With a Single Spell

My first thought when seeing the title and finishing the first chapter was "how many cool ways can he use this one spell"? Put that aside and instead read another travelogue in Ethshar.

Our main character starts out fundamentally lazy, and this bites him repeatedly. Told from his point of view, this flawed narrator probably heard his teacher tell him about protection on his book and other things, and just didn't hear or remember them. Fortunately he becomes more clever as the story continues.

The cover of my book is the one with the now grounded flying castle, crashed at an angle. I am reminded that we don't find out why there is a magic drain here, and I hope that it is covered in later books. I loved the descriptions of the land through the tapestry (two books, two traveling tapestries) and the The Spriggan Mirror - now the 9th book in the series, which wasn't written yet when I first read this.

I waited 7 years between reading the first and second books; the author took only two to craft this solid sequel to the original book. While our innkeeper is mentioned, there is no other connection save the world itself. I plan to read the third book much sooner than another 7 years. 4 stars.