Review: Elegy Beach

Elegy Beach
Steven R. Boyett
Ace Books
ISBN 0441017959
Hardcover

Thirty years ago, at 4:30 PM all over the world everything changed. Technology stopped working and magic began. Creatures like unicorns, centaurs, and werewolves walked the world.

And the old cities fell apart as looters ‘libbed’ what they needed to survive from business establishments and homes.

Fred is an apprentice ‘caster’, the son of a man who lived through the Change and doesn’t want to talk about it. He’s impatient with his master Paypay’s instructions and takes on a pupil of his own, Yan, the son of a local doctor. When Paypay learns that Fred is learning elsewhere, he turns Fred away.

Fred and Yan go rogue and begin applying the concepts of computer programming to magic, creating a programmed system with delays and other facets. When Fred realizes Yan’s burned down Paypay’s shop in retaliation, he kicks his lifelong friend out.

The wizard’s battle is thus joined. Yan is not going to slink away. Instead, he uses his rebel magic to enlist the centaurs to help him get a unicorn horn–the deepest of the realm’s magic. When Fred’s approached by Ariel, the unicorn’s angry mate, he realizes he has to go face Yan. His father and Yan’s join him in this quest.

I don’t generally read post-apocalyptic dystopics, but Boyett’s “Elegy Beach” drew me in with the title and the first chapter. The characters are engaging and the storyline kept me reading save for some slow portions in the middle. In some places, the story was predictable, but definitely more than just a ‘beach’ read for me.

Reviewed by Becky Kyle.

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January 21, 2010  Tags: ,   Posted in: Full Reviews

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