James E. Wisher

It is not often that I get engrossed in reading a book series that spans over as many volumes as James E. Wisher’s Portal Wars. All too frequently would I lose interest once I get past the second, third, perhaps fourth installment of any series.
Now, having finished volume 7 of 8, this is all the more intriguing for on reflection Portal Wars’ plot is rather simple, and its characters behaftet (tainted) by cliches – what else would you call it if the Lady of the dead who dresses top to bottom in black introduces herself as Lady White – are at best moderately rounded and developed. Hell, and even the protagonist makes me more hate than love him, after all, amongst other horrors, he causes a holocaust on an island result in the horrific death of all its inhabitants.
The premediated murder of 50,000 innocents does not exactly endear him to me; that the name of the mass murderer is Otto Schenk doesn’t help either. Blame me if you are so inclined if I am going a bit ad hominem here but that name reminds me a bit too much on one of them German concentrations camp commanders of WW2. And yet, despite it all, I just can’t bring myself about to completely and utterly detest the man. You see he always manages, if just barely, to justify his even largest scale, cold-blooded murders. I must admit his reasoning and justifications works on you until finally, well, I have to admit you got to give him the benefit of doubt. He might, just might be right.
Some of you readers might judge Otto Schenk a bit harsher and perhaps feel so offput by the protagonist that you just throw the book(s) or phone (as in audiobook) in a corner – completely understandable.
However, if you decide otherwise you might just be in for a treat. There is challenge and exploration that even the great Odysseus would appreciate. Intriguing questions about human nature are tackled, if only tangentially, and there is Empire-making on a grand scale.
Otto Schenk’s world is one of medieval cruelty but also the wonders of magic. If you got the stomach for it you might very well be in for a treat.… (altro)

It is not often that I get engrossed in reading a book series that spans over as many volumes as James E. Wisher’s Portal Wars. All too frequently would I lose interest once I get past the second, third, perhaps fourth installment of any series.
Now, having finished volume 7 of 8, this is all the more intriguing for on reflection Portal Wars’ plot is rather simple, and its characters behaftet (tainted) by cliches – what else would you call it if the Lady of the dead who dresses top to bottom in black introduces herself as Lady White – are at best moderately rounded and developed. Hell, and even the protagonist makes me more hate than love him, after all, amongst other horrors, he causes a holocaust on an island result in the horrific death of all its inhabitants.
The premediated murder of 50,000 innocents does not exactly endear him to me; that the name of the mass murderer is Otto Schenk doesn’t help either. Blame me if you are so inclined if I am going a bit ad hominem here but that name reminds me a bit too much on one of them German concentrations camp commanders of WW2. And yet, despite it all, I just can’t bring myself about to completely and utterly detest the man. You see he always manages, if just barely, to justify his even largest scale, cold-blooded murders. I must admit his reasoning and justifications works on you until finally, well, I have to admit you got to give him the benefit of doubt. He might, just might be right.
Some of you readers might judge Otto Schenk a bit harsher and perhaps feel so offput by the protagonist that you just throw the book(s) or phone (as in audiobook) in the next river – completely understandable.
However, if you decide otherwise you might just be in for a treat. There is challenge and exploration that even the great Odysseus would appreciate. Intriguing questions about human nature are tackled, if only tangentially, and there is Empire-making on a grand scale.
Otto Schenk’s world is one of medieval cruelty but equally so of the wonders of magic. If you got the stomach for it you might very well be in for a treat.… (altro)

A Marty-Stew MC who gets sidelined by the secondary characters. A lot.

Conyru Koda is a 17 yo, just graduated from high school, young man who has his plans of becoming an auto-mechanic upstaged by the discovery that he has potential to wield magic. Yay? Not really. In Conyru's world, only women have magic and he's possibly the first male wizard to be born in a thousand years ... if Prof. Angus' theories are correct (the narrator made this guy sound like Bill Connelly - rel="nofollow" target="_top">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-N5ITGI8Lo). Also, Conyru's less than thrilled a] to be a magic user - he has no interest in it, b] that the nutcases start coming out of the woodwork almost immediately screaming blasphemy and other less kind things and wielding knives (see below) and c] he is now an instant celebrity.

The basic premise of this story is actually kinda cool. The world has magic, floating cities, the occasional zombie, a big time university dedicated to magic, as well as the more mundane aspects of life - motor cars, internet and computers, books, etc. However, that's about all we know of this world. The system of magic isn't really explained and witches use such mundane words as "light" to create little balls of light or, if they do mutter a spell, it's in a sibilant or the divine language no one else can speak. It's not even all that interesting, the way the author writes it.

There are a lot of secondary characters who get more page time than Conyru, from the police detective who investigates the first attack, to Lady Raven who plans out and has her schemes thwarted by evil planting the seeds of its own doom, to her minions, a biker gang called, unimaginatively, The Skulls, to Tara, one of the witches working for the Magical Research Institute, whose romantic feelings toward the detective are just annoying.

As for Conyru himself, he's over the top powerful in magical power, clocking out at 12,000 mu on the magical testing machine, while his best friend/girlfriend comes in at a more reasonable 1942 mu. He's also a martial arts expert, so those knife wielding maniacs never have a chance, though it would have been nice the first time if Conyru had been a little hesitant to get involved (practicing in a dojo is very different from dealing with reality - I would assume). He has no interest in learning magic; he'd be very happy to become the mechanic he wants to be. Oh, and when his best/girlfriend offers him a chance to do the horizontal cha-cha in an elevator, he sounds like a way too sober adult rather than a 17 year guy (not really what I was expecting - a nice change of pace really). Other than that, he's actually a boring character.

I borrowed the audio from Hoopla, so while I'm not out any money, I did spend about 7 hours trying to decide if I like the story enough to continue ... the jury's still out though.… (altro)