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Elements of Sorcery #1-5
The Elements of Sorcery
Contains: SORCERER'S CODE, SORCERER'S CRIME, SORCERER'S BLOOD, SORCERER'S WAR, SORCERER'S TRUTH
No matter what you want to learn, everyone has to start somewhere.
Edar Moncrief is a sorcerer: one of an elite few who can control manna, the life force of the world, using only his mind. When he trips over the body of an Arbiter—an elite warrior-monk with powers not so unlike his own—in the streets of Elenia, Moncrief must race to solve the murder while a literal sword hangs over his head.
And that’s just the beginning.
Within these pages are five novellas following the adventures of Edar Moncrief as he discovers the deepest truths of the power that he wields, his triumphs and downfalls, his perfect moments... and his greatest mistakes.
These are the Elements of Sorcery.
No matter what you want to learn, everyone has to start somewhere.
Edar Moncrief is a sorcerer: one of an elite few who can control manna, the life force of the world, using only his mind. When he trips over the body of an Arbiter—an elite warrior-monk with powers not so unlike his own—in the streets of Elenia, Moncrief must race to solve the murder while a literal sword hangs over his head.
And that’s just the beginning.
Within these pages are five novellas following the adventures of Edar Moncrief as he discovers the deepest truths of the power that he wields, his triumphs and downfalls, his perfect moments... and his greatest mistakes.
These are the Elements of Sorcery.
- GenresFantasy
286 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 19, 2014
4 people are currently reading
44 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 18, 2015
Not only am I the first person on Goodreads to review this book, I'm also the first person to rate it. I contacted the author directly and told him to put this up so I could rate and review it.
While I have spoken to Christopher Kellen on occasion, it has largely been in a professional capacity, therefore I don't feel the need to hang any further disclaimers on this review. He has not paid me for this review and I have purchased every book he has written with my own money. He most certainly is not holding a heartblade to my chest with a menacing glare contorting his features.
I say the latter because my rating is five stars, and it's the first self-published book I've rated five stars.
This takes a degree of justification on my part, because in essence what I'm saying is that it's the best of a very good crop of self-published books that I've read over the years. So why did this one in particular stand out to me?
Firstly if you haven't encountered the writing of Christopher Kellen before, I urge you to go and download Sorcerer's Code for free. If you like that tale then this will be right up your street. As a rabid fan of traditional Sword and Sorcery and a zealous advocate for the genre, his style of writing seemed catered exactly to my needs as a reader.
Unlike other novels I've previously reviewed, The Elements of Sorcery is a compilation of short stories set in Christopher Kellen's Eisengoth world. An amalgamation of highlights from the reviews of each individual tale has been pasted below.
Sometimes you stumble across a book and think 'yeah, your influences are apparent and I appreciate them for being that way.' The author even states to the effect that he wears them on his sleeve prior to the tale's commencement.
The Elements of Sorcery is very honest from the outset about the authors that helped shape the tale. You have a snarky first person perspective of a wizard who gets in over his head. Only this wizard doesn't hail from Chicago.
No, instead we have our second influence: pulp fantasy. That golden Weird Tales period of history right before the second World War.
The unfolding introductory tale is what happens when a leading man that could have starred in any of those early Sword and Sorcery works runs into the humorous and calamity-prone protagonist that wouldn't be out of place in any of the modern Urban fantasies littering the bookshelves these days.
The clash of characters makes for an entertaining romp, and the tone is humorous throughout, though it certainly doesn't skimp on the action or suspense.
Kellen packs the action thick and fast into his short stories, blasting us through a series of encounters featuring our protagonist coming to terms with all the changes that beset him. The quality doesn't dip from tale to tale, and the players are introduced in a tasteful fashion that doesn't feel shoe-horned.
There's also a degree of emotional gravitas in the later tales that might surprise you given the previous tone. This only enhances the impact of the work and is both a laudable and appropriate shift given the subject matter.
I concluded in my initial summary that this was a fast and pulpy series of shorts that would please anyone with a remote interest in Sword and Sorcery.
