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Scottish nobleman Sir Adam Sinclair--a physician and Adept--faces an unholy cult of black magicians who defile his beloved Scotland and will commit any atrocity to achieve their evil ends. Reissue.
I ended up with this book along with a number of others from a relative's collection. From the description, I was really looking forward to this book. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a let down. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, but it was definitely not what I got. I suppose I anticipated a bit more of the 'mystic detective' trope, ala Carnacki or so many other examples from weird and pulp fiction. And that's certainly present in a way...but there is an awful lot of almost Victorian/Romantic-esque nobility/rich person stuff here. Much like a lot of classic literature from that era, I find it a little off-putting. Its hard to feel sympathetic to or identify with people so wealthy they have no actual responsibilities or demands on their time. Even artists who benefit from their patronage (which are present here) feel similar to me. Combined with the fact that we get *VERY LIMITED* magic or mystical secret society action until about the last 50 pages of this book. In fact, there's very little action of any kind til that point. Until then, there's a lot meandering not really training, not really teaching, a new protege...a lot of description of rich people's homes and cars and oh so important activities, a *little* investigation...and that's about it. There's also some really heavy christian overtones to the magic, which I wasn't anticipating, but the author goes out of their way to let us know it doesn't *have* to be that way. Unless someone tells me the subsequent books have a pretty hard shift in tone and pacing, I'm out for the rest of the series. ( )
It's a very interesting story. Again, I've read it many times before, so I largely knew what would happen ahead of time, but it's a very rich story and I see new things each time I read it. Peregrine is a very handy mechanism for the authors to explain all the mystic, esoteric stuff to their readers. He's also an interesting person, and I find his reactions to a lot of what he learns both realistic and amusing. The enemy are presented as irredeemably evil and also rather pettily cruel (or perhaps just careless, but it comes to the same result). I enjoy all the ordinary bits of the story, too - the weather, Templemor, their food, Humphrey...the magical bits fit in, and the combination makes for a very convincing world. We get some hints Adam et al don't - some names, mostly - though by the end of the book it's clear that Adam knows things we don't, yet, about the enemy. He's encountered the Lynx symbol before... Good story both as a self-contained adventure and as the intro to the series. I do like Adam - and Peregrine, and Neil, and Lady Laura, and just about everyone (who isn't a bad guy) that we meet. ( )
Informació del coneixement compartit en alemany.Modifica-la per localitzar-la a la teva llengua.
Für Betty Ballantine, die ein besonderes Talent dafür hat, neue Autoren zu finden und zu ermutigen. Über eine Zeitspanne von über fünfzehn Jahren kaufte sie von jeder von uns eine erste Trilogie und hatte dann den außergewöhnlich vernünftigen Einfall, uns bekanntzumachen. Danke, Betty!
Danksagungen Sincere thanks are due to the following people who contributed materially to the realization of this book: Dr. Richard Oram, for his authoritative advice concerning matters of medieval Scottish history and archaeology, especially with respect to early Scottish cartography; Mr. Kenneth Fraser of the St. Andrews University Research Library, for his valuable assistance in locating difficult-to-find research materials; Dr. William Such, for his help in rendering the Greek terminology used in this book; Robert Harris, for his help in reviewing the Latin; Mr. G.H. Forsyth, caretaker at Melrose Abbey, for his useful information on the whereabouts of Michael Scot's grave; And finally, the staff of the St. Andrews Tourist Information Bureau, especially Mrs. Maggie Pitkethly and Mr. Andrew Purvis, for providing a wealth of miscellaneous information not to be found in history books.
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Informació del coneixement compartit en alemany.Modifica-la per localitzar-la a la teva llengua.
Die Herbstnacht war klar und frisch, in der stillen Luft lag etwas, das Frost noch vor dem Morgengrauen ankündigte.
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Informació del coneixement compartit en alemany.Modifica-la per localitzar-la a la teva llengua.
Scottish nobleman Sir Adam Sinclair--a physician and Adept--faces an unholy cult of black magicians who defile his beloved Scotland and will commit any atrocity to achieve their evil ends. Reissue.
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From the description, I was really looking forward to this book. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a let down. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, but it was definitely not what I got.
I suppose I anticipated a bit more of the 'mystic detective' trope, ala Carnacki or so many other examples from weird and pulp fiction. And that's certainly present in a way...but there is an awful lot of almost Victorian/Romantic-esque nobility/rich person stuff here. Much like a lot of classic literature from that era, I find it a little off-putting. Its hard to feel sympathetic to or identify with people so wealthy they have no actual responsibilities or demands on their time. Even artists who benefit from their patronage (which are present here) feel similar to me. Combined with the fact that we get *VERY LIMITED* magic or mystical secret society action until about the last 50 pages of this book. In fact, there's very little action of any kind til that point. Until then, there's a lot meandering not really training, not really teaching, a new protege...a lot of description of rich people's homes and cars and oh so important activities, a *little* investigation...and that's about it. There's also some really heavy christian overtones to the magic, which I wasn't anticipating, but the author goes out of their way to let us know it doesn't *have* to be that way. Unless someone tells me the subsequent books have a pretty hard shift in tone and pacing, I'm out for the rest of the series. (