Hedgewitch

Absolutely gripping, first part of book/story catches up and puts Footwizard and All the characters in perspective. What happens whilst Min is away, and the various happenings at home, whilst Min is searching for the Alon armoury. Various rebellions and Tavards meddling, where he finally goes too far. Then takes the storyline of what Min does with the knowledge he has gained. The enshadowed abducts Mins friends and Min starts to plot. I enjoyed book 14. I would certainly say read the previous book Footwizard because it will put Hedgewitch in perspective. Happy reading. Another masterpiece from Terry Mancour. Makes the reader want more.

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Another excellent episode of Spellmonger

Running on a time parallel with book 13. Hedgewitch
Concentrates on the developments of Castalshar
Through the perspective of the Alshari court wizard and her deputy.
More please

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An excellent book

This was fantastic, we got some insight into different characters rather than just the main one. This book was less heavy than the last one I thought.

The narrator did a great job and I prefer John Lee's voice for the kitten.

A most enjoyable listen.

I can't wait for the next book.

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A lost chance for growth… (Spoilers)

There are a lot of garden metaphors in this novel, so let me sun up my review in one: Terry needs to weed his plot, and may tend to some of his flowers, because they’re sick and this garden is rocky, to say the least.

From the wonderful heights of science-fantasy in a land of ice and fire in the far north of the Realm we are plunged into the realism of politics in South… and that just works very, very badly, I’m not sure why the author felt the need to re-write and ignore sections of his past books or go from such glorious heights to… well… such pointless, petty politics. This book is about Pentrandra being mired in prophecy and clinging to terrible rhyme while actively engaging in the sort of politics Min hates - and I’m going to take a wild guess, most fans of the series are not fond of - Penny seems to be mistaking this setting for the Lies of Locke Lamora, while Rondel… actually, I don’t have much bad to say about Rondel!

This book is a dual viewpoint narrative running through the nine weeks Min is absent in Footwizard, through to… honestly, I sort of lost track how much time had passed, but it can’t be more than three months as they’re not at the Autumn Curia for the next bit of explosive County-level politics.

Let’s go through the positive first: New areas of the setting are touched upon, if not explored - this is good, as it’s nice to see the other cultures that came as part of the colony being explored. I even suspect I know where the United Nations part of the colonial effort has gone, based on hints. Although I’m curious to see how the other parts of the colony have been undermined, or why they’ve not come to help.

The Watchtower, this was quite inspired, and nicely hinted at, I think now know what’s going on there, and the hints towards a battle at sea and on land with the Black Censors and a final reckoning with a certain pirate family in the transparently to come ‘Seamage’ really appeals.

The final prophecy. Particularly the use of Serenity, I confess I chuckled and hummed the Firefly theme tune, which is clearly intentional, as well as being an excellent play on words. I look forward to some Dark Lords meeting military grade plasma weaponry and whatever crazy explosives the humani still have, never mind seeing the Countess of the Magelaw, Baroness of Sevendor going gun-fu on someone. She’s spent far too long being helpless and her potential link to the Snowflake and her powers only being hinted at.

Rondel - all of him, he’s a good and growing character.

Magi vs. Sword-Monkeys:- This has been coming for so long, I’m not sure how Penny thought she could control the temper or egos of a nation that crushed two goblin armies, slaughters dark lords by the bushel. Bluntly, when you have a hammer and an anvil, you have to expect someone’s going to use them to beat what they want into the tool they need. Particularly given how many smarmy examples of petty nobility we’ve been exposed to, and the arrogance of even the minor Imperial Houses, none of whom compare to what a bunch of renegades and outcasts from the easts and Narasi wizards who clawed their way up from their ‘proper’ station have managed to achieve.

Spellmonger Diplomacy: ‘Your majesty, you told me that if I made you king, you’d make me Archmage… well, with your son and King to Be, who is also my archenemy sitting in this room, I’m calling in that chit.’ - I shouldn’t smirk at watching all Penny’s plans shatter, but to quote Min ‘The woman irks me’ - which sadly, brings me into the flaws.

The flaws can be summed up in one name: Pentandra.

Oh Penny? What has happened to you? Why did I listen to approximately 12 hours of my life of you being a whiny child who, believing you know more than everyone else, decides to try and play your game of whispers with them, rather than talking to them… and becomes more and more unhappy with every continuing moment you follow prophecy, despite the very gods telling you that you’re stupid. Your own apprentice has more sense than you. And no, laughing over being able to tell the fated lover your apprentice explicitly states she doesn’t want by the colour of their boots (which she can’t see because she’s blind) is neither big, nor clever. Actually, that pretty much sums up Penny’s foolishness.

Hedgewitch is clearly aimed to be Pentandra’s ‘path to wisdom’ novel, but somehow it gets turned into a depressing morass of retold story we don’t care about (unlike Court Wizard, where we were shown another side of the story which did matter) and where Penny confused prophecy with truth, and applies what was one of her better skills (Politics) to everything, including her friends and allies.

