More of a 7 than an 8, nevertheless I've probably read this book five or six times over the years. I do enjoy its new Slant on the theme of technology meets fantasy. Its sequel, the Wizard and the War Machine is about a 6 to a 7. Much more entertaining was The Misenchanted Sword. A real good read, about a 9

This was one of my very first fantasy books to read, therefore my opinion is probably biased. I recently hunted down the book again from a used books dealer to read the story again and I still enjoyed it immensely. In his earlier novels, Lawrence tends to take seemingly improbable or heterogeneous elements and make them work extremely cohesively. Cyborg meets Sorcery?? For those that are temped to balk....just read the story. It's a short read, but very entertaining filled with colorful characters and creative dialogue. What can I say... this will always be a classic novel for me.

It is sad that this book is out of print. There are so few good books that are not three to ten books long. If you have the luck to come acrossed this book, buy it! It is a very good story. A very good read.

_Ithanalin's Restoration_ is Lawrence Watt-Evans's latest Ethshar novel. (Of late he has been alternating his more serious, and longer, Dragon novels with his generally light-hearted Ethshar fantasies.) The main character is Kilisha, the 17 year old apprentice to Master Wizard Ithanalin. One of Ithanalin's spells gets disrupted by a mischievous spriggan, with the unwitting help of a tax-collector, and Ithanalin's "essence" ends up distributed among various objects, including several pieces of furniture. The spooked tax-collector leaves the door open, and the furniture, having legs, escapes. It falls to Kilisha to track down the escaped furniture and to learn the spell that can restore the pieces of Ithanalin from the pieces of furniture to his inanimate body. Her job is made more complicated because the more senior wizards in the town are unable to help her, as they are concerned with a political crisis: a revolt in another town that may spread.

The story is quite fun, a fast and always enjoyable read, with plenty of clever sequences arising from the central situation and the use of limited wizardly magic (such as Kilisha's way of using a love spell to lure back an escaped rug). Also noteworthy is the basic decency and commonsense of the various characters in the book. This is, I think,a particular characteristic of most of Watt-Evans's work -- his characters are pretty normal people, for the most part, and basically act like decent ordinary people we know, with to be sure the occasional foible. To take just one example from this book, we are introduced to the city's overlord, after a scene setting him up to be a lazy fop (semi-evil overlord model 3B, or something). It turns out, though, that he's basically a nice guy, who maybe gets a bit tired of long meetings. I do like this aspect of LWE's stories -- which is present in most of them, though you do get some slightly more extreme characters in for example the Dragon books.

Kilisha is entering the final year of her apprenticeship to Ithanalin the Wise, one of the foremost wizards of Ethshar of the Rocks. However, when a freak accident disrupts his spell casting, Ithanalin's spirit is transferred to his parlor furniture, which animates and flees out into the city. To restore her master, Kilisha needs these items back. How hard can it be to collect a group of uncooperative runaway furniture? You'd be surprised...and amused!

This is the eighth Ethshar book by Lawrence Watt-Evans, and is just as good as any of the others; which is to say, excellent! Funny in the way that With A Single Spell was, this book is also an excellent and exciting read. I enjoyed the situations and the wonderful magic, but more than anything I liked the characters, especially the strong female characters, particularly Kilisha (the heroine of the story). This is an excellent story, one that I highly recommend to everyone!

Ithanalin's Restoration is the eighth Ethshar novel, but the chronology is more complicated. This novel actually occurs during the latter part of Spell of the Black Dagger and stands in contrast to it.

This story is a cautionary tale, taking place in Ethshar of the Rocks. It demonstrates how wizardry is a dangerous business. It even shows why a wizard should never be allowed to cook the family dinner.

Kilisha of Eastgate is the apprentice of Ithanalin the Wise. The first impression of most people is that she is very ordinary. Most of the time she doesn't even wear her apprentice robes, but she is quite capable of proving that she is a wizard's apprentice. She is talented, but much too impulsive.

