Cacographer and apprentice wizard Nicodemus Weal has a problem: he’s dyslexic, which makes it difficult for him to “spell” correctly. But his cacography, or ability to unravel and corrupt spells, has many uses, and some think he is the figure spoken of in the ancient Erasmine Prophecy, the Halycon, who will prevent the apocalypse known as the Disjunction from happening. Blake Charlton’s exciting and suspenseful debut novel, Spellwright, which is about the twenty-five-year-old cacographer Nicodemus Weal, is based in part on his own life, because he, like Weal, is dyslexic.
Starhaven, the wizardly stronghold where Nicodemus has trained since he was a boy under the tutelage of the grand wizard Agwu Shannon, is hosting a convocation of wizards and Druids from the North. There are many political factions present, and various opinions about Nicodemus and how, or if, he fits into the prophecy. Some believe him to be the Halycon, the savior of language and knowledge. Others think he may be the anti-Halycon, or Storm Petrel, a person mentioned in the prophecy who resembles what the Halycon is supposed to be but who is bent on preventing the Halycon from succeeding in his mission. Still others believe that Nicodemus, while having some of the signs of being the Halycon or the Storm Petrel, is just a cacographer with a learning disability that likely will never be overcome.
But there is more to the story than the prophecy. Nico discovers that wizardry can be, in fact, a dangerous and bloody business: someone or something is systematically murdering the wizards and also the cacograpic children of Drum Tower. The murderer lures his victims to the places of their deaths via their dreams. What’s more, the murderer is carefully attempting to frame Nico’s mentor.
Like Noam Chomsky with the English language, Nico can inadvertently (or on purpose, if he concentrates hard enough) deconstruct spells and the magical constructs that the wizards use to perform various tasks (for example, the gargoyles of different shapes and sizes that populate Starhaven’s rooftops). Also, despite his being a cacographer, Nicodemus knows how to create spells in different magical languages and can work several spells whose syntax is not particularly complex. How he, and other wizards/cacographers, create spells by working the runes of the spells out of their flesh and muscle is explained in a fascinating manner by the author. The runes are formed often in the forearms of the wizards and cacographers, and are sent forth by flicking one’s fingers in the direction one desires the spell to head. It seemed to me to be an unique explanation and method of doing magic, and I thought it was pretty cool and made the novel that much more interesting to me.
Besides the way spells are formed and cast, with the colors of pink used for the Jejunus language, silver used for the words and sentences in the Numinous language, and gold for the ones in Magnus spells, I liked that the novel takes on fantasy genre cliches and makes them seem new. There are, for instance, the Harry Potter comparisons, with both Harry and Nicodemus having black hair and green eyes (also like Percy Jackson). Both attend a school for wizards, both are at the center of prophecies, both have high expectations placed upon them to succeed. But each is very different in other ways, and it’s how Charlton works within the parameters of the genre and expresses it in a way as to make it seem new and original that sets Spellwright apart from, and makes it more than, a mere Harry Potter-like clone.
Spellwright would be an impressive novel if an author with many bestselling books under his/her belt had written it. It’s even more impressive, to me, in that it’s Blake Charlton’s debut novel. I can’t wait to read the forthcoming books in the series, if they’re anywhere as good as this one!
