Melindam's Reviews > The Wizard's Butler

3,5 stars rounded up

Very slow, thin on plot, chokeful of details, low-angst, and yet oddly comforting at the same time with likeable characters.

The narrator -rather good- also helped me get along.

You really have to be in the mood for it to work, but me and the book had this chemistry that sometimes comes along without any credible reason or explanation.

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"He thinks he's a wizard," they said.

For five grand a month and a million dollar chaser, Roger Mulligan didn't care how crazy the old geezer was. All he had to do was keep Joseph Perry Shackleford alive and keep him from squandering the estate for a year.

They didn't tell him about the pixies.

This is what you get as a GR cover blurb for The Wizard's Butler by Nathan Lowell.

Now the thing is that while Nathan Lowell seems to be an established sci-fi writer (according to the info on GR), I have not been aware of him until now. Which is not a criticism from my side: there are many great and not-so-great authors I have not known before I bumped into their books, but it means I had no preconceived notions what to expect.

I am not 100% sure how I bumped into this particular book. I have a vague memory that the GR algorhythm started to throw it in my way last year after I finished (which I did not like) and then again this year, after I read (which I did like). And it makes sense as both books were trying to achieve comfort and homeliness (well, L&L did manage to achieve it, The House Witch did not, or at least not for me), were high on minutia and low on angst and were (supposed to be) undemanding, relaxing reads. There were hints at possible conflict and tension, but they stayed at the hinting stage (plus the House Witch ended on a "cliffhanger" for want of a better word, but that is another review).

The Wizard's Butler has the same vibes. It is full of details of everyday happenings that you may take into your stride if you are in the mood for some very easy and soothing read, or be driven up the wall or at least throw the book at it. Both reactions would be justifiable.

I was sitting a bit on the fence about it because of the wizard/pixies mentioned in the blurb, so I kept expecting some happenings. You know...

Magic



with Pixies




In this respect, I was to meet disappointment. We never meet the Pixies, though we know that they like whisky (that's something, I guess). Also, not much magic is happening, because the book is presented fully from the POV of Roger Mulligan (ex-military and trained EMT) who is a great guy BTW and I liked him a lot, but he is as unmagical as it gets.



There are lots and lots of chapters dedicated to his getting butlering into his stride and how he is caring for and bonding with an old -and once again, very likeable- wizard and helps him "fight" his greedy, umagical relatives who try to get legal guardianship over him and his vast fortune (I guess one of the "highlights" of the story is how the internet is introduced to the house, yesss, THAT exciting! 😅), but you have to search for the plot under the myriad of details.

So the question naturally presents itself, why the 3,5 (almost 4) stars to the book.

And my answer: Dunno. Magic? Or non-magic? No idea. But I liked it.




It also helps that there is no forced romance in the book and the thin plot is concluded satisfactorily in the end. No cliffhangers.