Osric's Wand: The Wand-Maker​'s Debate by Jack D. Albrecht and Ashley Delay

Reviewed by: Stephanie

Three Stars

Summary from Goodreads:(there wasn't one I saw on Amazon)

While the world leaders of Archana gather for an unprecedented peace treaty signing, tragedy strikes, and rumors spread of war. Osric; a young, untested leader, is thrust into the chaos and must journey far with his unlikely companions to stop the inevitable world war. Circumstance brought them together, but prophecy has entwined their fates.

Now, the young Vigile Contege, the world’s greatest Wand-Maker, and a beautiful Maiden of the Unicorn must put aside their differences and work together, or watch as their homes are destroyed. Their understanding of magic will be challenged as they discover new methods and uses for their powers, and each day will only uncover more unanswerable questions to torment Osric’s mind.

Why was the signing attacked? What do the unicorns want with him? How do you read a book with no words? What is so special about his wand?

This is a promising start of a new fantasy series. I wish I had connected with it more.

Osric is a leader of the troops at a village called Stanton. The opening of the book has Osric and his men preparing for a big gathering at the palace which includes ambassadors from the different races in this world called Archana. Security is of great importance, and as most people in this world possess magic, magical means are also employed to secure the meeting. Osric is using his Portentist gift (he can discern when something dangerous or momentous is coming) and knows that something isn't right. Unfortunatley he's too late to do anything because a huge explosion happens that destroys most of the palace and traps many of the attendees.

After being rescued, Osric's first desire is to discover the culprit behind the bombing. Time is of the essence because the different attendees are accusing one another of planning the bombing and the escalating tensions will quickly lead to an all out war.

Osric also needs to know why his wand is acting strangely. He was able to do some pretty heavy duty magic while trapped in the bombed out palace and he's really confused as to the reason why. After crossing paths with Gus, a master wand maker, he's still no closer to answers but Gus ends up joining the group that is going to travel across Archana in hopes of catching the palace bomber.

The story is mainly about the trip that Osric and his group takes. Unfortunately a series of events sidetracks them from their goal. Instead they uncover more about Osric's strange magical ablilities and also a huge conspiracy regarding the dragons that the citizens of Archana use for transportation.

I liked Osric's character. He is a good leader and geuninely cares about his troops, his friends and his country. He is kind and wants to help anyone he meets. He's a good friend and a brave champion of worthwhile causes.

I wasn't wild about many of the other characters, however. Some were too abrasive (like Gus) and some quite annoying (like Pebbles) and others weren't developed enough for my liking (Bridget).  Additionally, the plot was a bit confusing to me. I wanted to get sucked into this fantasy world from page one. But the "world-building" was seriously lacking. I didn't know too much about the inhabitants of Archana and I kept thinking that the main plot was to find the palace bomber. That was never really solved and instead the focus seemed to be on Osric's wand and magical abilities. I wanted to get caught up in that, but things seemed to jump around too much and I struggled to keep up.

I would be interested to read book 2 as I do like Osric and would like to see how things turn out with him, especially now that he's fully sure of his new abilities. Again, I wish that I had connected more with the story overall but it was good read.