After a hard day trying to get the blood of a gray cat, she comes home to find the parlor empty of furniture, but containing one deanimated wizard, Ithanalin. The mirror informs her that he tripped over a spriggan and spilled an animating potion all over the room, thereby losing portions of his persona to the furnishings and door latch and, of course, the spriggan. Kilisha determines that Javan's Restorative spell can reanimate her master, but only if all the pieces of his persona are present. Naturally, all the furniture, and the spriggan, have run away.

Kilisha tries to get help from the Guild, but they are preoccupied with the events in Ethshar of the Sands. She then undertakes the task of recovering the furniture, and spriggan, collecting the proper ingredients, and learning Javan's Restorative on her own. She does have help from Ithanalin's family, the neighbors, her family, and Kelder, the tax agent who was the proximate cause of the accident. She employs a number of magical ploys to find and take back the furniture, including a death-defying dive off the Fortress walls.

This novel stars a young woman who accepts responsibility for restoring her master, facing and solving problem after problem. She is plagued by her impulsiveness, but takes steps to correct that problem also. By the end of the story, she has shown a strength of character and resourcefulness of which even she wasn't aware.

In many ways, this is a typical Ethshar story. The plots and problems vary, but the hero/heroine perseveres through everything that faces him/her. Spell of the Black Dagger was an exception in that the story was not told from the point of view of the heroine; of course, that gimmick displeased a lot of his fans.

In this novel, the heroine is the center of the story and is everything that a fan could want ... except ravishing beautiful, but Kelder might not agree. Recommended to all Ethshar fans and anyone who likes light fantasy adventure with magical touches and dashes of humor.

This is the fourth and final book in the "Lords of Dus" series. A very under-appreciated fantasy series, in my opinion. While these books are neither as intricate nor as well written as many of the big names in fantasy, ("Lord of the Rings" for example) they are well thought out and very original stories with very memorable characters. Entertaining enough to be read several times, but straight-forward enough to be a reasonably quick read.

In this book, the main character, Garth the Overman, unwillingly assists the immortal Forgotten King (the high priest of the god of Death) to work his final magic. Magic that will finally bring an end to his immortality, but may kill many others in the process.

If you've never read the other books in this series, I recommend that you pick up "Lure of the Basilisk", "Seven Altars of Dusarra", and "Sword of Bheleu" first. But if you've read those three already, then I definitely recommend that you pick up this one as well.

it's strangely, but compulsively, readable. Evans displays his usual talent for strong, realisic characters set in a world that's interesting and makes sense.

The Nightmare People opens with a bang, quite possibly the 2nd best opening chapter I've ever read (Blood Music by Connelly being the first).

Ed Smith spies a particularly hideous monster peering in his window one hot August evening. He halks it up to a waking dream or hallucination, only to find out the next morning that all 200 occupants of his apartment complex have gone missing. Those neighbors are eventually found, but have apparently been replaced by...otherworldly creatures wearing their skins.

The plot is downright implausible and silly. The author throws in some rather idiotic complications to delay Smith and his band of "nightmare people killers" from going to the police. It seems fairly obvious that Watt-Evans wrote himself into a corner here.

There are some very audacious set-pieces in this book, some that make you shiver to your very bones. The creatures in this novel aren't circumspect about their purpose - call one of the telephone (yes, they'll answer) and it'll be more than happy to tell you about its (evil) purpose in this world.

Characterization, beyond the main character, is lacking but to be expected of a 200 page book. The action is fast, lose, and while nonsensical, ends up being satisfying. I found the final resolution to be a tad pat, almost "deus ex machina"-like, but I'm still glad I read it.

Given a few changes, such as the creatures' main weakness, this would make a very scary horror movie.

