rex chekal &
Spellwright by Blake Charlton

I really enjoyed this one. Nicodemus Weal, our hero, is quite a unique hero in fantasy fiction: he has a severe learning disability (and it is NEVER described as anything BUT a disability) which absolutely impairs his ability to function in the world of the book. He is magically literate, but his disability makes it so he can't work magic successfully. Since he lives in a wizard community, this is sort of a huge problem. There are sly references to extruded fantasy product throughout the book and the plot is interesting, the worldbuilding unique, and I didn't see the end coming. Note: there are characters in the book who use the word "retard" to describe Nicodemus. I didn't find this problematic, as it was always clear that the use of the word was intended to be a jerk thing to do. And, sadly, people in our world with severe learning disability often have that word applied to them by jerks. But I know folks are sensitive to that particular word, so I wanted to warn for it just in case. The main reason I read this book, though, is that I've been meaning to for a year and I have an ARC of the second in the series for review in the September issue of RT.