The Royal Quests
Wesley Lowe
Reviewed by Sarra Borne
The Royal Quests is the second book in The
Necromancer
Wars series
that began with 2004’s The Coven
Initiates. In this series the author
has created a fantasy world in which women are proficient in magic, but
men are
not. This leads to bad blood between the
sexes and often to persecution of witches because they possess
abilities that
others envy.
King Macawin is attempting to
oust a usurper from the throne of Kurault.
But without help his armies will surely fail.
It is up to the witches of the Blackwoods
Coven to gain support for the King’s cause by taking on a Royal Quest
in return
for a pledge of support. Three groups
are sent off, the first to find Justin of Kurault, the rightful ruler,
missing
and presumed dead; the second to dispatch a powerful demon sorceress;
and the
third to rescue a ruler’s twin children from a sentient war machine. As each group attempts to further their
quests the war continues to rage on with the Alliance army clinging to
the hope
that the quests will be completed and help will arrive.
The Royal Quests is not a stand alone novel, without reading the
first book in the series many of the nuances of the story are missed. The story has an interesting
juxtaposition
of military strategy with fantastical elements such as harpies, elves
and
fairies. The strategy portion is
reminiscent of a John Marco novel, while the fantasy is pretty standard
fare;
one can see the influence of many popular fantasy writers including
Piers
Anthony and Terry Brooks.
This book, like the first is left
with many of its loose ends unfinished leaving the reader hanging on
until the
next book in the series is completed.
Hopefully the author will tie up them all together in the third
book in
the series tentatively titled The Wiccan
Path. The author has also
written a
prelude 2004’s The Griffin’s Gauntlet
in which the reader is introduced to several of the key characters of
The
Necromancer Wars.