Now I gave each of these tales a solid four stars on their own (go and look), but bundled together like this in a cohesive volume for such a generous price and with a sharp new cover? Well, that just takes it over the edge.
There are a great number of fantasy writers in this world, but there are exceedingly few that draw inspiration from pre-Tolkien pulp in the manner that Kellen does. The only authors I can think of that attempt to resurrect the genre in a faithful fashion would be the likes of Paul Kemp and Saladin Ahmed. Both of these writers are published, neither of them reach the heights that Kellen manages here.
Christopher Kellen is a special writer, and I hope that he returns to the Elements of Sorcery series for another set of tales, because they outstrip his own excellent Arbiter Codex and should be the focal point for Eisengoth moving forward.
In conclusion, he has a fan for life, and anyone with a remote interest in Howard, Lovecraft, Moorcock, Lieber or Wagner owe it to themselves to pick up every Eisengoth tale this man has written thus far.
While I have spoken to Christopher Kellen on occasion, it has largely been in a professional capacity, therefore I don't feel the need to hang any further disclaimers on this review. He has not paid me for this review and I have purchased every book he has written with my own money. He most certainly is not holding a heartblade to my chest with a menacing glare contorting his features.
I say the latter because my rating is five stars, and it's the first self-published book I've rated five stars.
This takes a degree of justification on my part, because in essence what I'm saying is that it's the best of a very good crop of self-published books that I've read over the years. So why did this one in particular stand out to me?
Firstly if you haven't encountered the writing of Christopher Kellen before, I urge you to go and download Sorcerer's Code for free. If you like that tale then this will be right up your street. As a rabid fan of traditional Sword and Sorcery and a zealous advocate for the genre, his style of writing seemed catered exactly to my needs as a reader.
Unlike other novels I've previously reviewed, The Elements of Sorcery is a compilation of short stories set in Christopher Kellen's Eisengoth world. An amalgamation of highlights from the reviews of each individual tale has been pasted below.
Sometimes you stumble across a book and think 'yeah, your influences are apparent and I appreciate them for being that way.' The author even states to the effect that he wears them on his sleeve prior to the tale's commencement.
The Elements of Sorcery is very honest from the outset about the authors that helped shape the tale. You have a snarky first person perspective of a wizard who gets in over his head. Only this wizard doesn't hail from Chicago.
No, instead we have our second influence: pulp fantasy. That golden Weird Tales period of history right before the second World War.
The unfolding introductory tale is what happens when a leading man that could have starred in any of those early Sword and Sorcery works runs into the humorous and calamity-prone protagonist that wouldn't be out of place in any of the modern Urban fantasies littering the bookshelves these days.
The clash of characters makes for an entertaining romp, and the tone is humorous throughout, though it certainly doesn't skimp on the action or suspense.
Kellen packs the action thick and fast into his short stories, blasting us through a series of encounters featuring our protagonist coming to terms with all the changes that beset him. The quality doesn't dip from tale to tale, and the players are introduced in a tasteful fashion that doesn't feel shoe-horned.
There's also a degree of emotional gravitas in the later tales that might surprise you given the previous tone. This only enhances the impact of the work and is both a laudable and appropriate shift given the subject matter.
I concluded in my initial summary that this was a fast and pulpy series of shorts that would please anyone with a remote interest in Sword and Sorcery.
Now I gave each of these tales a solid four stars on their own (go and look), but bundled together like this in a cohesive volume for such a generous price and with a sharp new cover? Well, that just takes it over the edge.
There are a great number of fantasy writers in this world, but there are exceedingly few that draw inspiration from pre-Tolkien pulp in the manner that Kellen does. The only authors I can think of that attempt to resurrect the genre in a faithful fashion would be the likes of Paul Kemp and Saladin Ahmed. Both of these writers are published, neither of them reach the heights that Kellen manages here.
Christopher Kellen is a special writer, and I hope that he returns to the Elements of Sorcery series for another set of tales, because they outstrip his own excellent Arbiter Codex and should be the focal point for Eisengoth moving forward.
