First a quick apology for the "down time" between posts. Spring Break is very hectic for me both at work and at home, so I didn't have as much time to work on my blog as I would have liked.
So...that being said, here's a quick, succinct look at how I feel about this story. In my opinion there was far too much gore and not enough story. Now, I'll admit I'm not a big fan of graphic violence, in fact I find that images of it (either real of fake) tend to affect me deeply...even when it's the "bad guys." However, I'm inclined to overlook such violence in a story...when there actually IS a story. It Takes a Wizard has what I would consider to be the beginnings of a good story...but it promises and then doesn't really deliver. Yes - it has a beginning, middle, and an end, but when it was over the story somehow felt lacking. I think it's possible that what I was really wanting was more character development. You've got this huge, almost 500+ page book and yet the characters don't really grow or change, they just follow along the track that's been laid out for them without ever doing anything unique or unexpected. That disappointed me.
The art, however, was much less of a disappointment. It had a flowing, sort of sketchy style that really appealed to me. The characters were excellently rendered and attention to detail was made on both ends of the spectrum, with creatures that were either disturbingly creepy or adorably cute. The humans were nicely done, as well; everyone had a different look and feel which made some parts of the story easier to follow.
In the end, I'm not sure how willing I am to recommend this book for a library setting. While there are probably a few libraries out there who will find this title fits their collection's needs, most will have better ways of spending their money. Something else to remember is the size - this almost 500+ page paperback book is not much bigger than a trade paperback. Make sure to ask yourself how long it's likely to last in your collection before you're frantically trying to tape and paste in loose pages to make your money go further.
