Book Review – The Wishstone and the Wonderworkers

Author: Hugh Cook
Cover Artist: Steve Crisp
Publisher: Corgi
Binding: Paperback
Publication Date: 1990

Part of the Chronicles of an Age of Darkness series, The Wishstone and the Wonderworkers by Hugh Cook is a strong action-orientated standalone novel that accomplishes several things that the other books were not able to. There is a certain air of familiarity here; the book presents a fairly straightforward plot, sticks to it, and offers plenty of swordfights, mystery, and humor throughout it. The Women and the Warlords and The Wizards and the Warriors both seemed to lose focus midway through, teetering on the edge of uncertainty, but not here.

The story follows a red-skinned Ebrell Islander named Chegory Guy as he explores the neighboring city. It has fallen victim to a massive energy drain and the recent theft of its precious wishstone has caused everyone with a knife to be questioned. There is also a pseudo-political struggle for power while demons run amuck, possessing others at will.

Cook manages to create a diverse cast, each with just enough personality to make them memorable. Personal favorites were Empress Justina, Uckermark, and Chegory Guy himself. He makes for a simple hero, always having to make decisions between what is better for the city or better for him. He’s still a rambunctious youngster, but manages to grow up a decent amount during the novel’s time.

And gone are the awkward dictionary entries at the beginning of chapters. Instead, we have a slew of editors and fact checkers inserting notes or deleting paragraphs of text as they please. It’s not as strange as it sounds, and actually adds a lot of flavor to the story, making it seem much more real than it could possibly be.

Still, two complaints.

One: The Wishstone and the Wonderworkers has an excess amount of unreadable, or rather hard to read, names and places. Want a small taste? Here you go: Injiltaprajura, Untunchilamon, Binchinminfin, Nixorjapretzel Rat, and Varazchavardan, Basically, when I saw these I just began to ignore them and connect the characters and places to the first three letters instead of the full word. Epic fantasy (and sword and sorcery) are known to host a bizarre range of fantastical names, but this here is just ridiculous.

Two: Both aspects of the title actually don’t seem to play an important role in the story. The wishstone is mentioned here and there, almost in a comical way when it keeps disappearing, and the wonderworkers, well, they’re definitely on the sideline.

But minor points aside, The Wishstone and the Wonderworkers is a fun adventure with colorful characters in a world where danger literally lurks around every corner. Can be read as a standalone, though I’m sure there are small bits of information connecting past books that true fans can relish in.

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