Sometimes, I really should know better. But, what the hell, I figured "Harry Potter fans will love it," was more marketing than anything else, so I picked up Emily Drake's The Magickers on a lark with a gift card and finally got around to starting it.

( Spoilers and disappointments )

Seventy pages in, and I think I have quite used up whatever benefit my doubt had. I'm sure that there are enough differences to avoid copyright infringement outright, but whether they're meant to be winks to HP fans or poorly-masked analogues, either way it's just tired and derivative. Bleh.

Tags: books, commentary, fantasy