I first read this book years ago when my friend(who,like myself, has read many horror novels) told me that this book actually scared him. I, of course, had to read for myself. Never before in all my reading has a book given me the willies like this one. I had a hard time going to sleep for weeks afterward. This book was passed on to every skeptic (macho guys as well) and every one, to the last, was physically scared by it. Great read if you can find one. The original copy I had was lent out and never returned. Whenever I see a used bookstore,espcially when travelling, I always stop in to see if I can find a copy. No luck yet. I guess anyone who ever owned it knew not to let such a gem out of their hands. If you can, READ THIS BOOK! I guarantee you'll be scared (but loving every minute of it!).

This book starts off a little slow. You learns the main characters name about 3 chapters in, and the story only begins to hint at what is to come. PURE EVIL. That is what the Nightmare People are, and they will admit it right before they eat you. I will reveal no more, as to give away anything else will spoil all the surprises. All I can say is that this book gets better as it goes, and ther ending is the BEST! I read that LWE once got a phone call late one night from a young man that had just read his novel. Once you read this you will see why. Get it and read it.

Hurry, what are you waiting for? This book might just save your life! ;)

This is a nicely done comic fantasy book. The characters are fairly shallow, the cliches are rampant and yet the book is an well done poke in the ribs at traditional "serious" fantasy. At times it comes off like a cross between a Monty Python script and the "Who's on first" conversation.

My only complaint is that it takes a little bit (50 pages or so) to ramp up to the truly funny scenarios, and thus initially gives the mistaken initial impression of not being all that entertaining. Once it's warmed up though it's a good fun read.

This book is a hoot! It sends up most of the major conventions of the fantasy genre and has a great time doing it (what else would you expect from these authors?) Read this book a little at a time so you can savor all the zingers. But DON'T read it before bedtime--laughter is not conducive to sleep!

This great rip on fantasy cliches predates Dianna Wynne Jones' satire by almost a decade, and it's considerably funnier. I love rereading it every couple of years; it's a keeper.

I read this book, along with all the other Ethshar fantasies, when they first appeared back in the eighties. I must say I always enjoyed the way Watt-Evans approached magic; he could make it at once fantastic and logical.His scenes of magic at work are indisputably fun. Watt-Evans is kind of old school, he has devised a magical world, rules for that world, puts his plots into that context, and relentlessly follows things to their logical conclusion. The thing is, nothing much happens in Watt-Evans' stories. There are no larger-than-life heroes, no derring-do, no hair-breadth escapes, no great truths revealed, and no surprises. As one reviewer of his work pointed out, his characters are pedestrian, which I think is exactly Wat-Evans' point. Just because there is magic in Ethshar doesn't mean people or their institutions will be any different. Folks are still interested in profit and comfort, governments and religions just want to perpetuate themselves, parents still want to control their kids'lives, etc.This adds an element of realism to his work that is lacking in Tolkien-wannabe fantasies. Watt-Evans has managed to create a very magical world, and then his plots render it mundane. As strange as this sounds, I would always scoop up an Ethshar novel as soon as it hit the shelves, devour it in a day or two, and look forward to the next. Yet, I never felt really satisfied after finishing. Kind of like eating Chinese food.

Once again, Lawrence Watt-Evans journeys to the world of Ethshar with a tale full of magic and surprises.

Whilst not the best book in this growing series it will keep you amused and begging for more.

I can't rate this author highly enough, you leave feeling thoroughly entertained. You will appreciate his writing style and the wry comedy common throughout which bare repeated reading.

If you like humour in your fantasy and you're more interested in a book you can pick up without worrying that it's to heavy for you then give him a go, you won't be dissapointed.

Now that Dumery has reached his 12th birthday, it is time for him to be apprenticed. He's the third son of a wealthy merchant, which means that he inherits...nothing. He has only really been interested in one thing, wizardry, so he offers himself as an apprentice to every magic-user in Ethshar. When they all tell him that he is completely dead to magic, and as such untrainable, he feels crushed. But when he sees the most powerful wizard in Ethshar humbling himself before a man who sells dragon's blood (necessary for so many spells), he decides that he can apprentice himself to the dragon hunter, and force the wizards to humble themselves before him. Oh, but Dumery finds that even this is much harder than he imagined.

