March 2023 Book Club: Wizard's Alley by James Haddock

  

 My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult, Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Clean

 

Scraps, a gutter child, is sitting in his hiding place in a back alley, waiting for the cold thunderstorm to pass. Suddenly, lightning strikes in front of him, and then a second time. The two lightning bolts become men—two wizards—one from the Red Order, the other from the Blue.
The Red Wizard, chanting his curses, throws lightning bolts and fireballs. The Blue Wizard, singing his spells, throws lightning bolts and ice shards. So intense is their fighting, they become lightning rods. It seemed as if God Himself cast His lightning bolt, striking the ground between them and consuming both wizards in its white blaze. Scraps watched as the lightning bolt gouged its way across the alley, striking him.

Rain on his face awakens Scraps. The only thing left of the fighting wizards is a smoking crater and their scattered artifacts. He feels compelled to gather their possessions and hide them and himself. The dispersed items glowed red or blue, and he notices that he now has a magenta aura. Magenta, a combination of both red and blue, but more powerful than either.
Scraps then does what he has done all his life to survive. He hides. And unknowingly, he has become the catalyst for change in the Kingdom.

 

This is the story of an overpowered Gary Stu wizard. There isn't much substance to it. It kind of reads like an off the cuff bedtime story to a six year old. It starts out with a gutter rat being hit by the powers of two dueling wizards, and somehow obtaining their powers. He then goes on to better his life, but he has no challenges. All he ever has to do is say, "give me all your knowledge" to someone and then he knows what they know. He heals people. He kills people. He magically builds things. He steals other people's money. He makes lots of his own money. He even has the queen fall in love with him. There are no limits to this power, except for getting a little tired on occasion.

It reads like a travelogue, "I did this, and then I went here and did that." The story would have been so much better if there had been challenges, like having to learn how to use the magic, for one. Limitations on the magic would have been more interesting too. And for goodness sake, some character development. I was 74% into this book when I looked down to see how much longer I had left, and realized I had had enough. I just couldn't take 2 more hours of it. I've never rolled my eyes so much during a book.