Title The Worm That Wasn't
Author Mike Maddox
Year 2007
Stand Alone or Series Stand Alone but book 3 of 3 in Dreams of Inan
Pages 224
Reading Time April 20 to 26, 2014
Synopsis
Leah is a simple gardener, tending the psychic plants that can create chemical and psychological weapons of immense magical power.
But she dreams of so much more, hoping for a better life within the walls of the Great Castle. Her calm ordered existence is tainted by sickness and plague, a contagion that picks its victims, possessing something very like intelligence. In a world where science and magic willingly embrace each other, Leah discovers a terrifying secret that may tip her world into madness and chaos worse than any mere war. With no one to help her, and no one willing to believe her, Leah is forced to confront her worst fears alone if she hopes to save the lives of the people she loves. Out there in the dark, the worm is waiting.
And the worm is so very hungry...
Review
I read this book for two reasons. First I wanted to read a light reading and then I wanted to read a book with few ratings. In this case it had one rating and zero reviews.
First of all, I can understand why this book had few ratings. It's a shareworld with two previous unsucesseful books, by a relative unknown writer.
I did enjoy the book. Not so much as to try reading the previous ones. I like the mix between magic and science. A kind of steampunk. Unfortunally it wasn't that explored in my opinion. Since, nobody is going to read the book, I am going to give a spoiler. The ending was my favourite part. Basically some sage stole the magic from all mages and if he died, magic died with him. Everything that was magical, in the world, would fall. So they ponder of what to do.
It was interesting to see Leah and her two friends that look like Beavis and Butthead.
"The thing about magic, is that once everyone knows how it's done, it's not magic anymore. It's just science. And I Like science."
"For millennia magic and science have woven themselves around each other on Inan, like creepers twining around a tree. Like... serpents. But no more. Today we are left with science and nothing else. And who knows where that will take us?"
Now if you substitute magic with religion you get the same thing. All this book has some information on how religion magic is not that good.
The characters were not that developed. They were there. Leah our main character was also the only one who evolved. A light-hearted girl who never took anything serious had now the responsabilities to take over the work and have person beneath her.
"The library was theoretically avaiable via wrist-port to everyone. And yet Grefno preferred to use the books themselves. The crispness of the dry paperr, to smell the musty spines of the leather-bound volumes..." 5/10