A review by katieinca
Minor Mage by T. Kingfisher

2.0

2.5? Shades of Terry Pratchett here and there. Maybe after more time away I'll look back on it more fondly because of the great internal (and mage-armadillo) dialogue and upgrade it to a 3. But the plot has an odd, wandering pace (until it doesn't). And only Oliver and the armadillo feel real. The whole point of the quest is to get help from the Cloud Herders, but for 80% of the book we're really just trying to survive the road and the forest. When we meet them, poof, they're vaguely mystical and wise and *snap* here's the rain, end the book.
I think it suffers in comparison to A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, but I'm not sure if I would have liked it better if I'd read it first, or if I just wouldn't have been all that inclined to pick up more by T. Kingfisher.