Location: Australia
Member Since:
Jan. 12, 2012
Patrick Hefford
Smashwords book reviews by Patrick Hefford
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The Toy Sorcerer
on April 30, 2012
Lessons for life wrapped in fantasy. As an engineer by profession and by nature a fairly down to earth realist, if not entirely a skeptic or cynic, fantasy hitherto has not been my genre of choice. Imagination, most would tell you, is not my strongest point either. However, I stumbled on rave reviews of Laura’s book and was drawn to read it. Having done so it has opened my eyes as to see how fantasy can be so cleverly used, by the right author, to portray some of life’s bitter lessons that we all experience at some time or other. I am full of admiration of her gifted technique in creating and describing so many strange creatures that one can begin to see quite clearly, and then complete the picture by developing the characters to the point where they become lovable or fearful. (By golly this book would make a great film with all the computer generated images these afford.) To begin with, at times, I found it hard to keep pace with all the characters and creatures as they came on the scene and occasionally, I confess, I had to back-track. However I soon found myself totally absorbed and gripped by the adventures and terrifying ordeals of Alice’s quest through the ever changing Dream Realms. From radio interviews and newspaper articles I understand that Laura wrote this book some fifteen years ago, shelved it then resurrected it recently. No doubt “The Toy Sorcerer” now has been honed to reflect, between the lines, fifteen more years of her life’s ups and downs. It is clearly not a young child’s fairytale as some horrific events are very explicitly described with a modicum of expletives here and there. The richness of vocabulary is suited to late teens and above. A truly excellent book and a triumph as a debut. I commend you to read it. Hurry up Laura with book two “The Final Prophecy" Patrick Hefford Retired Civil Engineer