The Accidental Sorcerer by K. E. Mills

Wizards, talking birds, magic and dragons – 4 Stars ****

By Gabrielle Pantera

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 2/5/2009 – “I literally sat up in bed one morning, directly out of sleep, and said I have to write a story about Gerald Dunwoody and his bewitched friend Reg the bird,” says The Accidental Sorcerer author K.E,. Mills. “To this day I have no idea where that came from. It was like the proverbial bolt from the blue. I got up, went into the study, and started making notes.”

K.E. Mills excels at witty dialog. In The Accidental Sorcerer, third-grade wizard Gerald Dunwoody gets into trouble when he tries to do a good deed. Gerald’s best friend Monk helps him get a new job as a court wizard to King Lional at the New Ottosland court. Can Gerald stay out of trouble with the king, princesses, princes, a holy man and a dragon or two? Can he ever come home?

“The basic idea for the story came to me a few years ago now, somewhere around 2002,” says Mills. “I knew Gerald was a dud wizard and I knew Reg had a mysterious past, but that was all I knew. The more I thought about it, the more I uncovered the story. It was very odd. I haven’t had it happen that way before or since!”

The Accidental Sorcerer is the first book in the Rouge Agent Trilogy. K.E. Mills is a pseudonym for Karen Miller, who writes the bestselling fantasy duology Kingmaker, Kingbreaker, the fantasy trilogy Godspeaker, and the bestselling tie-in novels Stargate SG-1: Alliances and Stargate SG-1: Do No Harm

“I did some reading on late Victorian, early Edwardian, England,” says Mills. “Although the Rogue Agent books are set in an alternate reality, not Earth, that’s the closest cultural parallel I could come up with.”

“My mainstream fantasy fiction is written under my real name, Karen Miller,” says. Mills. “The Rogue Agent series is under my pen name, K E Mills. The Rogue Agent books have more humor, and a cheeky side to them, whereas some of my mainstream stuff is quite dark and violent.”

The Accidental Sorcerer starts light and engaging. As you continue reading it turns darker. Mills keeps the darkest moments in the book for her hero Gerald. The Accidental Sorcerer is entertaining in the beginning. You want to keep reading, but the increasing violence could put you off. The one constant throughout the book is that we all need friends.

K.E. Mills was born as Karen Miller in Vancouver, Canada. She currently lives in Sydney, Australia. Mills has written fourteen books.

The Accidental Sorcerer by K. E. Mills
Mass Market Paperback, 560 pages, $7.99
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: January 1, 2009
ISBN: 9780316035422