Review of The Magician's Secret

[Jaco Du Plooy]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Magician's Secret" by Charles Townsend.]

---

5 out of 5 stars

---

Share This Review

---

Charles Townsend impresses with an unforgettable fantasy called The Magician’s Secret. Interesting characters, plot twists, magic, dukes, and princesses, are all mixed into a broth of pure joy. Delvin, an aspiring young magician, comes to his senses with a chair's leg in his hand near the body of Borlock. With a knife protruding from the lifeless body, and Delvin in the vicinity of the body, the angry town's people assume Delvin is guilty of the murder. Borlock was his friend and mentor, teaching him the necessities of becoming a magician. He survives a kangaroo court and lynching, to become the main character for the rest of the story. Borlock bequeathed all his magician’s paraphernalia to Delvin. With his newly acquired treasure and his acquired knowledge of magic, he decides to become a full-time magician. He moves to the bigger city of Hengel. He makes a living by selling charms and potions and performing magic shows, and fortune-telling sessions. Duke Poldor, the duke of Hengel, perceives one of his fortunes-tellings as traitorous. He has Delvin arrested. The duke's daughter, Princess Jarla, saves his neck by breaking him out of jail. She has her own agenda for him. Jarla, Delvin, and a lady called Fionella set off on a journey to try and stop the war between Hengel, and the neighboring city of Argent. Telling more will spoil it for aspiring readers. Just one more secret; presumably Fionella is the daughter of the duke of Argent.

If you love a story somewhere between Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Pirates of the Caribbean, you will enjoy this fantasy. Completely fictitious locations enhance the mystery and magic. The storyline does not predict the ending, or even the road the story takes at all. You are forced to read the whole book. There are a few instances of assumed sex in the story, but nothing explicit. The book has no profound language in it. You must be able to stomach some descriptions of violence though.

I do not find any negatives in the book. I do have two suggestions though. The maps at the beginning of the book are a bit small for e-book readers. With no way to enlarge or enhance it, it is not as informative as it could be. I would have loved to see the maps every time our heroes enter a new town. My second suggestion is a better description and introduction of the characters. Except for the spikey hair of Duke Poldor, we do not really know how the rest of the characters look. Maybe Charles Townsend omits these descriptions of characters, to encourage the readers to use their own imagination.

I rate The Magician’s secret 5 out of 5 . I thoroughly enjoyed it. I suggest this book to readers of action and adventure stories, historic fiction readers, and young adults. Congratulations to Charles Townsend on The Magician’s secret, a well-written, and well-edited book.

******
The Magician's Secret
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes | on Smashwords

[Harshitha Nayak]

One of my favourite book I have read on this site. It got captive narrating style with good characters. Your review is exactly how I felt whole reading the book. Do check the next two installments of Delvin with Princess Jarla and other friends.

[Amy Luman]

For anyone who thinks that the law assumes too much in this time period, it is nothing compared to how it is portrayed in this book I am happy that Princess Jarla believes in Delvin’s innocence. It gives me hope. Thanks!

[Ludovica Peruzzi]

I've read this book too! Unfortunately my review was kept private, so I'm left to share my thoughts in other people's reviews, lmao. I enjoyed it as well, but I totally agree with you that the lack of physical descriptions made it hard to visualize the characters, and what bothered me even more was the lack of general characterization. Maybe the next books are better in that regard though - who knows!