Gail Z. Martin

The Chronicles of the Necromancer — (2007-2010) Publisher: The comfortable world of Martris Drayke, second son of King Bricen of Margolan, is shattered when his older half-brother, Jared, and Jared's dark mage, Foor Arontala, kill the king and seize the throne. Tris is the only surviving member of the royal family aside from Jared the traitor. Tris flees with three friends: Soterius, captain of the guard; Carroway, the court's master bard; and Harrtuck, a member of the royal guard. Tris harbors a deep secret. In a land where spirits walk openly and influence the affairs of the living, he suspects he may be the mage heir to the power of his grandmother, Bava K'aa, once the greatest sorceress of her age. Such magic would make Tris a Summoner, the rarest of magic gifts, capable of arbitrating between the living and the dead.

The Summoner

The Summoner is the first book that I have read by Gail Martin, but I was happily impressed with this first installment of The Chronicles of the Necromancer. I didn’t love it, and there seemed to be some rough patches throughout the book, but on the whole it was interesting.

Central to this story is a lust for power and what happens as a result. The main character, Martris “Tris” Drayke, is not very unique, but he’s interesting and is well developed enough to be worth following. I also liked the fact that Martin was not afraid to let him deal with consequences of trying to be a hero. Too often I have found authors who allow their characters to simply skate through mistake after mistake without any lasting harm.

The Summoner deals with a prince on the run from his power-hungry brother and his flight towards the only safe haven he knows. Along the way he begins to develop powers that allow him to interact with the spirits of the dead. This is not treated as being an evil gift, which is different from many other series where interaction with the dead is always linked with evil.

While fleeing for his life, Tris gathers a group of supporting characters of various skills and talents around him. Some of these characters get a little development, but for the most part they remain fairly cardboard. It’s not enough to really detract from the story, but it’s something that I hope will improve in the next book.

Ok, so why read this?  It’s fairly fun, has a little humor, a little romance, and some danger and tension. Not enough? Well, I found Martin’s willingness to let her characters get knocked around to be an indicator of her attempt to make the story gritty and avoid too much candy-coating. Things are not always easy for our hero and he often pays a price for what he wants to do. For me that was a refreshing change of pace, and coupled with the above-mentioned themes, was enough to make The Summoner worth reading.

Don’t drop what you are reading to pick this up, but add The Summoner to your list of things to read in the future. —John Hulet

The Blood King

The Blood King is the second book in The Chronicles of the Necromancer.
Gail Z. Martin has a decent writing voice, but the book as a whole really left me wanting. Perhaps it was the combination of good characters who were too good and bad characters who were too bad that I just didn’t quite feel comfortable with.

The first book, The Summoner, took us through the overthrow of the Kingdom of Margolan by the eldest son who is evil and selfish and cruel and lecherous and impatient… see where I am going with this? No redeeming qualities whatsoever, and his magical ally makes him seem nice by comparison. So, the bad guys are really out and out bad. The hero and his friends are willing to die for their friends and sacrifice themselves for the kingdom and to risk everything to stop the super-evil-bad-guy who the major-bad-guys are planning to release into the world. Ok, so I am being a bit sarcastic, but that’s my major gripe with The Blood King. Even the rebel-bad-guy is really a good guy who just has had so many hard experiences that he is not respectful enough of authority to be considered a real good guy.

The story of The Blood King seems to take a long time getting started and then moves kind of ponderously through the series of events that leads to the final confrontation. It might have felt more exciting and interesting if I hadn’t been so overwhelmed by the over-the-top characters.

I would like to see Ms. Martin write some more and I would like to see her get an editor who can help her to tone some things down. She shows a lot of promise and has a good command of the essential fantasy elements, but George R.R. she ain’t. —John Hulet