Thraxas and the Sorcerers

Business is a bit slow for Thraxas, but he perks up a bit when he learns that the Sorcerers are meeting in the city to decide who should run their outfit. Thraxas, to quote, was 'as happy as an elf in a tree'. He knew that this would involve mayhem and murder, and as overflow, he was likely to get a job out of the whole situation.

Martin Scott's THRAXAS AND THE SORCERERS joins others in the Thraxas series and will best be appreciated by prior fans. Here winter has come to Turai and Thraxas is hired to go undercover at the Sorcerers' Guild elections to be sure the right man is elected. Politics becomes complex and envelopes his life in this riveting adventure.

In wintry Turai, the Transport Guild hires Thraxas the Investigator to uncover which of the sorcerers is stealing precious dragon scales. Thraxas freezes his butt off hiding at the docks to observe what happens. He captures Rexox in the act and refuses a bribe although the criminal confesses owning senators to do his bidding; all Turai wants is a warm bed by a fire perhaps with a beer to ease his going to sleep. Deputy Consul Cicerius hires the Investigator as an Observer at the upcoming Sorcerer's Assemblage that gathers to elect a new leader. The city trying to regain its once influential position insists the next chief come from Turai; however the best candidate Lisutaris is addicted to thazis. Named a tribune so he can get inside, Thraxas is to insure Lisutaris is elected. However, the Tribune has a new issue to deal with; an unknown assassin has stealthily begun murdering folks using sinister magic, but the sorcerers are all at a lost as to how, who or why. Thraxas is on the case. The eighth Thraxas private investigator fantasy is a terrific tale as the hero seems as fresh as ever. This time he "defeats" the daughter of his client in a battle of words, stops a connected thief, embarrassed to be amongst the sorcerers having flunked their entry test years ago, and challenges a silent serial killer. The story line is action-packed and the magical world of Turai seems genuine (a trademark of the series). However, the reason this tale and its predecessors are fun and intelligent is the consistent asides based on observations and conditions from the beer-bellied star. Harriet Klausner

Rodney Meek (elsewhere on this page) writes a review, but his second paragraph refers to Book 6 (Thraxas and the Dance of Death, the one with the green jewel), which comes AFTER this one. FYI.

Another Thraxas adventure by Martin Scott! The UK editions are only a couple of hundred pages long, so they're quick reads. (Some of them get bundled together in the US as two-for-ones.) Note that not all of the Thraxas books have been released State-side. This volume is Book 5 in the series, but Books 3 and 4 don't appear to have made it over to America as yet.At any rate, I found this particular outing (which makes copious references to Book 4) to be the funniest of the lot so far. Here, our intrepid hero has to track down a lost magical amulet for the city's leading sorceress, who spends rather too much time on the water-pipe. Every time Thraxas gets near the missing item, he finds a pile of bodies and just misses recovering the coveted object. Soon the entire city is taking bets on how many people will die before he wraps up his case. Meanwhile, he spends part of his time alternating between despair-driven plots to flee the city and flights of braggadocio. (As he reflects on one success, he cannot help but congratulate himself. "It was inevitable, really. It was more or less bound to happen.") But mostly he sulks over not getting invited to his client's upcoming fabulous party, especially since his young associate Makri gets to go. Good stuff from a strong ongoing series.