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The Age of Magic Trilogy #3
A Question of Magic
As the Day of the Earthdoom comes near, all of the races that live on Earth in 30,000 B.C.—humans, Trolls, Alfar, Dragons, and Little People—must cooperate to fend off the Industrious Ones who are coming from outer space. These aliens will mine Earth's riches and destroy the planet—unless Earth's mages can figure out a way to stop them.
But the mages can't agree on what to do. So twelve-year-old Lithim and his father, wizard Mulng, make a dangerous journey to consult the undying oracle, Gurda, for advice. What she prophesies is so puzzling that, with the Earthdoom nearly upon them, the mages are faced with a question of magic that can mean life or death.
Readers who have followed Lithim's adventures in the first two books in the Age of Magic trilogy, as well as those who are meeting him for the first time, will be enthralled by this dramatic conclusion to a captivating series.
But the mages can't agree on what to do. So twelve-year-old Lithim and his father, wizard Mulng, make a dangerous journey to consult the undying oracle, Gurda, for advice. What she prophesies is so puzzling that, with the Earthdoom nearly upon them, the mages are faced with a question of magic that can mean life or death.
Readers who have followed Lithim's adventures in the first two books in the Age of Magic trilogy, as well as those who are meeting him for the first time, will be enthralled by this dramatic conclusion to a captivating series.
144 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 1993
9 people want to read
About the author
Tom McGowen
97 books13 followersTom McGowen worked in advertising in the Chicago, Illinois, area until 1969. He then became a senior editor at World Book, Inc. Mr. McGowen now writes and lives in a northwest suburb of Chicago.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 7, 2020
I've read these three books a number of times now, but I never remembered all the Captain Planet propaganda at the end. I remembered the part about , but not really all that much else.
It's interesting to think that even people who were not able to break into the world of publishing create a work that contains so overtly concocted a political message as though they had broken into that world.
If you want only an implicitly politically biased fantasy work just skip the epilogue. It's almost a Choose Your Own Adventure - which ending will you get? Incidentally, McGowen also wrote one of those books: King's Quest.
I bet you thought this review was done after the first or second paragraph, but it's still not. I have a lot to say.
When I was in six or seventh grade, I found A Question of Magic and the other two books of the series at my local library. I had some Dragonlance novels at home back then and I'd just wanted to read a different, smaller fantasy novel set. (Not much has changed since then, huh?) I was, for whatever reason, really into these books. Okay, it could have been the bath scene toward the beginning of the first book. But it was also the dragons, the Alfar, and that scary wizard in the second book.
Back then I read A Trial of Magic and thought the evil wizard was the only bad guy. Turns out he was only hitching a ride with the other bad guy. That makes me think that my level of reading comprehension must have been abysmal so as not to notice anything other than the more fantastical literary elements.
Do we read the books we read in the past out of nostalgia for enjoying the thing we enjoyed so long ago, or do we only want to think the way we thought in our pasts again?
Or is it perhaps not my reading comprehension, but that of which I am willing to take notice in my limited social existence? I notice the pervasively political element this time; does that mean I think about politics? Well, I do sometimes.
It makes me wonder what else I'm missing, though I'm also not sure if I care.
I also vividly remember visualizing but this time I only visualized Actually, I didn't even remember that dies in that way. But, although it was more gruesome than any other scene in the book, it wasn't as morally reprehensible in retrospect because everyone else who was there died anyway. So how do you walk away from a moral dilemma? Just kill everybody off: That's how.
Is this not the most me review I've ever written?
It's interesting to think that even people who were not able to break into the world of publishing create a work that contains so overtly concocted a political message as though they had broken into that world.
If you want only an implicitly politically biased fantasy work just skip the epilogue. It's almost a Choose Your Own Adventure - which ending will you get? Incidentally, McGowen also wrote one of those books: King's Quest.
I bet you thought this review was done after the first or second paragraph, but it's still not. I have a lot to say.
When I was in six or seventh grade, I found A Question of Magic and the other two books of the series at my local library. I had some Dragonlance novels at home back then and I'd just wanted to read a different, smaller fantasy novel set. (Not much has changed since then, huh?) I was, for whatever reason, really into these books. Okay, it could have been the bath scene toward the beginning of the first book. But it was also the dragons, the Alfar, and that scary wizard in the second book.
Back then I read A Trial of Magic and thought the evil wizard was the only bad guy. Turns out he was only hitching a ride with the other bad guy. That makes me think that my level of reading comprehension must have been abysmal so as not to notice anything other than the more fantastical literary elements.
Do we read the books we read in the past out of nostalgia for enjoying the thing we enjoyed so long ago, or do we only want to think the way we thought in our pasts again?
Or is it perhaps not my reading comprehension, but that of which I am willing to take notice in my limited social existence? I notice the pervasively political element this time; does that mean I think about politics? Well, I do sometimes.
It makes me wonder what else I'm missing, though I'm also not sure if I care.
I also vividly remember visualizing but this time I only visualized Actually, I didn't even remember that dies in that way. But, although it was more gruesome than any other scene in the book, it wasn't as morally reprehensible in retrospect because everyone else who was there died anyway. So how do you walk away from a moral dilemma? Just kill everybody off: That's how.
Is this not the most me review I've ever written?
May 7, 2018
Read these as a kid. They had a big impact on the way I see the world.
April 14, 2021
Read this series 30yrs ago when I was 10 or 11, loved the series, but remember finding the ending unsatisfying. Still, it helped get me hooked ok fantasy
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews