The Stranger's Magic: The Labyrinths of Echo, Book Three

by Max Frei, Polly Gannon (Translator), Ast A. Moore (Translator)

Overview

The addictive next book by the fantastical bestselling Max Frei the Labyrinths of Echo series–the adventures of Sir Max, who was once a loser but discovers a new world–has been an international literary sensation since its debut.

In this new book, Sir Max once again travels to the enchanted parallel world of Echo, where magic is commonplace and where he fits right in. Plunging back into the astounding realm first portrayed in The Stranger (Fandomania.com's #1 Book of 2009) and continued in The Stranger's Woes, Frei's new work that blends fantasy, horror, philosophy, and comedy. Readers will welcome this "utterly original" (Bookslut) volume of the new adventures of Sir Max

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781468305852
Publisher:	The Overlook Press
Publication date:	07/19/2012
Series:	Labyrinths of Echo
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	972 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Max Frei is the author of the internationally bestselling Labyrinths of Echo series, of which over two million copies have been sold in Russia alone, as well as books on literature and art. He lives in Lithuania.

Editorial Reviews

Fans of 2009's The Stranger will adore this imaginative sequel in three novellas from author/protagonist Frei (a pseudonym for Russian bestseller Svetlana Martynchik). In a parallel universe full of surreal wonders, Max Frei is an outsider, a lethargic slacker plucked from our own world and recruited to save the City of Echo from illegal magic. When the city's police captain is poisoned, Max—now Sir Max and the Nocturnal Representative of the Secret Investigative Force—leads his garrulous team of magicians into the Magaxon Forest to investigate a mysterious band of outlaws. Later, the king of the Unified Kingdom enlists Max to solve a delicate political conundrum with a bizarre bird-worshipping envoy, and something strange starts happening in the city's cemeteries. Vibrant characterizations, witty humor, and mind-tickling ideas almost save the narrative from countless pages of trivial dialogue that drag down the pace. (June)

Publishers Weekly

Cigarette-huffing magician bad boy Max Frei, the fictional character, returns in this latest by Max Frei (The Stranger, 2009, etc.), the author. There are reasons to worry that Frei's (the author's) schtick is getting a little thin: Frei (the character) spends most of his time mugging and smirking, though he's come into some good luck by having been placed in a position of power in the Unified Kingdom, chasing around the ever-weird city of Echo "to investigate cases of illegal magic and battle trespassing monsters from other worlds." This being a work out of Russia, let's not forget the job of picking on travelers, too: "I still can't explain why a bunch of grungy gypsy women made me so furious." But "picking on" isn't quite right, not when "annihilating" is the better word: "Moments later, everything was over: an unattractive heap of assorted colorful rags lay on the sand, and I moved onward." But never mind the discomfiting politics; Frei (the character) eventually finds his stride and investigates some proper capers, including the possibility of a palace coup, an attempted murder and a bungled burglary. Frei (the author) works under some long shadows; there are moments that might have come from the pages of Douglas Adams, others that wouldn't be out of place in Alice in Wonderland. Frei (the author) relies on his by-now-trademark goofiness and a lot of witty back-and-forth to move his story along, but in the end, the plot is messy and not well-resolved--leaving room, of course, for yet another volume in the Labyrinths of Echo series. Literate, silly fun, though the reader might wish for a little more energetic storytelling and a little less japery.

Kirkus Reviews