The Summoner by Gail Z. Martin is book one of The Chronicles of the Necromancer, an epic fantasy that has all the elements of a great story. The story itself is, as with all epic fantasy, of course, simple, and is passed on to the reader through wonderful example of storytelling.

Prince Martrys Drayke is second heir to the throne of Margolan. Resolved to the fact he will not become king, Tris, as he is called, expects to live his life peacefully in a secluded manor away from the palace - content to let his brother, Jared, rule when the time would come. That night came far sooner than expected.

After a violent run in with his brutal brother, Tris and his two childhood friends, a bard and a captain-at-arms, leave the palace to enjoy the autumn festival of the dead, a time when the gap between the spirit world and real world closed enough to allow ghosts to walk clearly among the living. The trio begin to notice little inconsistencies that pique there interest, especially regarding the new mage Tris' brother has enlisted.

In an act of spontaneity, the trio decide to sneak a peak into the wizard's laboratory while he was busy with the festival by hanging from ropes to look inside the tower window. The scene they come across changes there lives forever; Tris witnesses Jared murdering the king, their father. The quick wit of the captain-at-arms saves Tris from crashing headlong into the window and into death.

From there the story unfolds quickly and carries the reader along a fast paced escape from the palace. After finding the bodies of his sister and mother brutal murdered as well, Tris is forced to run in order to save himself and hopefully return for vengeance and restore the kingdom.

Gail Martin spins a fast past adventure of a prince who finds he is much more than he believes, and brings together a variety of characters that seem to have been caught up in coincidence but find that divine providence may be the real reason. The story may sound cliché, an honorable prince found outside the protection of the castle, a noble fighter, a clever bard with many tricks up his sleeve, even a healer, a princess, and a vagabond. But Gail tells the story with a refreshing breath of zeal that lets you get carried along for the ride.

I enjoyed the tale more than I thought I would, and seeing the book on the shelf I wasn't to sure why I was buying it. It has a nice cover, and the intro on the back cover is somewhat alluring. I think what drew me to it was my interest in the darker fantasy and this book alluded to necromancers, magic that operated between the life and death, and a sense that maybe I might encounter a dark hero. The magic is more based on softer concepts, like simple folk tales of natural - nature - energies and the necromancy is extremely weak to what I was expecting.

But, I'm no died hard fan of such things, therefore I have an open mind. I bought the book and took it home thinking to put it on the shelf with the others I need to get to. I made the mistake of picking it up and checking out what's inside. I finished the book in two days - approx 8-12 hours total reading time - and had trouble putting it down. I enjoyed this story immensely and am now anxious for the other two books (which I can't find their expected release dates).

The action was done very well, though not engrossingly detailed like R.A. Salvatore's descriptions, they still pulled me along with a sense of ease. The interplay between the characters had me laughing at many places, a bitingly sarcastic humor most everyone enjoys, and some spots came sort of close to choking me up (a very hard thing to do to this heartless bastard).

It is damn fine epic fantasy; with a big, overarching story and smaller subplots that introduce a vibrant world; colorful and deep characters that are changing right before your eyes. I recommend this story to any that enjoy a good book, no matter the genre, and to those who indulge in sword and sorcery, high fantasy.

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Created May 15, 2007 at 12:41am • Submit your own review...