The Gossamer Mage

June 17, 2019
This highly stylized fantasy novel from Czerneda (the Clan Chronicles) condenses a doorstopper epic’s worth of detail into a relatively small space, creating a molasses-like reading experience. In the land of Tananen, as Czerneda describes repeatedly, a mage scribe uses intention to give magic a direction, but each spell steals a bit of the mage’s life for the Deathless Goddess. Despite this high cost, most magic is used to provide frivolities for the wealthy. Mal, a rogue master mage, is determined to end the Goddess’s reign so that mage scribes no longer pay for magic with their lives. His path crosses that of Kait, a disciple of the Goddess from Tiler’s Hold. She’s on a mission to discover why she and her sisters are no longer hearing the Goddess’s voice—and to find out why the stones of the hold are murmuring evil. The key tying these threads together is found in the gossamers, creatures created when a mage’s intent goes wrong. The novel is as ponderous and winding as it is beautifully detailed, and the intricate plot suffers from an overabundance of densely packed information. Diehard epic fantasy fans may find Czerneda’s concept intriguing, but there’s not enough story to hold it up. Agent: Sara Megibow, KT Literary.