Karen Miller (The Riven Kingdom
) launches a trilogy, her first venture as Mills, with this droll tale of magical bureaucracy. Gerald Dunwoody, a Third Grade wizard and lowly safety inspector for Ottosland’s Department of Thaumaturgy, inadvertently blows up a factory while trying to save it. Summarily fired, Gerald takes a job in almost bankrupt New Ottosland as royal court wizard for King Lional the 43rd. To prove his powers to the doubtful king and his put-upon sister, Prime Minister Princess Melissande, Gerald turns a cat into a lion and transforms the dowdy princess into a literally bewitching fashion plate, but preventing war between New Ottosland and Kallarap and making a highly illegal dragon for the king may be beyond his will and abilities. Miller’s whimsical prose keeps the plot jumping and the readers laughing. (Jan.)
