There is a map that prefaces the prose in THE OTHER MAGIC and from right there, readers will be either be in or out. Thankfully, there’s no intensive genealogy like in A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones), but there are cities and seas and deserts that will become relatively familiar to readers as they go through the book. One of the best parts about writing fantasy is that the author has a remarkably blank slate. When you’re world-building you can do anything. And here is where THE OTHER MAGIC shows its strengths.
Derrick Smythe has given readers a rich world where orange sand deserts bloom with drogal fruit, rivers are filled with Krakken, air with flying lemurs, and the castles and caves straight out of The Arabian Nights. So there is a rich setting in which to tell the story. And Smythe drops in truly cool concepts, such as an amulet wherein a vicious, psychically-powered being called Grobennar offers insight and insults to the wearer. Grobennar is one of three characters that guide readers through THE OTHER MAGIC—though a fourth starts carrying some of the weight about a third of the way in. The others are a young slave boy, Kibure, and the spoiled prince, Aynward. (The sorceress Sindri is the fourth.) And it’s here where things get a little shaky.
Kibure, while meant to be our main protagonist, may be an accidentally budding magic-wielder and he’s on the run. And whether it’s his youth or just the failings of the novel, he’s a bit of a bore. His chapters have the frustrating habit of ending with him either falling asleep or passing out. Truly, it’s almost as if the kid has narcolepsy. And his “Golly gee, why me?” refrain gets old fast. Grobennar is a somewhat fascinating fixture of malevolence, with his chatty tormentor/helper. Sindri is an exciting narrator, to be sure, but the prince Aynward’s journey into higher education is a complete drag. There’s a too-long chase through mountains where one of the flying lemurs (called raavens) plays out the requisite St. Bernard role, with flourish. The fantasy world is rich, the characters are semi-interesting, but Smythe then sadly struggles to figure out what to do with them.
THE OTHER MAGIC is the first book of a series and its cliffhanger does encourage readers to pick up the next installment, where perhaps the characters adventures are a little more juiced up.
While the make-believe world of THE OTHER MAGIC is rich, it is peopled with semi-interesting characters and a laborious plot, is a perfectly capable fantasy novel.
~Steven Foster for IndieReader