Wizardry from a Local Author

Azrael's Twins: Book One of the Nearworld Tales by V J Mortimer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is a rather delightful book, the story of two siblings - a brother and sister (not twins, as the title had lead me to previously believe) who live in our world, but one day they follow some squirrels and meet a phoenix. From that point on, their lives will never be the same again, as they are whisked away into a fantastical world, the world from which their parents originated, and begin to learn the craft of magic - and many other things besides.

It is impossible to read this book without drawing mental comparisons to the adventures of a certain boy wizard - with the wands and the broomsticks and magical castles in which places switch and shift - but there is enough originality here too, this is not merely a Harry Potter clone but a fun and engaging novel in its own right.

In terms of editing, it's pretty good, with no spellling mistakes noted thus fun! However, I did find a few missing closing " on dialogue (and one opening), and also - no final fullstop! - overall, pretty good for a self-published novel. It also may seem rather long - at over 160,000 words, but it moves at a rollicking pace and I finished it within only a few days.

An enjoyable read for the middle-school age group (9-13) and those of us who are young at heart.



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