The Wizards of Once [Book review]
five out of out of five hairy fairies
Would recommend if: You like books such as Harry Potter. This book series is written for children, but if I’m honest I think sometimes children get the better books. While some things are obviously explained for children I would definitively say adults can enjoy this as well – at least I thoroughly enjoyed it despite my 23 years. It is humorous, and not just in a small chuckle kind of way, this is laugh-out-loud-like-an-idiot funny. The story is complicated enough to keep a reader engaged, but without going over the edge and adding complications just for the sake of adding complications like adults often do (both in life and fiction). The plot twists are a nice mix between oldies and goodies and the more surprising and unexpected variety (won’t give examples here, but if you read it you’ll see what I mean).
The negative side (because I don’t believe in the existence of perfection): The only thing that struck me about this was that the entire book takes place in one day. While this seems a bit extreme and must surely mean every character is running on adrenaline by the end of it, it isn’t impossible and it does fit the story – especially because it’s a children’s book, and children often have more energy (or to use a good old Danish saying: har krudt i røven).
Plot: Xar is a boy from the Wizarding tribe, and Wish is a girl from the Warrior tribe. The Wizards have been living in the forest for as long as anyone can remember and were planning to stay there forever until the Warriors came in their ships with the magic destroying iron and started killing magical creatures. They started with the witches, and nobody minded that since witch magic is dark magic, but the warriors didn’t stop there. They went after the ogres, the werewolves, the sprites, the giants, and they were chopping down trees as well.
Xar, though being from the Wizarding tribe, has no magic. Wish, though being from the Warrior tribe has a secret magical object. As in any good book involving children, neither of them are entirely apt at listening to their parents, and of course, there’s a bit of the ‘we can fix this ourselves, and then we won’t get in trouble’ mentality. It’s a pretty good setup, and I think that’s all you need to know until you’ve read the book.
What makes this one stand out: I know there are other books which also has this, so it’s not unique or anything, but I really like the creatures: from hairy fairies to talking spoons.
It has been said that everything the could ever be said has already been said, and I feel like this book doesn’t suffer from not being groundbreakingly new, it is like a nice cup of tea or a game night with the family: never exactly the same as last time, but similar enough to make it homey and fun.
Also, the narrator is a character in the book and the reader is challenged to guess who, which for my part I would say is an excellent bit of added fun.
Personal note: I got the Audiobook from Audible narrated by David Tennant, and it is truly amazing, I can’t recommend it enough – so I won’t try, I’ll just tell you to go have a listen for yourself (after all, if it turns out you don’t agree with me you can always return it.)
Details:
Title: The Wizards of Once
Author: Cressida Cowell
Year: 2017
Genre: Fantasy
Part of a series: yes, the second book is out (but no audiobook yet).