This book is immensely frustrating to read as a result, if the author wished to capture the frustrations of a young mother, he did well, but where as in Court Wizard Penny grew into her role as a married woman, as a mother she’s just sulky. From the end of Footwizard I was worried, but this absolutely caps the characters depressing role reversal - from being a mentor, lover, friend and then tag-team partner with the Spellmonger, she fails to grow into any form of wisdom as the Hedgewitch tending her garden, instead she supports the politics of one Dutchy and a Kingdom over the fate of the world - and never _once_ asks if this is a good or a bad thing. Worse, she simply doesn’t trust her friends, and never once talks to her oldest friend about his problems, instead she worries away in the background and shouts at all the people closest to her, while being upset as the Kingdom flies headlong towards a future it was never going to ignore from about Book 5 (and which Min started building to protect against in Book 3) - all her sass and intelligence seems to have been drained out of her, and without sassy, sexy, intelligent Penny you’re left with all her bad character traits: she’s selfish, short-sighted outside of her own small area (somehow, despite having been in the lead before), manipulative and scheming.

Some of her frustrations are understandable, some of the writing is intelligent and there’s a glimmer of hope for some of the political intrigue to be fun in the future, but while the titles of Footwizard and Hedgewitch imply two characters coming into their wisdom, this book fails to deliver as much as Footwizard succeeds.

Somewhere along the line, Penny has ceased to be the potent force she was in the first 5 books, and her role has been flipped on its head, she’s reverted and her role in the story seems pointless. Where as she once badgered Min to step up to the challenge, I can only hope the glimpses that are mentioned are HER being pulled to be up to the challenge by Min.

I’ve not mentioned Rondel’s role as a POV character, honestly I’m not sure what he’s doing in this book - is this now the Story of the Stag and Antlers? Because I couldn’t care less about anything other the Snowflake and the Hammer and Stars (“No, that’s for Sevendor, here in the Magelaw we *hit things with a hammer*.”) and I suspect I’m not alone. Which is a deep, deep pity, because the Rondel and Kitten Show (just imagine it as the 60s Batman, yes, the comic one in tights) is - as before - a very good view and use of the younger generation in a way most ‘cycle’ authors fail to do. Rondel’s narrative, character growth and change into manhood his excellent - spoiled only by the bitter chord of Penny chewing him out for no reason other than his secret plans don’t fit with her (horribly misguided) grand plans, until he snaps that ‘she keeps secrets too’. Rondel learned from the Spellmonger, and while he may not share Min’s aims (Magic in the service of man, for a reasonable fee) and instead holds to a more noble code, he’s still willing to act like a wizard, and does what needs doing on a gut instinct (and not, as the prophecy puts its, a ‘whim’) and succeeds, gaining his masters approval and stabbing a frankly doltish fool of an opponent right in the eye.

As a side note, the superior way in which a nasty spy agency is portrayed as a good thing, when it’s a petty growth of a petty dukedom of a petty kingdom is… disappointing. Why are people not contacting the obviously high technology valley folk, or the obviously still high technology civilisation living under another Jevolar? Pentandra was supposed to be going sailing… indeed, she agreed to do that. But instead she’s followed prophecy and built a super-sized ship in secret? She seems to have willingly abandoned her self agency. Perhaps that’s my problem with her.

Now that I’ve written this, I’m wondering if it justifies three stars, let alone the three and a half it had in my head. I’ve gone back and re-read the relevant original sections of earlier novels, and while there’s some re-writing of history, this book also pulls in several clever seeds… then fails to bring them to flower.

Filler books are rarely going to get a good review from me at the best of times - if you spiral out into multiple narratives, you should keep you main narrative going at the same pace, which means some narratives have to be secondary, or you slow your main narrative and strengthen your secondary ones. But this is the worst of both worlds.

Still, for a book to get two stars I’d need to be very, very disappointed in it - and I’m not, although I’m glad this came out unexpectedly and I was not waiting for it.

I know we’re going to see Seamage before too long, and it disappoints me immensely that Hedgewitch fails to live up to Footwizard in almost every way. I hope the author has a better set of less crammed and more interesting narratives planned out.

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Wonderful book.

This book really ties together the story. I like hearing what the characters were doing when the others were off adventuring. Then combining to one story line. I can't wait till the next book.

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Great struggle continue

Another piece of great storytelling. This one is more of going ons under the rock in Vanador. From wie point of Pentandra, Rondal and Antimei. Events in kingdom get quit out of Pentandra's capable hands while Minalan is on holiday, he returns to find new challenges and rotting enemy making big problems for him.

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Page Turner!

I cannot stress enough how much I enjoyed this book!

First, I would like to praise John Lee for another wonderful narration! He, unlike many other audio narrators, actually puts the time and effort to go the distance! He voices each character with his or her own unique voice, as well as adding extra substance to characters speech, for example, if a character is tired he will pant out the speech. Very few other audio narrators do such a thing. This helps us, the listener to be more immersed in the story than before!

As for the story, the main bulk of the story is after Minalan leaves Vanador and heads towards the Jevolar. From there we see how Penny dealed with a realm without a way to contact the mighty Spellmonger, even mind-to-mind. It's increadibly fun to read; we see how Terl basically conquered almost all of Gilmora, and how Prince Tavard responded. We see how the relationship between Gatina and Rondal has matured and possibly what their future will look like. We also get to see Penny lose her mind as she tries her level best to keep the Kingdom together just long enough for the Spellmonger to come back.

As for the ending! This ending shattered the world! Or at least the power balance between the Kingdom and the Alka Alon Council! It was so fun to read/listen too!

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Absolutely brilliant

Loved the combining of two storylines and the light that is cast on more than the main character. Superbly written, produced and delivered. This series of books just keeps getting better each time. Roll on the next one.

great read as always

my only compliant is can the next one be here , love the series and I thirst for more

Can’t wait for next book

I have loved all the books and the story just got better & better … just can’t wait for the next one !!!