The Myth of Magic
Adam Cole
Nuncici, 2000, 401 pp.
ISBN: 0738808245

Over the centuries as the nation of Queensland expanded, the common regard towards magic and its practitioners withered. In the present those who practice the obsolete art are considered at the lowest rung of the food chain. Perhaps the only more debased than membership in the Magicians' Guild is to be an apprentice magician just ask Lemyth and Boye of Barnady village.

Summoned to Melwyn the Scope, the Primary Landowner of Barnady, the beloved Wedna Aedynathan, leaves for a trek of several day across the vast country. The townsfolk are concerned that they must lose their "essence" for so long especially on Wedna's birthday.

After Wedna departs with her caravan, the Mayor investigates the Magicians' Guild and begins shouting conspiracy. He plans to ban the Guild with only those two ennui apprentices in his way. As their masters throw out Lemyth and Boye for violating the magic commandments, they try to save their Guild, but uncover an even darker plot that could destroy Barnady and more if they fail to stop the odious endeavor.

The Myth of Magic is a coming of age tale, but that would oversimplify the parable that is the heart of the novel. The intriguing story line uses symbolism and stereotyped characterizations to create a strangely different type of magic in which powers cannot alter the world of physics, but enhance the feelings of individuals in a manner similar to the ritual use of music. Adam Cole's allegorical fantasy blows away dogmatic religions and governments (the American Constitution as the strict words of a bible and the Founding Fathers as a Mount Olympus like pantheon) fostering the obsolete at any cost in his remarkably mentally invigorating metaphor.

Harriet Klausner