LITERATURE ANALYSIS: JANUARY

The Wizard at Large
by Terry Brooks
 
Plot:
This novel begins when Questor, the court wizard, tries to turn Abernathy, the court scribe back into a human. (He is a dog.) The only way to do so is to have the High Lord's medallion on the dog as a catalyst. While preforming the transformation magic, Questor sneezes, teleporting the dog to Earth and a magical bottle to the kingdom of Landover. The High Lord, Ben Holiday, has to travel back to Earth to save his scribe and get back his medallion. While there, a child named Elizabeth, tries saving the dog and helping him escape. The bottle that was replaced by the dog, has an evil demon inside called a darkling, it's kind of like a genie, and it grants the dark wishes of anyone who holds the bottle. With the High Lord gone, chaos breaks out from the bottle and people begin to wonder where the king is. The court wizard visits the dragon named Strabo and together, they fly to Earth, through a portal, and get back the High Lord, who is actually in trouble by Earth's laws at the end of the story. I think this book is overall, a great novel since it only took me four days to read. :)

Characters:
In this story, I think I would like to meet Ben Holiday who was the person who bought this magical kingdom. He shows great courage and determination once he sets his mind to something. He also has strong feelings for the people he cares about such as his girlfriend, who he ends up marrying at the end of the book.

When the author focuses on a character, he writes everything that character is doing so it is easy for me to imagine what is going on. When the author focuses on descriptions, he describes everything in detail, which is something I liked about this novel. I enjoy books that are very descriptive.

Theme:
I don't even think there is a theme from this book. Terry Brooks writes to entertain his readers, but I think thinking before you act is a great theme. Questor, the court wizard, doesn't think all the way through with his plans and something always goes wrong. He isn't a very good wizard.

Symbolism:
I'm never good at finding symbols, I don't even think there are symbols in this book, but when the author refers to Questor as having an owlish face, owls are wise birds and are portrayed as being wise. I think the author is also referring to Questor as being wise.

Dramatic Irony is when the audience knows something the characters don't. The book switches off between the adventurers on Earth and the adventurers on Landover. Neither group knows what's going on in there adjacent locations. They all find out what's going on with eachother at the end when they meet again.