Fantasy fiction is notoriously difficult to write; it’s not just medieval trappings, monsters and a bit of magic sprinkled throughout. It’s a challenge. And the first 10 pages of any fantasy book are usually where you hook or lose the reader. The author has to convince the reader that this fantasy world has some verisimilitude; it needs to seem “real” even though it’s filled with spirits, wizards, flying bagels or whatever.

Lawrence Watt-Evans almost loses the reader in the first few pages of his new book THE WIZARD LORD, because of his one great weakness: inadequate description. Descriptive passages are even more difficult to write than realistic dialogue. Too little description can leave a scene lifeless, and too much can be boring. Watt-Evans provides an ample amount, but it’s generally dull. Where Peake or Eddison might wax poetic about darkling shades of crimson, Watt-Evans is content with saying “red.” This can be off-putting, but the reader should persevere because what Watt-Evans has accomplished here in this first book of THE ANNALS OF THE CHOSEN is a powerful study of governmental checks and balances, and the use and abuse of power in a convoluted system.

Ooh, sounds like civics class, doesn’t it? But no, this is really much more exciting. Basically, the world of Barokan is ruled over by a Wizard Lord, an all-powerful mage who controls the weather, manages the crops, tames the wild beasts and punishes fugitives and rogue wizards. But since the Wizard Lord is all-powerful, he could abuse that power. In that case, there is a group of eight individuals, the Chosen, whose duty is to judge and slay the Wizard Lord if he turns evil. These Chosen are just average citizens but endowed with magical abilities so they automatically become the greatest Swordsman, Archer, Leader, Seer, Beauty, Scholar, Thief and Speaker in the land. And yet, even the Chosen aren’t the final word, for there is also a Council of Immortals, or group of wizards, from whom one is picked to be the Wizard Lord. This Council also controls who amongst Barokan’s citizens becomes a member of the Chosen, and so on.

It’s all fairly complicated, especially when you have to consider that the world’s greatest Swordsman literally is that; he cannot be defeated by swordplay. And the Wizard Lord has truly phenomenal power, able to wipe out entire villages with a plague in nothing flat. But if the Wizard Lord kills one of the Chosen, that means one-eighth of the Lord’s power is also removed, since their magical powers are intimately entwined. Maybe this is why few Wizard Lords have gone rogue in the past.

We get an up-close view of this entire system through a young farm boy known as Breaker. He meets up with the Swordsman, one of the Chosen, who is old and tired and searching for a replacement. The novel begins with the recruitment process of Breaker becoming the new Chosen Swordsman, and then we follow the new Swordsman out into the world. This is a clever way of introducing the entirety of Barokan to both the reader and the protagonist, while at the same time getting us involved in the world’s political system and infrastructure.

As you might have guessed by now, the current Wizard Lord isn’t what you would call all sugar and spice. So the Chosen are forced into action, or at least into discussing potential actions, since not everything is always as it seems in Barokan. And Watt-Evans does well in presenting the ethical conundrum that faces the Chosen and informs their duty. We’ve got a great start to what could be a really fascinating fantasy series. I’m excited to follow the adventures of the Swordsman as he continues his explorations throughout Barokan, and as he attempts to right what he feels are the lopsided political constructs of the world in which he lives. Definitely ready for the next book. –Mark Rose

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