The following review was contributed by:  John Walsh: CLICK TO VIEW John Walsh's Reviews

In The Magus of Nastrand, Slade Chandler describes the tale of a man who slips away from the real world and enters, or at least eventually comes to believe he enters, the alternative reality of the gods of Asgard. Befriended by dwarves and elves, beset by monstrous undead and evil gods including Loki and Hel, the man (Hatteris) learns who he really is and what his destiny must be. For a while, the two forms of reality blur and combine and the deaths Hatteris brings about exist in both worlds – in our world, they appear as murders of ordinary people for which Hatteris will eventually serve a punishment but they are also, in Asgard, the defeat of evil creatures intent on taking over the world.

Stories in which apparently ordinary people get to take a tour of the pantheon of gods and goddesses and other mystical creatures of an interesting and attractive culture frequently turn out to be a good read, as indeed this quite short novel also does. However, authors face the temptation of making their protagonists too clearly a version of themselves and this is one which Chandler does not altogether appear to avoid. It may be doing him a disservice but the reader is more or less bound to conclude that at least the less outlandish episodes in the hero’s progress have their counterparts in the author’s own life. There is another temptation to which I make a small objection: the protagonist not only gets the opportunity to view the alternative reality but is revealed as being the most important person in it and radically overhauls the ways in which things are done there. However, this seems to be the most common form of exploration of this genre and I must conclude, therefore, that other people’s opinions differ from mine on this point. The stories of spear-carriers are perhaps less immediately spectacular than those of the great heroes, true, but it is top be hoped that they will not be overlooked altogether. In addition, like other books I have read from Publish America, it would have benefited from the attention of an editor, who could have corrected some of the occasional mistakes and questioned the use of inappropriate vocabulary and slang.

Fans of fantasy, especially the modern kind of fantasy that brings mythic elements into contemporary life are likely to enjoy this book. It offers a rapid romp through a colourful background with plenty of treachery, magic and heroism.