The Myth of Magic

By Adam Cole

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0738808245
• ISBN13: 9780738808246
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
• Length: 404 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.9" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

Terrific allegorical fantasy

Over the centuries as the nation of Queensland expanded, the common regard towards magic and its practitioners withered. In the present those who practice the obsolete art are considered at the lowest rung of the food chain. Perhaps the only more debased than membership in the Magicians' Guild is to be an apprentice magician just ask Lemyth and Boye of Barnady village.Summoned to Melwyn the Scope, the Primary Landowner of Barnady, the beloved Wedna Aedynathan, leaves for a trek of several day across the vast country. The townsfolk are concerned that they must lose their "essence" for so long especially on Wedna's birthday.After Wedna departs with her caravan, the Mayor investigates the Magicians' Guild and begins shouting conspiracy. He plans to ban the Guild with only those two ennui apprentices in his way. As their masters throw out Lemyth and Boye for violating the magic commandments, they try to save their Guild, but uncover an even darker plot that could destroy Barnady and more if they fail to stop the odious endeavor.The Myth of Magic is a coming of age tale, but that would oversimplify the parable that is the heart of the novel. The intriguing story line uses symbolism and stereotyped characterizations to create a strangely different type of magic in which powers cannot alter the world of physics, but enhance the feelings of individuals in a manner similar to the ritual use of music. Adam Cole's allegorical fantasy blows away dogmatic religions and governments (the American Constitution as the strict words of a bible and the Founding Fathers as a Mount Olympus like pantheon) fostering the obsolete at any cost in his remarkably mentally invigorating metaphor.Harriet Klausner

An original concept in fantasy...finally

Adam Cole's THE MYTH OF MAGIC is a very entertaining, in-depth, and well thought-out first novel. The essence of the story is that magic, like storytelling or music, is something used for rituals and entertainment. It augments emotions, but does not do things such as cause people to turn into frogs or fly on broomsticks (Harry Potter fans will be disappointed, but the more discerning readers will enjoy this break from the cliché). The use of magic in this way is a metaphor for disciplines that have lost their favor in the public eye, or at least their mystique. The magicians are outcasts, not because they trade in the occult, but because they have devoted themselves to something archaic-not arcane. I see this as an allegory for certain religions, Judaism perhaps, as well as such archaic disciplines that we tend to adopt out of interest in beauty or the past. It certainly fits with any ethnic group that has been persecuted because of different beliefs or other traits that society finds unusual.While the story is centered around the apprenticeship of a young boy, the novel is not a children's story. Parallel plots concern the politics of the town and involve adult characters whose motivations show humanity at its worst and best.Cole's detailed description, lively dialogue, and sense of the symbolic enhances a unique and entertaining story. THE MYTH OF MAGIC is a piece of fantasy that is unusual in the best way. It is original, which is rare in this genre.