The Scourge of Muirwood Review

Title: The Scourge of Muirwood
Author: Jeff Wheeler
Date Purchased: 3/7/2015
Price Paid: $1.99
Date Finished: 2/11/21
Rating: 1/5

Back when our book club was a thing, we had discussions about the ratings bias that occurs with a series of books. In most cases, you’ll see progressively higher ratings for each book as the series progresses. This makes a lot of sense when you consider the readership: the majority will have enjoyed the previous offerings enough to keep going.

Or, you know, they are on a quest to read all of their unread books.

Over the years I’ve found that if I like a series enough to carry forth past book one my ratings of the subsequent titles will (usually) meet, if not exceed, my rating of the first.

Boy howdy was this not the case with the Legends of Muirwood series.

If, for some strange reason, you are actually thinking of reading this series you may want to move on because I’m not really in the mood to hold back spoilers. I’m barely in the mood to talk about the actual plot, so we’ll see what comes out.

Here is the third book in a nutshell: we learn that the forces of “evil” are corrupting everyone and the only thing that will stop them is a Blight which will also kill most everyone in the process. Lia is, of course, the only person that can prevent the end of everything…but to do this she has to actually bring on the Blight.

Okay, not that bad, right? But once you start analyzing the components of the story, a lot of the problems start to jump off the page at you.

First we will talk about the very thinly veiled misogyny. In book one it was really hard to see, and it started to reveal itself a bit more in book two. In this book it’s right out on Front Street. Women fall into two categories: the “good” women that measure their identity and worth in terms of the man that they will marry, and the “bad” women that are only in place to tempt the men into a life of disgrace.

Not to sound like a late-night informercial, but wait, there’s more!

So it’s made clear to the reader that women are only of value if they marry a man, which is awful. But then he goes to great lengths to show that women are the sole cause of all the “evil” and are leading to the perversion of the Medium. And how, pray tell, does this get spread? Through a kiss on the cheek.

These are the overt offenses. Looking back, it’s easy to see that there are many other instances where the misogyny is so cleverly hidden that you could slip right past it if you weren’t actually looking for it.

Part way through the second book the Medium started seeming more like a religion than a magic system. Which, again, no big deal. I’ve read plenty of books where the characters have a strong tie to their fictitious faith.

It’s the “fictitious” part that becomes a struggle here, especially once it becomes clear that the evil threatening Muirwood is Catholicism.

Let’s be clear – I’m not looking to get into a theological discussion about whether one religion or another has it “right”, or which one has committed more wrongs in the name of their god. That’s a topic I’m WAY not qualified to bring up.

What I will say is that if you’re going to level commentary at other religions? Fine. Just do it. Don’t tuck it behind a thin veneer of fantasy. I had picked up on some of these feelings for a bit, and then something called the “Water Rite” put it over the top.

One of the ways that corruption is spread was through a Water Rite – which, when described, felt very familiar to a person that grew up in the Catholic church. Baptism. He just described Baptism.

Much like the previous point, these offenses became more and more obvious once you saw what was happening.

In short, this series started out great and took a massive turn for the worse by the end. I discussed this with one of my friends that’s read more of Wheeler’s work and she said “well, it only gets worse”. Which, actually, will save me some time in the long run.

Not only am I handing out a “1” rating, which I didn’t think I would wind up doing during this project, but I am also pre-invoking Rule Three for Fireblood, as I don’t feel the need to waste any more time with his work.

Final Thoughts: I hope you read this review before reading any of this series. Don’t waste your time.