The Apprentice

When the sorceress Shayna and her new apprentice Corwyn lock horns in unholy combat in her mountainous lair, Jaimah, the servant girl, fears for her life when she becomes a pawn in their battle

This first novel lies in the abyss of all that is unimaginative, formulaic and tedious in the fantasy genre. The plot hinges on a trick of concealed identity so familiar and so heavily foreshadowed that even the most unsophisticated will guess it in the first two chapters. Meanwhile, the three chief characters are all too dismal to resuscitate even a whisper of interest in the way in which the all-important secret emerges. Jaimah, a servant, whose budding magic was ostensibly stolen from her by the ruthless sorceress Shayna, cowers incessantly; the apprentice Corwyn appears out of nowhere and inexplicably sets out to undermine Jaimah's precarious relationship with Shayna. Exasperating scenes of false suspense further dull the pace. Talmadge-Bickmore's failure to impart what's at stake in Shayna's maniacal quest to gain control of a powerful and enigmatic being called the Master is a fatal flaw.
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