The Wizard of Time
Publisher: Kosmosaic Books, 2011
Genre: YA Fantasy
Thirteen-year-old Gabriel Salvador has dreams about the future and his dreams always come true. When he dreams one night that he will drown, he knows upon waking it is only a matter of time before his dream becomes reality. Plucked from the timeline of history at the moment of his death, Gabriel becomes an apprentice time mage and part of an elite team of wizards who travel throughout history to fight the War of Time and Magic. Victorian London, the Aztec temples of 1487, the Greek island of Samos in 320 BCE, Scotland in the Middle Ages, and the battle fields of Alexander the Great are only some of the adventures in time that await Gabriel as he learns to become a time mage and joins the battle to protect the timeline of history in THE WIZARD OF TIME.
My Review:
Gabriel lives a pretty normal life, if you don’t count his future visions of death. In fact, he has seen his death and knows nothing can change it. That is until the day he dies he is plucked from his timeline by Grace Mages! Suddenly he finds himself among people have incredible magic that fight to defend the Primary Time Continuum from Malignancy Mages who want to alter it.
Gabriel has been saved because he is a Time Mage. He will be taught and trained of the workings of magic by a team of six mages (one for each magic branch). Though Gabriel is very grateful to be alive, he is also extremely sad because he has to leave everything of his old life behind. Luckily he turns out to be unbelievably proficient at Time Magic, and quickly gains the trust and respect of his team. Or maybe not so lucky when they discover he is a True Mage, and not just any True Mage, but the Seventh True Mage. Able to use all six forms of magic plus both positive and negative imprinted items. The one who prophesy also calls Breaker of Time and Destroyer of Worlds. Gabriel fears his powers; he fears that by using the negative forces he might change as well. Both Grace and Malignant sides will try to use him for their greater cause, which way will Gabriel turn? Will he be strong enough to choose his own path? What if Darkness is needed in the world for there to be Light?
I found this story to be an incredible mix of fantasy and history. It’s a bit slow going with all the explanations and descriptions of historic places, but they’re all necessary since it’s a time travel story. Me being a history fan, found the description to be quite interesting and fun, however I don’t think most young readers would appreciate all those extra thousand words and the philosophical debates. I really liked the character of Gabriel, he was really smart and acted older than his years. He made some very tough decisions, even breaking the rules to save one of his team mates. Surprisingly I also liked Vicaquirao, one of the villains. He pretty much swayed me to his ‘evil’ philosophy, while still making me cheer on for the good guys. Overall it was an awesome adventure filled with an incredible magic system, wicked cool magic fights, and a wonderful three dimensional cast of heroes and villains.
*I received this book from the author for my honest review*
Favorite Quotes:
“That’s…” Gabriel began. “That’s…”
“That’s a Pelorosaurus,” Sema said with a matter-of-fact tone.
“That’s crazy,” Gabriel said. “We must be seventy million years in the past.”
“Nearly a hundred and twenty-five million,” Ohin said. “It seems far, but time is really interrelational. Every moment is just as far from every other.
“Right,” Gabriel said. “Of course. That makes perfect sense.” Sema was right. He was at a breaking point. And he broke right past it. His eyes rolled up in his head and he passed out, falling back into the mattress of the bed.”
~
Ling offered him the last slice of melon. “Sorry. I ate everything. I’m starving. I could eat a horse. And I love horses. Beautiful creatures. But I’d eat one whole. Raw.”
“I’d settle for eggs and bacon,” Gabriel said.
Also today, G.L. Breedon has kindly accepted to talk to us a little about how The Wizard of Time came to be. Lets give him a warm welcome to Amy’s Book Den!
The idea for THE WIZARD OF TIME was born of a dream. That seems fitting, as dreams play a significant role in the beginning of the novel.
In the dream I had, I was in a bookstore and some kids were looking at a series of books, so I wandered over checked the covers. I discovered that I was the author of the books and that they were about time travel and magic. That combination seemed like a great idea and I figured a dream of that nature was a good omen, so I spent a few weeks daydreaming the story into existence. The end of all that daydreaming was a story about a young time mage who ends up at the center of a war of magic fought throughout the timeline of history.
After the daydreaming came quite a bit of research and reading about the different times and places that the story takes place. Victorian London, the Aztec temples of 1487, the Greek island of Samos in 320 BCE, Scotland in the Middle Ages, and the battle fields of Alexander the Great to name a few. I wanted the novel to as accurate of possible, but still allow for a little creative license. Some of the research I did while writing the novel and sometimes I would leave a blank section where I knew I would need to do research and fill in the details while editing.
Although at first glance the novel would appear to influenced by contemporary YA novels like the HARRY POTTER and PERCY JACKSON series, the stories that held the most sway over my imagination were the old DOC SAVAGE pulp novels from the 1930s and 40s. I was also influenced by Robert Jordan's WHEEL OF TIME series and the story of Clark Kent's adolescence and coming of age in the TV show SMALLVILLE. Stories that explored how people who have extraordinary power thrust upon them cope with the moral challenges that they must inevitably face. Gabriel is the kind of hero who doesn't want the power he has been gifted and struggles to figure out how accept the responsibility that power entails even as he tries to avoid the temptations that accompany it. Those are the kinds of stories that have always interested me, stories about ideas as well as adventure, and I hope readers will feel the same about The Wizard of Time. I also hope they come away wanting more of the story and wondering what happens in Book 2.
