THE WITCH DOCTOR

In a poetically magical alternate universe, Saul joins forces with a lovely ghost, the Spider King, a troll, and other unusual companions to defeat the evil queen and find his missing friend.

The third book in the Wizard of Rhyme series (after The Oathbound Wizard ) again features protagonist Saul Bremener, a hero so selectively thickheaded that there are several places where this often pleasant narrative seems more an excerpt from Kant's Critique of Pure Reason than a novel. Stasheff has a clever concept here: that Saul is neither good nor evil, while others in his fantasy world must be either one or the other. But he fails to make him a credible character; only a severe Calvinist could describe Saul as amoral. Saul is uncommonly dense when the author desires him to be, a trait he's not likely to share with most readers, who will find themselves way ahead of Saul in figuring out what's going on. Although he is surrounded by a crowd of well-wrought supporters--a knight, a bard, a ghost, a fairy and a delightful troll named Gruesome--Saul experiences a series of adventures that are more repetitive than suspenseful. Moreover, Stasheff's pedantry and philosophical hair-splitting rapidly become tedious.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Sequel to The Oathbound Wizard (1992), about a medieval fantasy world of jousting and pageantry, where poetry holds the power of magic. Saul Bremener--poet, philosopher, and martial arts expert--falls into this world while investigating the mysterious disappearance of his friend Matt Mantell. Saul's knowledge of verse makes him a powerful wizard, but in his search for Matt he falls afoul of the evil Queen Suettray, and the usual complications ensue. Stasheff's work is well crafted and narrated, with lots of literary insertions and a balancing sense of humor; it's independently intelligible and complete in itself: these are the pluses. Otherwise, it lacks originality; furthermore, strangely, it reminds you of other writers whose names you somehow can't quite recall. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

When Matt Mantrell, hero of The Oathbound Wizard , disappears suddenly, his closest friend, Saul Bremener, is worried. A search of Matt's apartment turns up a rune-covered sheepskin and spiders everywhere. His attention drawn to the manuscript, Saul barely feels the bite that transports him to Allustria, an alternate universe in which poetry is again the key to magic. Possessing a strong literary background and a wide streak of skepticism, Saul instantly becomes a powerful though reluctant wizard. But Saul seems to be the only means of toppling Allustria's reigning power--Queen Suettay--and freeing the people. Since in Allustria power is divided sharply between good and evil, Saul spends as much time debating ethics and his own fear of commitment as he does battling witches, and the whole tale is a shade deeper and more literary than the usual fantasy, albeit with a few lulls in the action. Yet there are plenty of plot twists to keep fans reading, and followers of the series A Wizard in Rhyme, of which this is the third installment, definitely will read it. Candace Smith