The New Improved Sorceress

Hanover’s jam-packed second Wayward Mages adventure (following The Late Great Wizard) is a hectic but entertaining roller-coaster ride. Ever since the maelstrom stone, an ancient mystical artifact, embedded itself in Tessa Andrews’s palm, her world’s been thrown into chaos as she is forced to defend herself from magical attacks in both her dreams and the waking world, while working to free her father from the spectral state he’s trapped in, to assist her phoenix friend through his transition into a new body, and to navigate her murky relationship with the dangerous but alluring Malender. When Tessa asks an iron dwarf for help, he tasks her with finding the Eye of Nimora, a mystical ruby that is a key component in maintaining the stability of the magical world. Tessa’s search leads her to an encounter with an ancient book of Dark Arts; the maelstrom stone absorbs the book, and as a result Tessa is imbued with a wealth of new unsettling powers. Hanover showcases her boundless imagination with creative twists, outsized villains, and dynamic, magical protagonists. Though the crowded plot is occasionally overwhelming and disjointed, readers will be swept up in the frenetic pace of this fantasy. (Jan.)