The Wizard's Towers
(A Dragon Roads book)
Rhondi Vilott, illustrations by Kirk Miller
Rhondi Vilott Salsitz, publisher
Fiction, YA Fantasy
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: A young bard-in-training, Colin arrives in the kingdom of King Baldin to perform at court and further his education in music and spells. It seems a good and prosperous realm... but soon trouble darkens the domain. The court wizard, Rexor, has a fight with Baldin, and vanishes from the castle - taking the king's youngest daughter, Thaya, as hostage. The princess helped Colin after a run-in with bullies, so he feels he owes her. Armed with a small dagger and his lute, on which he can (sometimes) play a charm spell, Colin sets out to rescue Thaya from Rexor's clutches.
As Colin, you must use your wits and your courage in the face of devious illusions, terrifying monsters, and other dangers. Can you rescue the princess and best the wizard, or will you find yourself trapped forever in Rexor's enchanted towers?
A Kindle-exclusive title.
REVIEW: I considered dropping this a half-star. At its heart, it's mostly a Fluffy Bunny story: though the reader/Colin may face troubles, none of them are outright deadly, and the worst that happens is that he finds himself trapped... sometimes in the wrong body, or in his own mind. The characters also tend to morph depending on which path one takes. In some, Rexor is merely misunderstood, harboring a legitimate grudge against Baldin, while in others he's a heartless sorcerer doing his level best to blast Colin to smithereens. Thaya even swings from being an innocent victim to a spoiled princess fully deserving her fate. (There's a hint of sexism here, with the helpless girl needing to be rescued by a boy.) Those issues aside, Vilott pieces together quite an elaborate web of paths for readers to follow, filled with imaginative (if fairly lightweight) wonders and dangers. Since re-readability is one of the main draws of choose-a-path stories, The Wizard's Towers counts as a strong success here.
In the final balance, taking into account the pluses and minuses and considering the target age, I came out with a solid Okay rating. Young children, or parents reading to young children, ought to enjoy Colin's many magical adventures, so long as nobody expects too much out of it. Less stereotyping, more character consistency across the story paths, and a little more tooth to Colin's peril might have kicked it up another half-mark.
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