The Charmed Sphere

Well, that was different. I certainly wasn't expecting a fantasy romance, with a touch of math/science thrown in.

Picked this up because the author will be at an event I'm attending in the nearish future and I'd never read any of her work. Blurbs here and there say she's got the chops in science: Harvard and UCLa in physics and chemistry, and deep into molecudyne (look it up if you don't know what it is) research. She also is a dancer, both jazz and ballet. (And married to a astrophysicist at NASA, though it strikes me odd that this information is included in her bio.) I had hoped to read a stand alone book of hers, but as that wasn't available when I was looking, I chose a early book in a series.

I found the plot line a cross between show more romance and a pre-Twilight YA romance, which, for me, was not that satisfying. The opening scene reminded me of Camelot, where Arthur and Guinevere meet, she running away from her husband to be, he, hiding in a tree to escape the girl who would become his queen. As a result, I hummed the opening song to the musical for a day and a half-- major ear worm. At first I thought the scene a rip-off, but have decided it's probably an homage to Alan Jay Lerner (and Lowe). The magic system, based on the premise that people who are born with mage powers cover a rainbow spectrum of ability, and use geometric shapes to cast and enhance their spells. I can imagine that someone who dislikes math might be disgruntled by the interweaving of power and shapes here. For me, keeping track of characters, their mage color, shapes, and other interrelationships was a bit confusing.

As to the story, I wasn't all that captivated, but I can see where others, who have more patience for romance, might. And had I read this when I was under 20, I might have liked it more. And I just wasn't interested enough in any of the 4 main good guy characters, or the primary evil character, to even worry if they were in danger or not. I'm sorry to say that for this reader, the sphere definitely wasn't charmed, but I'm not giving up on the author. have found that our library system has one stand alone novel, which has won the HOMer Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. I've placed a request and will give that a try. I'd like to be able to honestly tell her when I meet her that I've read and enjoyed something she wrote. show less

The cover claimed Asaro was a Nebula Award winner and her biography that she was a physicist. Given that, I had high expectations for this book--I hoped for great writing and a fresh take on fantasy. I was disappointed; I never found the novel better than mediocre.

The characters, plot and style came across to me as pure romance aisle--and that's not a compliment with me. Even the names of the female protagonist and her love were eye-rolling: Chime Headwind and Muller Startower Heptacorn Dawnfield (Yes, really). The prose and dialogue runs from banal to purple. The plot fell into the hoariest (and for me most loathed) romance novel cliche--"marriage of convenience." As the most powerful female shape-mage in the kingdom, Chime must marry show more the male heir to the throne--no matter how they feel about each other or how unqualified either is for their role.

As a fantasy the book falls into cliche as well: the setting is fantasy standard pseudo-European medieval without any touches making it distinctive other than the shape-magery. The villain is from central casting--one dimensional twirl-the-mustache seeking to invade and conquer. The magical system of "shape-mages" who power their spells based on geometic designs was original--even unique--but that very uniqueness came across as eccentric rather than clever to me and never developed in a way I could buy into her world. Just nothing here that would make me want to read further in the series. show less

World-building: original, well-developed explanation for how 'magecraft' works and how it flows on to everything from architecture to social structures; in comparison, other parts of the world feel less well-developed and somewhat trite (golden castle on a hill, evil king in the northern mountains). Poor use of names, none of which feel right for the characters or places in this world.
Narrative: threads of a great plot which never feel mined for their full potential; too much 'telling' as opposed to 'showing'.
Characters: also given traits with great potential which never feel fully realised; the author seems to merely skim the surface of what the characters could have been.

A world where magic is defined by shape [for power] and color[for type]. A really cool premise. A small kingdom is under threat from a neighboring kingdom and must use its mages to supplement it's army. So it sounded good.

Then I met the characters. Bunch of whiny, pansy, selfish, no self confidence bunch of pathetic losers. The characters teenager'ish angst and self-doubt completely ruined this book for me. It was not enjoyable and I will not be reading any more by Asaro.

An interesting and different look at how magic works. This story grabbed my attention from word go and kept me reading. Although there are occasional plot points that are a bit large it is still an interesting and well drawn story and I actually wanted to know what happened to the characters and cared about them.

The goal of this book appears to be stuffing as many fantasy tropes into one book as possible. At first I thought maybe it was done in order to skewer them, but no such luck. None of the characters is actually developed enough to create a true affection for them. It is a pleasant but slight and stereotypical fantasy and as such a disappointment.

I absolutely loved this book. The detailing of this fantasy world was good, without going into too much detail. The characters are well rounded. It takes a chapter or two for the book to really begin, but once it does, it is hard to put down.