A Fantastic Fantasy, a Magical 'Magicland'
Katharine Valentino reviews ‘MagicLand’ by Charles Bastille
★★★★★
Magicland, available on Amazon, is, indeed, a fantastic fantasy. Think of the magicians in the fantasies you’ve read. Aren’t they selfish, though? And aren’t they sure that they are entitled to their powers? They don’t seem to care about the rest of us,… well, beyond caring a great deal about whether we admire them. In today’s terms, most of the magicians in our fantastical novels would be called narcissists.
So, I was surprised when I read this book to discover a fantastical culture populated by magicians who are selfless, grateful, and caring. The mastery of magic in this culture requires that a powerful being the people call Yehoshua hear a plea for help and grant a supplicant’s wishes—but only if those wishes should be granted.
It is never “use your powers” or even “use your powers for good.” Rather, it is “ask (or ‘pray to,’ if you wish) Yehoshua to do what he will, and it will be good.
If you’re a regular reader of fantasy, you’ll be happy that all the trappings of fantasy are included: an agrarian society, celebratory feasts, open-air markets, priests and priestesses, textiles and tea. If you’re a regular reader of novels, you’ll be happy that there is also a technological society with its own … narcissistic is not a strong enough word; evil will do … evil magician to vanquish. And if you read history, you will assuredly smile at the historically traditional method used to vanquish the enemy.
A fine review of a novel by Charles Bastille!!!
Leave it to you, Charles, to write a book in which the magicians are ‘selfless, grateful, and caring’. I always root for the good guys. Nice review, congrats!