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  1. Re: The Archimage’s Fourth Daughter, Volume Four in the Magic by the Numbers series.

    Yes, I am asking you to review the fourth book in a series – I know, I know. Not exactly something to bubble to the top of your stack. But here is some background that might help you making a decision.

    The first three volumes were published by the Del Rey fantasy imprint of Random House some thirty years ago. For an unknown author they did fairly well – selling over 600,000 paperback copies at the time.

    What was different about them was the rigorous adherence to the laws of magic that was applied. There were fundamental constraints that prevented complete flights of fancy. Unlike other books of the era, when the hero got in a jam, the reader knew he really was in a jam. He couldn’t just whip up a saving spell out of whole cloth.

    Since then, more recent authors have also applied a similar rigor to their own works, most notably Rothfuss and Sanderson. Rothfuss, in fact, from time to time, has kindly acknowledged the influence my books had on his own writing.

    For myself, rather than continue to build a fan base in the 1980s, I turned my attention to other things in life. Now I am finally retired and have returned to writing full time.
    My first effort over the last year was to get the original three volumes available again. Then I turned my hand to trying something new. I must admit I was not sure I could do it. Thirty years is a long time! The result, The Archimage’s Fourth Daughter, is about one of the children of the hero of the first volume. It had a publication date of December 15 of 2017.
    One difference this time around is that I tried to devote more attention to the characters in the book, both good and bad with less concentration on building fantasy worlds. The reader is only reminded about the five distinct crafts and seven laws of magic that underlie everything. If you are not familiar with the original volumes, I am guessing that you would be an excellent choice to judge if I was able to pull this off or not.

    If you are interested in doing a review, please get back in touch and I will send you a copy of the book in either .mobi or .epub format.

    I realize that you probably are bombarded by requests such as this and appreciate the time you do take to read them.

    Regards,
    Lyndon Hardy

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