I must admit that I consider myself a devoted Watt-Evans fan! I have enjoyed all of his books that I have been able to lay my hands on, this one included. Indeed, Mr. Watt-Evans' world is fantastic and yet realistic, with normal seeming people, going about their business in a manner totally consistent with their world. At least with the stories I have read, his heroes are relatively normal young men, looking for their future in a world of high magic. I highly recommend this book for any fan of fantasy literature!

This is one of those play-by-the-rules fantasies, except for a single unexplained night of madness when ordinary citizens of Ethshar woke up from a nightmare and discovered that they could fly, or perform other assorted magicks.

The characters are pretty pedestrian, even granting that some of them can fly. A few gained the ability to lift heavy objects (except for the plot) by thinking about them. The hero, Hanner becomes one of the 'lifters.' He is also a self-described palace parasite, a humorless young man, but nevertheless willing to take charge and do something productive during the night of madness. Hanner tries to figure out why some people were turned into warlocks on that night, and why others simply disappeared, but he approaches the mystery with the well-meaning plod of a Watson whose Holmes went over the falls at Reichenbach.

The mystery never is solved, so I'm assuming there is going to be a sequel to this fantasy.

The magic in "Night of Madness" is interesting, but it lacks the inspired fizz produced by, say a Neil Gaiman, a John Bellairs, or a Patricia McKillip. In one of wittiest scenes, a flying telephone lands in the sorceress Ithinia's backyard, and her gargoyles try to frighten it away:

"Old Rocky and Glitter were the two creatures still guarding it [the phone]. Ithinia glanced at Old Rocky's niche, on the south-west corner of the house.

"'Did you see where it came from?'

"'No, mistress. It came down out of the sun while we were meditating.'

"'You were sleeping, not meditating,' Ithinia said. 'I've told you not to try to fool me. Stone should sleep---it's nothing to hide."

"'Yes, Mistress," the gargoyle said, abashed.'

"'It called my name? Did it say anything else?'

"'It said it needed to speak with you.'"

Ha ha ha. Clunk.

Most of the dialogue comes in the form of big, chunky explanatory text, in order to elucidate the rules of Ethsharian magic, what a sorcerer may or may not do, what a witch may or may not do, etc. etc. By their very nature, sequels suffer from a degree of explanatory text, but this rules-bound fantasy takes it to an extreme. If you've already read one of the prequels to "Night of Madness" you'll be able to skip through whole pages of this book.

In fact, you might want to give the entire book a pass.

Ok, this isn't the best novel in the series, but it also isn't the worst by far. ...

NoM is a tale that anyone who has read any of the other Ethshar novels has been waiting to get their hands on. It is the tale of what happens on the night Warlockery is iontorduced into the world. As such, it is kind of rigid in what it can and cannot do. It COULD show how people reacted when they first became warlocks, how rulers and wizards worried over the new magic, and show how the Council of Warlocks came into being complete with how all their laws and rules came about. It simply could NOT tell us what caused warlockery to occur, since earlier novels (which take place much later after the night of madness)left the whole event shrouded in mystery. LWE couldn't reveal what caused the event or why it happened, but he did reveal some tantalizing clues, which if you gather tidbits from other novels in the series gives you a better (if somewhat lacking) idea of what is going on.

In usual LWE fasion the protagonist makes out by not being greedy or power hungry, so there is no surprises there. Read it, it is still a high quality book.

Lord Hanner is a minor functionary until the night of madness. Suddenly, a new branch of magic attaches itself to thousands of citizens--including Hanner and his powerful uncle. Caught up in the joy and power of their new magic, many warlocks loot stores, create havoc, or use their power to exact revenge for past wrongs. The ordinary people, lords, and existing orders of magic are all threatened--and in turn threaten the warlocks.

