Drury - Book Reviews

***** - Excellent
**** - Good
*** - Okay
** - Bad
* - Terrible
+ - Half-star

Merlin's Book of Magic and Enchantment
Nevill Drury
MetroBooks
Fiction, Fantasy/Magic
**
MERLIN'S BOOK OF MAGIC AND ENCHANTMENT (ILLUSTRATIONS BY LINDA GARLAND)

DESCRIPTION: Merlin is one of history's most famous wizards. In this book, written during his endless imprisonment by Nimue, he tells of his magickal secrets, in hopes of educating future generations.

REVIEW: I don't know why Drury felt this book needed to be written. A good Merlin point-of-view story might have been interesting, but Merlin only relates his tale during the first part of the book. Much is glossed over in this book's haste to get to Merlin's lessons in magick, which draw on real-world practices for inspiration. These lessons, like the story, are told in annoyingly archaic English, given to flowery language that doesn't really "teach" anything. I have read much better books on magick than this. If this is the only wisdom Merlin possessed, he must've been a lucky hack, which might explain how he was so easily betrayed and entrapped. Given the fact that Merlin's autobiography was pathetically slim, the failure of the magickal lessons mean the failure of this book as a concept.

You might also enjoy:
The Learned Art of Witches & Wizards (Anton and Mina Adams, Nonfiction - The history and practice of magick)
The Way of Wizards (Tom Cross, Fiction - A lushly illustrated look at the world of wizards)
The Little Giant Encyclopedia of Spells & Magic (The Diagram Group, Nonfiction - An overview of magic traditions)
The Giant Book of Magic (Cassandra Eason, Nonfiction - World magical practices and their use today)
The Complete Book of Amulets and Talismans (Migene González-Wippler, Nonfiction - Creating magickal objects)
The Book of Alchemy (Francis Melville, Nonfiction - An overview of alchemical principles and practice)
Wizardology (Dugald A. Steer, YA Fiction - Merlin's instruction book for young wizards)

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