A Study in Sorcery: A Lord Darcy Novel

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An unrepentant fan of puns once defining a pun as "the odor given off by a decaying mind" and infamous womanizer, he won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History Special Achievement Award for the Lord Darcy series posthumously in All the stories written by Garrett collected into one large trade paperback volume.

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. A really big thanks to Rudyard Kennedy for helping me out with this one.

A Study in Sorcery

Buy this book Lord Darcy Investigates Buy this book Lord Darcy Buy this book All the stories written by Garrett collected into one large trade paperback volume. Buy this boo k A Study in Sorcery Buy this book Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. Poll Got a comment on this site? Drop me a line, and we'll talk. If it really is a matter of intent, then what truely matters is what the sorcerer believes is 'black magic' and that delves into a realm of moral relativism that has not been seen in the predominatly Catholic world of Lord Darcy.

I feel that this premise needed more work to make it believable. Excluding the local magic, I found the setting, local customs, and natives to be interesting. And the interactions between western ideas, native ideas and the idea of western superiority were well written and in accordance with the setting.

I liked most of the new characters introduced. Except for Irene view spoiler [and that may just be my personal morals showing.

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Darcy's attraction to her bothered me. Especially since Kurland's previous novel established that he was in a relationship with Mary of Cumberland.

I feel that this should have warrented a mention in this book. Instead, Mary seems to have conveniently been forgotten.

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I found him fascinating when he was introduced in Too Many Magicians and was glad to see how his character had developed. I also found de Maisvin quite interesting and wish we had a chance to hear more of his flowery formal speech. I enjoyed the multiple layers to the mystery, and although I had a quess as to who the villain was I could not create a logical connection.

Of course all the clues were presented, I just did not take note of them until Lord Darcy explained the connection. These were matters Father Adamsus was supposed to be looking into, but we never hear the results of his inquiries.

On the whole, it was a good entertaining book. And I would definitely recommend it, with the caution that it isn't quite as good as the rest of the series. Feb 18, Jonathan Palfrey rated it really liked it. This is a good crime story, a nice exercise in alternative history, and it's good fun to read. When I first read Kurland's two Lord Darcy novels, I thought they were quite good but not as good as Randall Garrett's originals Garrett having been the creator of Lord Darcy and his world.

However, after repeated rereading I've decided that Kurland's Lord Darcy is about as good overall as Garrett's.

Perhaps Garrett is slightly better at scenario and plot, while Kurland is slightly better at character This is a good crime story, a nice exercise in alternative history, and it's good fun to read. Perhaps Garrett is slightly better at scenario and plot, while Kurland is slightly better at characterization and writing style.

The particular advantages of this book are the touches of humour and the novelty of the North American setting: The young Lady Irene is rather charming, and it's a pity that we meet her only in this book. Although it's only a minor criticism, I'm puzzled that Lady Irene and other young ladies of her acquaintance, in their twenties, seem to regard Lord Darcy and Master Sean as interesting eligible bachelors.

In this book, we can deduce that both of them are in their mid-fifties, and Master Sean is a rather stout beer drinker.

Michael Kurland

I'm no expert on young ladies, but I wouldn't expect them to take such an interest in men easily old enough to be their fathers; particularly when there's no great discrepancy in wealth or status Lady Irene is both titled and well paid. Lord Darcy's age is somewhat disputable. This book and the Garrett story "The muddle of the woad" both imply indirectly that he was born in about , and this book is set in , so he should be about However, Garrett's last story, 'The spell of war', is an anomaly, implying that he was ten years older: Dec 06, Robert Gilson rated it really liked it Shelves: He does a great job recreating Garrett's story telling style and adds to the Lord Darcy world some fun new world back ground.

I enjoyed this book and wish there were more books to read with these characters but this appears to be the end of the Lord Darcy books. Not terrible, but not as good as the original Lord Darcy tales. Kim rated it liked it May 31, Day Littrell rated it liked it Jan 13, WMDJ rated it really liked it Jan 24, Lori rated it liked it Apr 25, Paul rated it really liked it Apr 04, Mark rated it liked it Nov 01, Lilacs rated it really liked it Feb 21, Sam rated it really liked it Jun 24, Priscilla Harszy rated it it was amazing Sep 15, Tim Newton rated it really liked it Mar 23, Kevinpatrick rated it really liked it Oct 10, Stuart rated it it was amazing Sep 26, Kerry rated it really liked it Aug 30, Anne rated it really liked it Oct 27, Howie Modell rated it it was amazing Jan 12, Larry rated it really liked it Jun 20, Elizabeth rated it liked it Nov 21, Peter Yearsley rated it really liked it Jan 24, Alexa rated it really liked it Aug 01, Volker rated it really liked it Feb 13, John Speelman rated it liked it Mar 04,

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