Hanner gathers a small group of warlocks and tries to find a way out of the mess. He certainly doesn't want to accept exile or execution, but neither does he believe that the warlocks can or should use their power to control the government. The old rules of separation are still valid, but will the older magicians accept the new warlocks or will magic battle magic.

Watt-Evans has written a fascinating novel. Hanner, in particular, is an intriguing and likable character. His tendency toward pudgyness and his problems with the opposite sex make him more sympathetic and Watt-Evans builds on this nicely.

About the only flaw I could find in this book was in its characters' strange reluctance to pursue the question of what caused the outbreak of the warlock magic visitation and what caused so many warlocks to fly away from everything they knew into the mysterious north. I can't imagine characters such as Watt-Evans described not wanting to find the answers to these questions, yet they didn't--or at least they didn't try very hard.

With this one quibble aside, NIGHT OF MADNESS was an enjoyable romp of a novel--funny, but with enough social heft to give the reader something to think about.

This book wasn't awful, but it wasn't particularly good either. "Dragon Weather" is the tale of Arlian, a boy who is the lone survivor when his village is destroyed by dragons. Looters find him, only to sell him to a mining company where he works as a slave for seven years before he escapes. He vows revenge against both the looters who sold him and the dragons who wrecked his village.

A lot of the book is pure fantasy fluff. There are sword duels, magical illusions, and evil villains. There is also some disturbing, even horrifying, torture and maiming, although I admit that I wasn't strongly effected by it because I never really became emotionally involved in the story. The characters just didn't seem real to me.

For example, Arlian escapes the mines where he lived as slave on meager rations and never saw sunlight or breathed fresh air. Yet he is described as both big and strong, and doesn't seem to have suffered much during his time as a slave. His first encounter after escaping the mines is with a brothel full of warm and willing prostitutes, who let him sample their wares for free and then aid his escape. He hasn't even had a meal or a bath yet, but the author plunks him into the arms of willing woman already? This was ludicrous, and left me feeling like I was trapped in teenage-boy fantasyland. Believe it or not, things just go uphill for Arlian after that, as he becomes extremely wealthy and influential, makes a loyal and lasting friend, and becomes pretty darn good at wielding a sword too! I was also a little put-off by the "Alien" rip-off at the end, but at least the book was a quick and easy read and well-paced.

As the title says, this is basically a retelling of Dumas' _The Count of Monte Cristo_ with some variation and dragons thrown in. Does this mean it's a bad book? Nope...still enjoyable. I've been a fan of Lawrence's works since his first Ethshar book and The Cyborg and the Sorcerer. Lawrence is a master of character driven (as opposed to plot driven) fantasy. Dragon Weather reads just like his Ethshar books: it is light, fast moving, and you want to turn the page to find out what happens next. Some may cringe at me calling it "light fantasy," but that's what it is. There is nothing deep here except the development of the main character Arlian and all the situations he finds himself in (and gets out of). I have yet to find a book of his that has not entertained me. I look forward to the two concluding volumes (Dragon Society & Dragon Venom), as well has his new Ethshar books.

This book was originaly bought for me by a friend back in 2000 when the book was originally released, well in 2003 I finnaly got around to reading it... someone needs to slap me. This is by far the most engrossing, page-turning, palm sweating, must-read-more fantasy book I have ever read.

When I first started reading this book I found myself thinking one thing: I've heard this story a thousand times before, but Lawrence Watt-Evens made it SO much more. He takes the whole, family lost, friends lost, must-get-revenge story to a astonishing new level. One of the most amazing things is he does this with a very realistic world (well theres dragons but they're done very well).

