In this second volume of the adventures of the aquatic alchemist Corwyn and his incompetent apprentice Sebastian, the two make a strategic retreat from their home in the village of Pomme de Terre. It seems the villagers are beginning to have second thoughts about the enthusiastic welcome they gave to the collection of new-fangled ideas from Italy known as the Renaissance, and blame Corwyn for introducing the now-questionable fad.

Anticipating that the pendulum of public opinion will eventually swing the other way, Corwyn and Sebastian, along with Gwen ( former tavern wench, now Sebastian's betrothed ) and Oliver ( Corwyn's animated broomstick ), travel to Genoa, Florence, and Venice in search of the knowledge that Pomme de Terre will then be ready for. Along the way, they encounter several characters that seem to have wandered in from various Shakespeare plays, and even from the Canterbury Tales. The names of the chapters, or "acts", are mostly some jokingly muddled allusion to Shakespeare -- "A Midwinter Night's Scheme", "Much Adieu About Nothing", "Two Gentlemen From Barcelona", etc. Not surprisingly, given their itinerary, it is "The Merchant of Venice" that supplies the most significant borrowed characters, and we learn what was "really" in the ship whose failure to arrive led to the famous court-room scene. It was the final ingredient for the latest plot by Corwyn's nemesis Hydro Phobius, to "bring down" the city of Venice, literally.

Intended as a humorous series, I'm afraid that I'd have to say its performance rarely rises above the mediocre. The main character, Sebastian, is just too much of an arrogant jerk to be very sympathetic, and the continual jokes about his clumsy use of French grow tiresome, particularly for anyone who does not speak it themselves. By the very end he seems to finally mature a bit, but given his history one could be forgiven for being skeptical about how long it will last.

From the back cover:

Hoping to bring a bit of the Enlightenment home to his backward town of Pomme de Terre, Corwyn, the world's only aquatic alchemist, travels to Venice with his well-meaning but astonishingly inept assistant, Sebastian. The ancient enchanter's hapless helper is solely concerned with proving his disputed nobility -- and thus fails to notice a perfidious plot he has inadvertently stumbled upon. For Corwyn's most loathsome nemesis is conspiring to sink the fabled city into the sea -- a sinister strategem that seems to ensnare everyone from Cosimo de Medici to the Merchant of Venice himself. And now there's much ado about Doomsday -- as Corwyn and Sebastian must battle a terrible sorcery that generates the dark magic of total destruction.

*****
Don't Miss the Earlier Mishaps and Misadventures of Corwyn and Sebastian in Alchemy Unlimited.

( Duplicated from my Amazon review. ) ( )