I don't know why C. Dale Brittain's work makes me nostalgic, since the wizard of Yurt series is a product of the past two decades, but there is something about her writing that reminds me of the great fantasy writers of eld. The books are finely grained, detailed with an imaginary pre-crusade Europe, dotted with little kingdoms like Yurt. It is a place where wizardry and the church exist in an uneasy peace.
Daimbert is the royal wizard of tiny Yurt, happily resigned to using his mediocre magical skills to serve the court of King Haimeric. Yurt isn't the kind of place where adventure lurks in every corner, and Daimbert is delighted to help it along. But something is rotten in the Holy Land. The queen's uncle has vanished on a pilgrimage and now Haimeric has resolved to go on a quest to find him. Soon the King, Daimbert, the castle priest Joachim, Dominic, Hugo, and Ascelin, three royal relatives, set out for the east on a pilgrimage, a quest for the missing friend and a deep blue rose.
As they ride over the European countryside the encounter brigands, wizards, and sorcerers (and plenty of nice people as well, but novels aren't made from 'nice'). Expect quite a bit of adventure, a lot of character exposition, and the simple delights of a novel written by someone who thinks that, while hacking and slashing might have to happen, the real meat of a good novel is the way characters interact and experience their world.
It is a shame that these books have never enjoyed the kind of following that keeps them in print, because this kind of writing is very much a thing of the past. Nowadays we are either whisked through an all action adventure, or bogged down in a book that can take weeks to read. Daimbert and friends are thoughtful, interesting people on a quest that take takes a number of twists and turns as the hunt for purple roses and black pearls becomes more complex with each mile. |
Mage Quest Books In Print, Audio Books.