Its hard to really prove this is a worth-while read without revealing too much of the story-line, but this book (trilogy really) has quickly become my most recommended read

So, in conclusion... READ THIS BOOK

This book was not too bad, but far from great.
The plot is a catchy one, and makes you wonder so much "what's going to happen?" that it's hard not to read on. And that is also the reason why the ending leaves you shaking your head. Some may love the ending, but personaly, I wanted something more. I felt Lawrence Watt-Evans took the easy way out.

But what really got my goat was the "extras". I mean, the way he makes it look is that it's 3000 years in the future, while it is only a couple hundred. For all the improvements in technology and his supposed history, it becomes annoying. Also, the references to "old earth" are tacky and way overused. So much so that it frustrated me a few times, and I put the book down. But again, the "what's going to happen" was stronger then those annoyances.

If you are a sci-fi fan and a mystery fan all rolled into one, then this book you should read. Otherwise, you're not going to miss anything.

This is more than a combination of thriller and "hard"SF. It is a true novel, a major piece of literary SF that should have received the Hugo or the Nebula or both. Unfortunately, the author is known as a creator of fantasy, so this gem has not received the attention it should have. It is a most readable work of art, never leaving a chance for a yawn. But it is also a complex work, which gives away more after a second or third reading.

A planet in terminal orbit, one side searing hot, the other frozen. On the fringe between the two stands Nightside city. In this erie cyberpunk tale, a detective rubs elbows with all sorts of low-lifes in a quest to determine whether Nightside city will soon see the light of day...and who's behind it. Masterfully presented with wonderful descriptions, great dialog, and visionary descriptions of future technology. Evans makes it all come alive.

With the cover blurb focused on Tabaea, and the first two chapters centered on her, it isn't that surprising that the reader is confused when the heroine turns out to be the apparently boring but decidedly willful Sarai. Tabaea is the underdog, trying to come out on top of the world, but she lacks the character and knowledge to do it well. You know what they say about the road paved with good intentions...

Sarai, the daughter of the Minister of Justice (and therefore a member of the privileged class), spends a lot of time in detective work (for which she is naturally talented), trying to uncover what the reader already knows, which makes the reader desperately wish to just pop into the story for a moment and TELL her. When she finally gets the information she needs and makes her move, the story really gets rolling. In fact, it's almost too fast to follow.

There's a hiccup in the narrative when he replays a scene from Sarai's perspective immediately after showing it from Tabaea's, but otherwise, the plot races toward the finish. Tabaea's grisly demise is sad only because she flips back to her pseudo-noble mode in an attempt to prove her right to rule by eliminating the Seething Death that threatens not only the palace, but ultimately the entire world. She was misguided in her attempt, but the ending rather glosses over the supremely lazy and selfish methods she used to get to that point.

Basically, there was too much focus on the thief; we were in her head more than Sarai's, so we felt more for her. Add to that our almost-universal love for the underdog, and you can't help but feel disappointed with the ending, even if you knew it was the right way to end. He should have allowed the audience to remain in the dark about Tabaea along with Sarai, and get into HER head, from HER point of view instead. That would have eliminated both the divided loyalty of the reader, and the stalling of the plot while we wait for Sarai to figure out what we already know.

Nevertheless, if you like Watt-Evans' books, you'll still enjoy the action. If you've never read one of his books, I'd suggest starting with The Mis-Enchanted Sword: it's action and comedy in one.

I enjoyed the charaterizations in this book and the descriptions of the realm itself. However, I also found myself wanting Tabaea to win, she seemed so innocent to me, she wasn't an evil person, just a little misguided. Too bad she couldn't have become a wizards apprentice instead of dying.

I love the Ethshar series, with the exception of Taking Flight, and this book is the best that LWE has produced. Some people don't like the way that the book is written or the way that the heroine in the tale turns out to be the villain, but to me this book was fast paced, had great fighting, and a tangible sense of impending doom if she isn't stopped. Don't listen to the other reviewers, as they aren't happy that this book kind of breaks from the mold of the other Ethshar novels. Give it a chance.