The Wizard's Butler

In theory, I shouldn't have enjoyed this book. It moved slowly, there was very little action and there were lots of detailed descriptions of the daily duties a butler performs to keep a very old, very wealthy man comfortable in his enormous house. At best, I should have been bored. At worst I should have been alienated by a life lived to reinforce the privileges enjoyed by the wealthy.
The practical reality was nothing like the theory. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I found it soothing. I liked the people. I welcomed being given the time fully to understand the new life that Roger Mulligan, ex-soldier with three tours in Afghanistan, ex-EMT who lost his job and gained a criminal record when he beat up the abusive husband of a woman show more he'd been called to treat, has decided to embrace.
I was charmed by Mulligan's reaction to becoming a butler. It was a job he took because he needed the money but which he then fell in love with.
Mulligan wasn't really hired to be a butler. Mulligan was hired by the scheming niece of the wealthy old man because his medical training meant he could keep the old man alive for the twelve months it was likely to take for her to arrange to have her uncle declared incompetent and have him shipped off to a nursing home.
The job stopped being about the money when he got to know the old man, Joe Shackleford, and as he started to fall under the spell of the atmosphere of Shackleford House. Mulligan has a steep learning curve to climb to become a butler, even before he learns about the pixies who live in Shackleford House and about Shacklefored's unusual abilities. A big part of the appeal of the book was that Mulligan enjoys the climb. After decades in high adrenalin jobs, he welcomes the quiet rhythms of his job and the sense of achievement that comes from acquiring new skills. For Mulligan, becoming a butler is a balm to his troubled soul.
Then there's the magic, which is low-key but fun.
And the plot around helping Shackleford deal with a curse that's stealing his mind a little bit at a time.
And most fun of all: trying to frustrate the plans of the obnoxious niece to have Shackleford declared incompetent.
Mulligan rises to the challenges with a calm competence that gives him back his dignity and his sense of purpose.
My enjoyment of the book was greatly increased by Tom Taylorson's narration. I can see why 'The Wizard's Butler' won the 2021 Voice Arts Award, Audiobook Narration — Fantasy. Taylorson brings the dialogue to life and gives the main characters recognisable and appropriate voices. show less

Nathan Lowell's m.o. is detail. Normally this might drive me bonkers, but there is (mysteriously) an appealing orderliness that offers, to the reader the sense that it might be possible to achieve order if you thoughtfully and mindfully slow down the tasks that face you. Of course, it helps to have a magic book that gives you the information you need as you need it, not to mention pixies and fairies that keep your house and garden tidy . . . but never mind that. Roger Mulligan has been in Afghanistan as a medic, then back in the US an EMT, now disgraced for, uh, unprofessional behaviour toward a man who had beaten his wife senseless. He sees an ad that intrigues him and goes to the interview (at a huge mansion) and is hired, by a rather show more obnoxious woman, to look after her elderly uncle for a year (for a ridiculous amount of money) until a place opens for him at a fancy care facility. He has been hired to be a butler to this man. Oh, and my uncle thinks he is a wizard, the niece tosses off. That, to proof that the old man was off his head. Is he? The plot is a little thin (scheming niece wants the house and fortune) but as a vehicle to the real story, Roger's discovery that he loves the job, the house, the old fellow, the pixies and all the rest. Mild reading, not for those who want thrills, but delightful in its way. **** show less

WARNINGS: Elder abuse

A surprisingly cozy first book in a series where an somewhat ordinary man is made aware of the magic underlying the world, and becomes a butler to a rich aging wizard under false pretenses. The plot in this story is very personal, and the story is more about the connections between people (family, friends, etc.) than the worldbuilding.

That being said Lowell is a master of immersive worldbuilding, able to create a whole other way of looking at the mundane world in very few sentences. I found the mansion intriguing and the dynamics between the two central characters fascinating. A story about aging, care, and discovering a new way of thinking about yourself all in one! (ALSO, since this is the first book, I'm looking show more forward to the second and seeing if the protagonist's sudden adherence to butlering if magically imposed on him!) show less

Nathan Lowell's author bio says he "centers on the people behind the scenes...there are no bug-eyed monsters, or galactic space battles, instead he paints a richly vivid and realistic world where the 'hero' uses hard work and his own intrinsic talents to improve his station and the lives of those of his community."

In THE WIZARD'S BUTLER, he achieves his aim.

Roger Mulligan is a former Army veteran of three tours of Afghanistan, and a certified EMT, and he's at loose ends and unemployed when he answers an ad for, of all things, a butler. His employers are a middle-aged couple who want him to keep an eye on the wife's elderly uncle until they can manage to have him declared incompetent and ship him off to an assisted living home in show more Colorado. Once that's done, they plan to take possession of the uncle's home and sell it off for condos.

Mulligan finds that the "elderly uncle" isn't quite ready to be warehoused just yet, and both the man and the house he occupies are far more than he ever expected. There's something definitely strange about them both. He finds a "bible" that provides help for his immediate problems (such has how to create a proper silverware setting for a breakfast tray--or a state dinner), but some things he has to discover for himself, over time.

There are a couple of mild glitches in this book--there's a discarded red herring of a running partner, and perhaps too much time spent on the details of installing computers (and has no one heard of tablets in this universe?) but this book is very well written, the characters are interesting (Mulligan is of the Stephen Fry school of Jeeves-ing), the resolution is satisfying, and I found myself wishing to read more about Mulligan and Shackleford House. Definitely at least four and a half stars, and I'm willing to round it up to five. show less

Lowell, Nathan. The Wizard’s Butler. Kindle, 2020.
In The Wizard’s Butler Nathan Lowell turns his hand to urban fantasy, but it is urban fantasy in the same way that Quarter Share is a space opera, where many of the tropes of space opera are dialed down, and we learn as much about running a spacefaring cafeteria and making good coffee as we do about interstellar travel. And while you are at it, forget laser cannons and aliens. The Wizard’s Butler tells us as much about being a butler as it does about ancient curses. Along the way, we also learn something about how the very rich might shop for cars and the problems of estate law when you have to protect the fairies in the garden. Lowell as always gives us a nice story arc and a show more collection of characters we are happy to have met. Our butler hero, for example, is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan and an EMT who wants a job with less trauma. Surely, taking care of an old man who thinks he is a wizard would fit the bill, especially if after a year, there is a million-dollar payout. But, uh oh, the old man doesn’t just think he is a wizard. He can cast a spell when needed. show less

After a rough first chapter, where the MC unabashedly ogled a woman's cleavage twice, the book settled down and became an cozy slice-of-life story about the MC learning to settle into a slow-paced life of a butler to a man who just happens to be a wizard. That first chapter was so weird because it is out-of-character for how Roger behaved the rest of the book. But there's a small mystery regarding a curse, and a larger plotline of a conniving niece trying to take the wizard's historic mansion and money. Overall, it's an utterly charming cozy fantasy. Looking forward to the sequel!

Easy enough of a read but lacks tension. I guess this is 'cozy' fantasy? For the main 'good guy' characters, (and the good guys are all good while the bad guys are simply there to be antagonists with nary a shade of grey to be found), everything is very smooth sailing throughout.

One thing I particularly liked was the ambiguity of why Roger falls so easily into the rhythms of being a butler; is it really the job he didn't know he was missing in his life - or is he being manipulated by magic? The aspect of this that I didn't like as much is that it's never really addressed. It's very much something that occurs between the lines and is never even brought up as a consideration. In my opinion, it should have been, and there should have been show more some type of confrontation over it - with a positive outcome of course! ;)

So... All in all this book is an pretty decent read but not one that would make me want to seek out a sequel, (if one existed). show less