Tomes of Spellcasting

Welcome to the land of mystery, where the impossible is possible, and the improbable the reality. Join me as I investigate worlds filled with magic and meet the souls that wield this wondrous powers.

This review does not represent the opinions of the general public. It reflects my personal thoughts and opinions on the book.

That said, on to the review!

With a powerful sorceress for a mother and a powerful wizard for a father, Christopher Chant should have reaped a great deal of power from them himself. Yet, to all outward signs, he has no magical talent to speak of. On the other hand, he has proven himself able to wander out of the world to which he belongs into a large number of other worlds, and he brings back souvenirs to prove it as well. Then, to his dismay, he is taken from the boys' school he has been studying at for private tutorship at Chrestomanci Castle, where he is all alone with no friends except for the special cat he brought back from one of his trips into other worlds. Meanwhile, the entire castle staff is busy doing all they can to stop the Wraith, a criminal mastermind who is flooding the markets with all sorts of illegal goods like dragon's blood. Finally, something goes wrong, and Christopher is one of the only ones left with any magic to speak of. Now it is up to him and him alone to save the world...or worlds. Can he pull it off?

The Lives of Christopher Chant is the second of two complete novels in The Chronicles of Chrestomanci Volume I. Like the first, in revolves around the life experiences of a boy not yet ascended to the post of the Chrestomanci, the nine-lived enchanter who guards the Related Worlds from the misuse of magic. And like in the first novel, the hero is doomed to be part of the problem before he is part of the solution.

Given how much unpleasantness Christopher has had to endure, it's hardly surprising that he would be less than tolerant of being dragged out of school--where he has been enjoying life more than he thought he would--and being trapped in a castle of people who treat him like a little boy with more magic than they have combined without even knowing how to treat a boy to begin with, with the end result of thoroughly alienating Christopher. On the other hand, he doesn't exactly go out of his way to make friends with them either, so I guess it all ends in a stalemate. We could wish that Christopher were more friendly because we would then have a chance to see how good he can be, but then we'd be deprived of the chance to see him suddenly and forcefully put in his place.

The Chronicles of Chrestomanci Volume I: The Lives of Christopher Chant supposedly takes place before Charmed Life, even though it was written after the first novel. But don't let the chronology get you down. Each story is completely self-contained, so you don't have to worry about events in one book directly impacting events in the other. Actually, though, you'll get so involved in the story, I doubt you'll have time to worry!

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