The Wizard of London

I've enjoyed Mercedes Lackey's "Elemental Masters" series for some time now, and I was certainly not disappointed with this addition to the setting. Once again, I am impressed with the author's ability to take elements from a classic fairy tale and reweave them into an original and engaging new story that still rings true to the source material. I found the protagonists likable, the antagonists believably-motivated, and the magic as vivid as ever. I was glad of the glimpse into David Alderscroft's past; in previous books, we've seen him older, and already set in his ways. It was interesting to see how he'd gotten there. "The Wizard of London" is a novel I'll definitely re-read.

Gripping, and engaging tale of psychics, ancient spirits, and elemental magic in London, and in the bucolic English countryside. It can stand alone, or be a part of the Elemental Masters series. It also helps that you've read The Snow Queen.

The Wizard of London (2005) is the fourth Fantasy novel in the Elemental Masters series, following Phoenix and Ashes. In this novel, Isabelle Helen Harton is headmistress of the Harton School For Boys and Girls, a boarding school for the children of expatriates in India and elsewhere. The school is staffed by Isabelle's former servants and friends from India and thus provides a sense of home in the strange homeland. Unlike many other boarding schools, the Mems'b and her staff are always willing to let a homesick boy or girl cry on their shoulders. Then too, the Harton School provides special training to boys and girls with different Talents than Elemental Magic. The Mems'b has various psychic skills such as telepathy and psychometry and some of her staff have similar talents. Frederick Harton, her husband, also has some precognitive ability. The Harton School has been praised by mages and psychics around the world, especially for its warm and caring atmosphere. The parents of Sarah Jane Lyon-White have heard about the school and have written to reserve a place for her. Isabelle meets the ship at the dock, sorts out Sarah's luggage, settles her in a cab, and then welcomes her with a hug. Although she loves the Mems'b, Sarah is still lonely at Harton. She gets along with the other students, but lacks real friends among the children. She also misses Grey, her parrot and protector. Since she is more used to conversing with adults than children, Sarah's best friends are the Gurkha, the Sikh and the Muslim warriors who protect the school. One day she is asked to help Karamjit pass on a basket of food to poor children at the back gate. There she meets Nan, a gifted child of the streets. After several talks and one very frightening experience, Nan joins the school as a student who pays her way by helping in the nursery. Sarah and Nan bunk together and become best friends. Sarah has the unusual psychic ability of communicating with ghosts. While false mediums are very common in Europe, only a few have real talents. One day Sarah and Nan accompany Mems'b and her friend to a seance and expose a fraudulent medium. Thankfully, Sahib Harton and the three warriors are nearby to protect them from a dangerous situation. After this incident, word of Sarah's ability becomes common knowledge among the Talented set. Isabelle always refuses any request to use this talent; after all, Sarah is not surrounded by ghosts clambering to speak to their parents or other loved ones. Then a cabby comes to the door with orders from Isabelle to pick up Sarah and Nan and deliver them to a fashionable address; only Mems'b has no knowledge of these orders, the house is almost empty, and something evil lurks upstairs. As in the previous novels of this series, the flavor of England's past suffuses every page. In this case, the tradition of the late Victorian era is a very pertinent factor in the storyline. It is a time when women of the gentry are only exp

Her missionary parents send their twelve year old daughter from the Congo to England to attend the Harton School for Boys and Girls. Sarah Jane Lyon-White doesn't command Elemental Magic like her parents so she must learn from Isabelle Harton how to use her Talent (psychic powers). The mistress of the school, hers husband and several students are talents that must have a teacher to guide them when their power manifest themselves. Sarah shows signs of being a telepath but at a séance she exposes a fake medium while a spirit possesses her to communicate with another attendee. Sarah's untrained medium skills come to the attention of an Elemental Master who doesn't want the girl to discover the mage is using dead children as revenants. The killer sets a trap but Sarah and her allies defeat the haunt. Isabelle wants to know who is after her charge and she starts asking questions of the Elemental Masters. Her queries bring her to the attention of Elemental Master Lord David Alderscroft, who loved Isabelle before he came under the influence of Lady Cordelia. He then dumped Isabelle and anyone who couldn't be useful to him. His cold heart endangers England and if Isabelle and her friends can't show that he is heading down a dark cold path, it will lead to tragedy for the entire English Empire. Book Four of the Elemental Masters is a magical, spellbinding adult fairy tale. The fabulous fantasy contains the wicked witch, a beautiful queen, her adoring court and a prince who needs to learn how to feel again instead of always manipulating people for his own goals. Mercedes Lackey never fails to write a book that will please her myriad of finds and her latest magical storyline and well developed characters will send readers into euphoria. Harriet Klausner

In the anthology, Werehunter, in the late 1990s, I made the acquaintance of a wonderful pair of characters. They are good friends, although near polar opposites, they are deeply loyal to their friends, and they are significantly more than they seem. Their names are Grey and Norville, and they are birds. Knowing that Mercedes Lackey is in love with birds, it would not have surprised me that Grey and Norville would make a return engagement. In Wizard of London, Lackey includes the material from her stories "Grey" and "Grey's Ghost" in a new novel that combines her stories about paranormals with the stories of the Elemental Masters. (You can read the original stories online at the Baen Free Library, where Misty has graciously permitted Werehunter to be posted.) In this new story, we meet the young Lord Alderscroft, as he is just starting up the wizard's circle in his club that we've seen before. We also find out that ice is as important as Fire, even though it is not one of the cardinal elements. While most people thought this might be the end of the Elemental Masters stories, it appears that this might instead be the beginning of a new chapter entirely. Nice work, Misty! Walt Boyes The Bananaslug. at Baen's Bar