Lost by Sarah Prineas
This review is long overdue, but I was way behind in reading this sequel to The Magic Thief. I get caught between being anxious to read the next one and putting it off so that it won’t end so soon. I would probably enjoy a book that never ended. Or a series that continued indefinitely. Just, please, finish it before you expire, or at least leave behind your notes so someone else, a relative perhaps, can take over where you left off.
I reiterate, this series is a great place to visit if you’ve already tackled Harry Potter and all of its siblings. In the review of the original, I mentioned the similarity being that both Harry and Conn were unaware that they were wizards. Here is where the two diverge. Harry never quickly accepted and embraced who he was as a wizard. He was always so humble and loyal that he always deflected the limelight off of himself.
The author has never alluded to Conn being from wizarding stock or having been introduced to it in the past. One day Conn was living on the streets as a pickpocket and the next he is living with a powerful wizard as a servant. As soon as the wizard, Neverly, took Conn under his wing, Conn started entertaining delusions of grandeur. He certainly couldn’t be a servant and do work, BUT he would love to be a wizard’s apprentice.
What Conn needed more than anything was a locus magicalicus even before an education or a master. The wizard’s stone allows the wizard to speak to the magic. Without it, you cannot address the magic and so speaking the spells is useless. Conn did find his stone in the most unlikely of places. Being a pickpocket and a thieving locksmith has its benefits. But no sooner than he had acquired his locus, than he lost it. Rather, it was destroyed in the effort to save his home city of Wellmet.
Begin Book 2. We are right back to where we began. Conn needs a locus magicalicus in order to practice magic. Every wizard expects to have one and only one. When a locus stone is destroyed, the wizard is supposed to die with it. Problem 1. Conn is still alive and in need of education, but the magisters of the Academicos will no long accept him as a student because they believe he destroyed the Underlord’s home in the Twilight due to a pyrotechnic experiment gone awry. Problem 2.
Neverly warns Conn not to play with pyrotechnic experiments – that’s what got Neverly exiled from Wellmet for twenty years in the first place. But Conn has discovered that he can speak to the magic through mini pyrotechnics. Without his locus magicalicus, Conn cannot speak to the magic any other way. And Conn has a feeling that the magical being that protects Wellmet is still in trouble and is trying to warn him. Problem 3.
One experiment too many and Conn is banished from Wellmet. As much as Conn doesn’t want to leave the magical being who has protected him his entire life, it is necessary in order to save it. Conn joins the royal envoyage to the neighboring city of Desh. It is almost as if the magic is pushing him there. There is a slowsilver mine to explore AND a Sorcerer King to meet.
The answers to Wellmet’s problems might be found in Desh or more troubles might be stumbled upon. But what else is a guttersnipe supposed to do but sneak around in the shadows and gather as much information as possible. If only someone would listen to him! Time for Book 3!
This review is long overdue, but I was way behind in reading this sequel to The Magic Thief. I get caught between being anxious to read the next one and putting it off so that it won’t end so soon. I would probably enjoy a book that never ended. Or a series that continued indefinitely. Just, please, finish it before you expire, or at least leave behind your notes so someone else, a relative perhaps, can take over where you left off.
I reiterate, this series is a great place to visit if you’ve already tackled Harry Potter and all of its siblings. In the review of the original, I mentioned the similarity being that both Harry and Conn were unaware that they were wizards. Here is where the two diverge. Harry never quickly accepted and embraced who he was as a wizard. He was always so humble and loyal that he always deflected the limelight off of himself.
The author has never alluded to Conn being from wizarding stock or having been introduced to it in the past. One day Conn was living on the streets as a pickpocket and the next he is living with a powerful wizard as a servant. As soon as the wizard, Neverly, took Conn under his wing, Conn started entertaining delusions of grandeur. He certainly couldn’t be a servant and do work, BUT he would love to be a wizard’s apprentice.
What Conn needed more than anything was a locus magicalicus even before an education or a master. The wizard’s stone allows the wizard to speak to the magic. Without it, you cannot address the magic and so speaking the spells is useless. Conn did find his stone in the most unlikely of places. Being a pickpocket and a thieving locksmith has its benefits. But no sooner than he had acquired his locus, than he lost it. Rather, it was destroyed in the effort to save his home city of Wellmet.
Begin Book 2. We are right back to where we began. Conn needs a locus magicalicus in order to practice magic. Every wizard expects to have one and only one. When a locus stone is destroyed, the wizard is supposed to die with it. Problem 1. Conn is still alive and in need of education, but the magisters of the Academicos will no long accept him as a student because they believe he destroyed the Underlord’s home in the Twilight due to a pyrotechnic experiment gone awry. Problem 2.
Neverly warns Conn not to play with pyrotechnic experiments – that’s what got Neverly exiled from Wellmet for twenty years in the first place. But Conn has discovered that he can speak to the magic through mini pyrotechnics. Without his locus magicalicus, Conn cannot speak to the magic any other way. And Conn has a feeling that the magical being that protects Wellmet is still in trouble and is trying to warn him. Problem 3.
One experiment too many and Conn is banished from Wellmet. As much as Conn doesn’t want to leave the magical being who has protected him his entire life, it is necessary in order to save it. Conn joins the royal envoyage to the neighboring city of Desh. It is almost as if the magic is pushing him there. There is a slowsilver mine to explore AND a Sorcerer King to meet.
The answers to Wellmet’s problems might be found in Desh or more troubles might be stumbled upon. But what else is a guttersnipe supposed to do but sneak around in the shadows and gather as much information as possible. If only someone would listen to him! Time for Book 3!
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