Review: “Wizard” by Laurence M. Janifer (1960)

Posted on January 25th, 2008

Longish short story about a medieval psionist confronting religious authority.

The year is 1605 and greenhorn Jonas is a hero, at least in his own mind, and being such he undertakes a mission for the local psi lodge. A small village is being terrorized by a zealous church Inquisitor and Jonas is sent to help.

Jonas arrives, eyes up the local farm girls, puts on his mystical witch act, and gets tossed into the dungeon, most of which was according to plan. Being easily bored, he quickly goes stir crazy and forces the situation rather than letting it develop per the plan. As a result he gets an up close look at the dungeon’s confessional devices.

But Jonas’ psi link with his mentor offers him cool advice and he eventually accomplishes his mission, allowing him to follow more important pursuits with the pretty farm girls.

This story remains slightly humorous as it proceeds. Jonas’ character is amusing and the author makes use of the smells ans sights of medieval times for comic effect. Again, I’m not much on psionics, but the humor goes a long way to making it enjoyable.

Recommended. Conjure up a copy in a couple formats at Project Gutenberg or at Manybooks.net in more.

Tags: free science fiction, public domain science fiction, Review, speculative fiction
Filed under Fantasy, Free Stuff, Janifer, Laurence M., Psionics, Review |

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