For a moment I thought maybe this was a novella for an ongoing series because it just throws you right in and explains nothing. However, that is not the case.

World building can be hard with a novella, but there didn’t seem to be any. We were just told things and expected to understand. The writing style was just a bit too simplistic for me as well.

I got a free eARC of this from NetGalley and all of the reviews seemed to say the same thing, so I unfortunately chose to DNF this.

I think the idea is interesting, but is just too much for a novella. I think a full length novel with world building could make this better.

"The Wizard of Graslucs" follows Yendor the titular Wizard of Graslucs as he and his wife and their chosen family/polycule attempt to combat climate change with their precocious and spirited cat, Meso. Something that really stood out to me about this story was the unique magic system that married music theory and light wavelengths to travel through time and space. I read a lot, so to encounter a magic system i haven't seen before is rare and exciting. I especially liked that the cat, Meso, was the source of the magical epiphanies - it was silly and fun. That said, I do wish we would have gotten a deeper dive into the intricacies of the magic.

This book includes:
- an animated pet with fun a personality and its own POV
- married couple with several throuple companions in a sort of polycule
- infrared and sound frequency based magic
- a princess in danger
- a fight against global warming

There were elements to this story that I enjoyed, however, I ultimately made the choice to DNF. The dialogue style was not for me. The line "Dudes, it was totally bussin'...Sheesh! I'm so friggin' amped." was the final nail in the coffin for me. I also was missing a bit of differentiation between the character's personalities, I particularly found Omy and Nebbi to be indiscernible.

I received this ebook as an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Rodney Crater, Lynn Sausville (Illustrator), and Wizardly Works Publishing for the opportunity to review this book.

Honestly, it was difficult to get into, and it stayed that way. World-building in a novella is a difficult task, and I think there was a lot that still needs to be addressed. I don't think this is a throw out the entire project situation, but I think it is very much a take it back, rework it, edit, and take some time to think through the rules of the world.

I really tried with this one, but I was very confused with the characters and their relationships. It seems like they are multiple poly family, which is perfectly fine, but I could not keep up with their name/nicknames. The magic system and their universe was not really explained and I just didn’t get hooked.
That being said, I love Messo! The cat was super cute and that’s why I rated 2 stars instead of 1 .

I would maybe add a character profile, or explain their relationship better, even if it’s just a line or two

Unfortunately, this is going to have to be a DNF from me. The writing just reads very stiff and clunky like an unedited first draft, and I couldn’t get a good sense of the characters or narrative. There were a few noticeable grammatical errors that I found a bit distracting. I think this book could benefit from a little more editing and polishing.

I will start out by saying I thought I was going to enjoy this more than I would. I liked the bones of the story, however the writing style was not my favorite. It seemed rather boring in parts and not fleshed out.

Thank you for the e-arc of The Wizard of Graslucs. Unfortunately, this was a dnf for me. It didn't feel complete, like a second edit was sent out instead of the finished project. The conversation "happened in sentences" like this "between other people" without breaks.
"For example this format is easier to follow." Anonymous said.
~~~~~~~
There was also so many breaks using that symbol in spots that could've just been new paragraphs. The feeling of reading a second edit was because of this. It made everything feel choppy and ultimately led to my DNF. I'd recommend many more rounds of edits and doing alpha readers before releasing for arc readers and eventually releasing.

The main plot of "The Wizard of GRASLUCS" is about a group of friends who try to save humanity from global warming (sic) by traveling to a new planet via meditation.

The tone of the story reminds me of science fiction from the 1970s. For example, something like "Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers" by Harry Harrison, which is a parody where a couple of college kids develop faster-than-light travel using cheese. Yes, cheese. Throw in a little Barbarella for the unnecessary and cringe-inducing sexuality and flirtation, and you have an idea of what to expect.

The main character is Yendor, the eponymous wizard of GRASLUCS, which is an initialism for something that doesn't matter because it is mentioned once and never contributes to the story. This is a pattern throughout the book, which reads like someone improvising a story around a campfire, unaware of where the story is going until it gets there. Consequently, many of the scenes are extraneous, neither advancing the plot nor developing the world or characters.

There are several characters besides Yendor; There is a sapient cat called Mesomorphy (who might be a Nepalese guru) that shows the characters how to travel through space and time. However, the rest of the characters are largely irrelevant to the story. It is clear that they are supposed to be important, but any of them could be removed with minimal impact. None of the characters have any substance. All of the women are interchangeable: they all talk and behave alike. The same is true for the men. Everyone is folksy and flirtatious, in the same way, but they have no distinguishing personalities.

There is almost no drama or tension in the story. The only instance is when one of the characters is the target of an assassination. Surely this is a significant event? Unfortunately, no. The situation is quickly set up through exposition and then quickly taken care of by the cat without any meaningful impact on the story. Again, remove the event from the story and nothing would fundamentally change. There are no risks, no conflict, nothing to draw the reader in.

Writing a book is difficult. It is hard for one person to hold a coherent picture of every character, scene, and plot twist in their heads. Editors and proofreaders are necessary to provide dispassionate feedback that makes the story better. In this case, I think that the author has not received that kind of feedback and the story suffers for it.

This book is set in the future and follows Yendor, Omy, Nebbi, Anastasia and Meso as they navigate the earth which is recovering from the disastrous damage climate change caused.

I enjoyed the use of temporal frequencies and the dynamic between the characters. The descriptions of the frequencies were quite vivid and interesting. I loved Meso for some reason and can’t wait to see more of it.

I wish the book offered some more insight into how they discovered they could use temporal frequencies and what the general population and setting of the globe in that context was. The world in which the book is set is fascinating to me and I can’t wait to read more about it in (I hope) subsequent books

I love the flow and fantasy world that has been created in The Wizard of Graslucs. Intriguing is the right use to describe this book. The characters are very loveable and this book has a feeling of underlying truth that makes you wonder if you tired hard enough if you could actually accomplish what Yendor (the Wizard) and his loved ones set out to do together. I am not sure what time frame this book is actually set in and that is kind of great. Feeling of the time of old and new mixed together - I got lost in this world and I am excited to read the next book in this series.

I tried my best to make it through this book, but I knew from the first couple pages I wasn’t going to like it. What I didn’t expect was to hate it as much as I do.

This book consists of an overload of details for in-important things (like a breakfast routine) and spend no time building on the details of the world that actually matter to make the story any bit immersive. Worse, the magic/science of the story is barely explained and yet over detailed. Moreover, the writing is repetitive (even with single paragraphs expositing the same thing the previous said) and gaudy (as if a thesaurus was used every few words just to make it sound interesting.

The writing reads like an author’s first fanfiction inside a fandom they know a lot about with no care to share any useful details with the audience reading. The characters are 1-dimensional and boring, with no drive to either like, nor be concerned about them at any point. The only character I came to have any actual interest in was the cat, and even Meso’s appearances weren’t enough to keep me from groaning and forcing myself to keep reading.

The “chosen family” trope is hardly used to build anything meaningful, and only serves to alleviate the author of any relationship building. The polyamorous relationship was built in a way that felt more like some straight guy’s fantasy situation than a real dynamic.

Worst of all, I think (more so than bad punctuation used so frequently) were the hyperlinks to Amazon music searches and accompanying playlist. It was not cute and did not add to the story.

I will be generous since this is an ARC, but the dialogue is not formatted and smushed into single paragraphs between multiple people. It is just another aspect of this that made it worse.