My Son, the Wizard

This is a great follow-on to the Her Majesty's Wizard book that kicked off the series. This is the fifth in the series. Stasheff is a master of his genre and can't seem to write a bad book that involves magic. If you liked the first book, you'll also enjoy this one. Our hero, Matt Mantrel, spends time in both Merovence and New Jersey as he chases down the bad guys in both worlds and deals with supernatural beings. Ben Bova said that the best way to write a story is to heap problems onto your main character and keep him/her off balance by introducing new ones every time s/he thinks s/he's got one solved. Stasheff does this very well.

Stasheff seemed to have contradicting ideas about what Matt's parents would be like until he brought them on board in this book, but I can forgive him that, and the occasional shifts in POV he makes to explain their backgrounds without decent transitions. Suffice it to say, who knew Matt had such gorgeous parents who were deeply in love with each other and really good spellcasters?

For everyone who loved the Wizard in Rhyme series, this book is a must read. Stasheff provides all the fun and action packed reading put into his first four books, adding more magic and mystery than before. Truly a recommendation for the Christopher Stasheff fan!

The book started a little slow, but ended very good. I liked how Mr. Stasheff bought in Matthews parents and made them wizards, too; and how he is developing the types of wizards. The book was very good, and was a enjoyable division.