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The Chalice of Life
Karen Anne Webb Book Review

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Plot Summary of The Chalice of Life
"The Carotian Union is a fledgling confederation of planets with one small problem: one of its worlds, Thalas, is on the brink of civil war. Why? Since the fall of its despotic monarchy, no one individual has been able to advance a claim to the throne that all will acknowledge. The stakes are very high: in the Carotian Union, the very substance of the worlds is alive. Kindly people using their magical powers responsibly make that substance thrive. Enough hostility, however, and---kerblam!---the planet will blow itself to pieces.

Enter Mistra bas Carthanas, a Carotian princess with a flair for the mystical. In a vision, she sees the solution to the problem: Eliander, the Lost Price of Thalas, sent by magic millennia ago to a place outside normal time and space. Finding him won't be easy: seven mystical portals, each one housing an adventure, lie between the vision and its realization. But such considerations never deter a band of true heroes...

Accompanied by a band of disparate but extraordinary people hand-picked by the Carotian gods, Mistra sets out. Their first adventure, chronicled in "The Chalice of Life," presents them with a dilemma. They find the second portal easily enough, but parked before it is an ancient ill dragon. To find the cure for him and his people, they must explore an ancient ruined city, learn the fate of the people who created a glorious civilization that vanished overnight, and piece together the puzzle of how to operate the civilization's most prized relic: a fabulous chalice."

Karen Anne Webb, Resident Scholar



Review Analysis of The Chalice of Life
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
Descript. of chases or violence - 10%
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 40%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 20%




Tone of book - very upbeat
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - fantasy world/fantasy past
Tech./$$$/Info hunt Yes
Stealing/recovering/destroying - magical artifact
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book

Main Character
Identity: - Female
Profession/status: - mage/magician
Has magical/special powers? Yes
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Genius
Physique - very athletic

Main Adversary
Identity: - magical being
Age: - long-lived adults
Profession/status: - mastermind
Has magical powers? Yes
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a little/some
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence - Genius (really!)
Physique - very athletic

Setting
Terrain - Forests
Planet outside solar system? Yes

Style
Person? - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment
scientific jargon? (SF only) - some scientific explanation
How much dialogue? - significantly more dialog than descript
Most similar books to The Chalice of Life
The Dragonstone by Dennis L. McKiernan
Krondor: Tear of the Gods - Riftwar Legacy 3 by Raymond E. Feist
Left Horse Black by S.J. Reisner
Paths of the Dead by Steven Brust
Glass Dragons by Sean McMullen


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