Tomes of Spellcasting--The Grand Tour

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.

W A R N I N G !

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!

Title: The Grand Tour
Author: Jody Lynn Nye
Publisher: Baen Books
Format: Paperback
Copyright Date: 2000

Dreamland's been opened to the Waking World. Well, sort of. Now the Dreamlanders are guiding Visitors on tours of the different provinces. Chuck Meadows is one of a group of visitors, on an astral vision quest in search of Enlightenment. To get there, however, he must first find a way to fill the growing emptiness in him before it completely encompasses his chest and separates his head from the rest of his body? Not even his exceptional strength in wielding influence is able to help him; only the tour and what he experiences on it will help him...if he will let it. However, the tour isn't exactly going as planned. Something, or someone, is determined to upset the tour and prevent Visitors from ever coming back to the Dreamland. And that entity is going to greater and more dangerous lengths to put an end to the current tour. Will Chuck survive long enough to reach Enlightenment, or will he slip into a much deeper sleep than he's already in?

The Grand Tour continues the author's explorations of the Dreamland, a world first introduced in Waking in Dreamland and revisited in School of Light. Despite that Chuck is basically the main character, we do get to see a couple of old friends, most notably Bergold, the historian, and Dreamland's walking enigma Roan Faireven. For the most part, though, they play minor, ableit important, roles in Chuck's story...if that is even his real name.

If you ever had difficulty in understanding what was going on in the first two Dreamland novels, then here's your chance to get a fairly strong grounding in just what the Dreamland is and isn't. We are, after all, following the journey of a man from "our" world into the Dreamland, so we are, in essence, learning about the Dreamland with him. Of course, we already knew something more than he did, but it's still nice to have it all laid out in relatively clear language. Don't let all the explanations get you down, though. This is the Dreamland we're talking about, so the fantastic and magical won't be fading anytime soon.

The Grand Tour may sometimes start talking above your head, but if you just go along with it, eventually you'll float your way up to the words and have them back at your level again. On the other hand, if you have influence enough, you should be able to draw them back down to your level and still understand what's going on. You'll never know until you try, so get trying!

Rating: Thumbs up! The path to Enlightenment is never smooth, but did anyone dream it could be this bumpy?

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This page posted July 16, 2002.

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