Fool - Fool's Fate

The Rain Wild Chronicles: 

Dragon Keeper - Dragon Haven

Short stories:

Homecoming - The Inheritance - Words Like Coins - Blue Boots - Cat's Meat

The Rain Wild Chronicles, new addition to The Realm of Elderlings, takes place in the Rain Wild (no way) and in Bingtown, like in The Livership Traders. If Althea or Brashen are names we’ve already seen before, they’re not the main characters of this story. We follow new ones, like the dragon Sintara, Thymara who lives in Trehaug or Alise, a young women more interested in dragons than in men. Between each chapter of the book, notes are sent between two keepers of the birds about stuff of their “world” (family, city, events, …).
It wasn’t really easy at first to get into the story, ‘cause it was the first time I tried Robin Hobb in English. I had to learn the vocabulary of this world, and as in French, I had to learn to know the character in order to really appreciate the story. But once this done, it was a really nice reading. Being back to Robin Hobb’s world is always such a pleasure. She brings so much stuff in her worlds, her imagination is amazing and she knows damn well how to write what she has in mind!
Anyway, the book ends on a little cliff-hanger, not really frustrating but teasing enough to make me wanna read the second. Even without it I would have read it, anyway!
My only regret is that I didn’t chose a better moment to read this book, ‘cause I know I read slower in English, and it was an exam period, so...
I’ve bought a copy of the second book and will try to have it signed at the Imaginales that she will attend (in France, in two weeks). I probably won't have time to read it before the signing, but I'll try to do it as soon as possible to be back in this world again!

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