Warriors, Wizards & Dragons... Oh, My!
Local Author Chima Completes the Trilogy

Our own Cinda Williams Chima became a best-selling author right before her second book, The Wizard Heir, was honored at The Lit's annual Writers & Their Friends event on PlayhouseSquare this year. The fantasy writer, who is devoted to her craft and her audience, once wrote an essay suggesting that a story is a partnership between the author and the reader (The World of the Golden Compass, The Otherworldly Ride Continues, edited by Scott Westerfield). With a solicitous attitude like that, it's no wonder Chima spends hours each week responding to fan mail.

Her life has evolved from a career as a dietitian/nutritionist, university faculty member, and writer of a biweekly nutrition column in the Taste section of the Plain Dealer to that of a novelist. Gone are the days when she wrote before work and after work while also trying to raise teenaged sons. Those sons are now grown and she is immersed in the dream of writing fiction every day, for as long as she wants. Unless she’s signing books, answering mail, or scheduling appearances.

This is supposed to be a book review, but since the reader and writer are, in Chima’s opinion, intrinsically connected, the writer’s life and experiences are entwined in the words. Chima imagines the enchanted and dangerous world of the Weir guilds exists right here in Ohio in her Warrior Heir trilogy. Wizardry illuminates and undermines mythical Trinity, a college town on the shores of Lake Erie and Coal Grove’s Booker Mountain in southern Ohio. Chima lives in the Cleveland area and was raised in southern Ohio; the background she chooses for her books is no coincidence.

It is impossible to write about Chima’s current book, The Dragon Heir, without writing about the first two books in the Warrior Heir trilogy. The Warrior Heir was released in 2006, The Wizard Heir was released in the spring of 2007, and The Dragon Heir was released in the fall of 2008. The Warrior Heir introduces us to Jack Swift, a rare Warrior Heir, whose quiet life is disrupted when he discovers the power within him requires him to acquire warrior skills to fight the old battle between the Red and White Rose, eventually ending up in England’s Lake District.

The Wizard Heir shifts reference points to sophisticated and cosmopolitan Joseph (Seph) McCauley, whose wizard powers leave destruction in his wake until he starts meeting other wizards whom he needs to help him control his magic. At the private school for troubled teens in New England, called the Havens, Seph learns that being a Wizard Heir means involvement in the dangerous world of The Roses and its Council of Wizards. Danger is heightened because the new rules abolish the hierarchy amongst the Weir to allow participation by the warriors, enchanters, seers, and sorcerers, and some wizards like the old ways. Knowing too much and unwilling to succumb to Dr. Leicester’s linked control, Seph is tortured by dreams and mind magic.

That’s when he meets Jason, one of the main characters in The Dragon Heir, the last book in the trilogy. Like Chima’s other books, The Dragon Heir’s strength lies in characters with whom readers can identify and a plot that builds to a crescendo that disables the reader from lying the book aside. The last book is more complicated than the first because all the characters in the series come together. Harbored secrets and weaknesses are fleshed out so the characters can discover their strengths. Themes and lessons come out through the actions of and discussions amongst the characters, as when mentor Hastings says to Jason, “Sometimes it’s just an excuse to avoid dealing with your own demons,” but there is no narrator intrusion.

In Chima’s fictional world, the first Weirstones were eaten by cousins who tried to steal magical artifacts and precious stones from a dragon who may still live in the mountain. The Dragonheart, which Jason steals, is the source of power for all the magical guilds and lies buried in the mountain until it comes into the possession of one with the heart and desire to release its full power. We think, like Arthur with the sword in the stone, that it’s Jason with the heart to do so, but Jason is just the messenger.

Only talented artist Maddie, Seph’s girlfriend and an elicitor, is able to handle the stone after it is brought to Trinity. All others get burned when they try to touch it. The church where the dragon heart rests sequestered on its intricate stand is heavily guarded, but as tension builds, the teenaged characters, the town of Trinity, and Maddie’s home at Booker Mountain are imperiled. As Maddie discovers what her role might be in the unfolding drama, she says, “And the Dragonheart—it’s like an itch I can’t itch.” The Dragonheart connects Jason and Maddie like a tonic.

Chima makes every word count. There’s no excess in her writing, and her words are chosen well. When describing the warriors preparing for battle, she writes: “The warriors collided with a bone-shattering thud into a melee of arms and legs and deadly weapons. Blood splattered against the snow, and vintage curses and challenges in a half-dozen languages rang through the trees as individual warriors tried to free themselves from the press of bodies so they could use their swords.” The words “melee” and “vintage” remind me of the critique that she uses language beyond the stretch of her main audience. Do we not build our vocabulary by reading beyond our level?

The warriors, wizards, and elicitors need to prepare. The battle with the evil wizards will come. But will Jack, Ellen, Seph, Maddie, and Jason be ready? And will Alicia join them or betray them? Can any of them trust themselves? What will be the fate of Trinity and Booker Mountain?

Once you start reading, you won’t be able to stop. The novels are written as stand-alone books, but one story leads to the next.

All books have been well received and some school systems have included the books on their reading lists. The first two books were nominated for awards and included on reading lists, and The Wizard Heir was named to the 2008 New York Public Library’s Books for the Teen Age.

Cinda Chima’s next project, a high fantasy trilogy currently entitled The Demon King, is due to be released by Hyperion Books in Fall 2009. More about the writer and her books can be found at http://www.cindachima.com.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Claudia J. Taller ctallerwritesATwowway.com
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