In conclusion, he has a fan for life, and anyone with a remote interest in Howard, Lovecraft, Moorcock, Lieber or Wagner owe it to themselves to pick up every Eisengoth tale this man has written thus far.
December 28, 2014
Chirstopher Kellen's fantasy novels are set in a dark world with a lot of corrupted magic and precious few heroes. The second book in Kellen's "primary" series, The Arbiter Codex, introduced Edar Moncrief, a character so hilarious and compelling that he eclipsed the main characters and stole the show whenever he made an appearance. Through some combination of intuition, pressure from fans, and falling in love with the character, Kellen decided to give Moncrief his own series of novellas, and I'm glad he did. The Elements of Sorcery complements and at the same time far outstrips The Arbiter Codex, and it's definitely worth picking up.
Moncrief is a self-serving, sniveling sorcerer, constantly looking for a new angle that will make him more powerful. When chance brings him into contact with an ancient order of Arbiters — sword-wielding magic monks tasked with protecting the world from corruption — Moncrief's ambition get's him into hot water and changes his life forever. Over the span of the five novellas, we see Moncrief wax and wane in power, sometimes rising to amazing heights only to fall prey to his own hubris. Through all his trials, Edar is interesting, sympathetic, and always funny, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about him.
I had a couple of quibbles with the Elements. I felt there wasn't enough foreshadowing in one respect: At times Moncrief seems to be acting out of character or against his own best interests, which left me thinking that he wasn't the selfish coward I knew and loved. At the end of the story, these perceived inconsistencies are explained in a satisfactory manner that's fascinating as well, but the fact that the revelation came so late meant that for the first 4/5 of the book I was occasionally confused by his actions. Additionally, while the quality of most of the stories was consistently excellent (I gave 3 of the novellas 4 stars each), I found "Sorcerer's War" to be disappointingly predictable (I gave the novella 3 stars). Then again, "Sorcerer's War" did have a tough act to follow - the story preceding it was the straight-up fantastic "Sorcerer's Blood" (I gave it 5 stars).
But any tiny issues I had burn away in the presence of Edar Moncrief, an amazingly fun character that will have you laughing and inspired at alternate points. Moncrief not only carries The Arbiter Codex in a supporting role, but now shows that he makes for a great protagonist. If you've read Kellen's work, you're probably already a Moncrief fan. If you haven't read Kellen, start now, and start with The Elements of Sorcery.
Moncrief is a self-serving, sniveling sorcerer, constantly looking for a new angle that will make him more powerful. When chance brings him into contact with an ancient order of Arbiters — sword-wielding magic monks tasked with protecting the world from corruption — Moncrief's ambition get's him into hot water and changes his life forever. Over the span of the five novellas, we see Moncrief wax and wane in power, sometimes rising to amazing heights only to fall prey to his own hubris. Through all his trials, Edar is interesting, sympathetic, and always funny, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about him.
I had a couple of quibbles with the Elements. I felt there wasn't enough foreshadowing in one respect: At times Moncrief seems to be acting out of character or against his own best interests, which left me thinking that he wasn't the selfish coward I knew and loved. At the end of the story, these perceived inconsistencies are explained in a satisfactory manner that's fascinating as well, but the fact that the revelation came so late meant that for the first 4/5 of the book I was occasionally confused by his actions. Additionally, while the quality of most of the stories was consistently excellent (I gave 3 of the novellas 4 stars each), I found "Sorcerer's War" to be disappointingly predictable (I gave the novella 3 stars). Then again, "Sorcerer's War" did have a tough act to follow - the story preceding it was the straight-up fantastic "Sorcerer's Blood" (I gave it 5 stars).
But any tiny issues I had burn away in the presence of Edar Moncrief, an amazingly fun character that will have you laughing and inspired at alternate points. Moncrief not only carries The Arbiter Codex in a supporting role, but now shows that he makes for a great protagonist. If you've read Kellen's work, you're probably already a Moncrief fan. If you haven't read Kellen, start now, and start with The Elements of Sorcery.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews