The lure of fools, Jekaran’s uncle Ez warns him, is the mirage adventure. The longing for adventure draws youths from their home into danger, death, and even crime.

Shortly thereafter, outlaws arrive, after Uncle Ez himself, who used to be one of their number as Argentus the Invisible Shadow. Ez shoves a magic sword into Jekaran’s hand and sends him running out of harm’s way.

Harm just doesn’t want to stay away from Jekaran too long, though. His simple job as a digger in a troupe looking for the magical mineral apeira goes south when he intervenes to save a beautiful woman from footpads. His possession of the enchanted weapon gets him in trouble with local authorities, and then worse — the woman he’s saved turns out to be an inhuman enchantress, an Allosian, on the run from her own people. She’s a thief, having snatched a pendant of illusion to disguise her flight, but at the heart of her journey is a mission of mercy: she wants to warn the humans that the Allosians, not understanding and fearing want they don’t comprehend, are coming to put all the humans to death.

The Lure of Fools is good-hearted high fantasy, in the tradition of The Sword of Shannara, only leavened with more humor. I couldn’t put it down.

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