Once Upon a Time….

In the story of The Sorcerer’s Garden by D. Wallace Peach, we see the overall story as fascinating and rich in details that excite our need for fantasy and storytelling.  At first glimpse, it is a story about dragons, courage, adventure, war, soul-thieves, and the good verses the bad in people.

The story is really two stories, that in the end, become one where fantasy and reality merge.  The main characters, Madlyn, Cody, Dustin, and Lillian, each have different world views that conflict with each other, but all are necessary for everyone to cope with the approaching sense of loss that is meaningful to each one, a natural human response to things out of our control.

Yet, if one draws back the curtain of this story, it is a unique telling of how fantasy interplays with tragedy, grief, and loss, in the real world.  We are often changed by the realization that we live both in the real world and our perceptions of that world are often a fantasy from a deep psychological need to believe that things are better or worse, than they are.

The author, in my opinion, is telling us something about ourselves and that makes this story so much more than what it first appears to be.  The Sorcerer’s Garden is a study of human behavior and how to fight human urges of greed, scarcity, power, war, and cruelty that must be continually fought to create a more caring world through the realization that there is no need for greed, power, and cruelty, because there is no scarcity. There is only a perception of scarcity that steals our souls, formed out of our human fears. In the end, it is fear itself that leads to all the pain and suffering in the world.  I highly recommend this truly unique and powerful story. 5 stars