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The Conjuring of Zoth-Avarex
by K.R.R. Lockhaven

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Kept hidden by the United States government for decades, the Site is a place where magic is real. But that doesn’t mean that everything happening there is sparkly. Soul-sucking policies and layers of stifling bureaucracy threaten to take all the fun out of magic.

Harris, a newbie Conjurer, starts his first day of work at the Site bursting with excitement: he’s been brought on for an extremely big project happening the very next day. In a triumph over its habitual inefficiency, the Site manages to carry out its plan and conjure an actual dragon to be used by the military.

The dragon (Zoth-Avarex, the self-proclaimed greatest dragon in the multiverse) immediately eats the person next to him, snatches a “princess” from the ranks of the Conjuring Department, and flies away to the Space Needle. There he manipulates the media, outwits the Site’s bumbling management, demands sixty-three billion dollars’ worth of treasure (because Smaug was said to have had sixty-two billion in his hoard), threatens to destroy the city—and installs a couple of food trucks.

Rating & Review

5 out of 5

This book had me smiling and laughing. Think, Men In Black, but with magical creatures instead of aliens…and a lot more bureaucracy. After all, we know the government excels most at red tape. I would love to meet Zoth-Avarex in real life, despite his appetite for people, he seems like he’d be a blast to spend a day with. Who knows, maybe he’d do a better job running things. With all the bad things going on in the world, this was a light-hearted, humorous escape from the mundane of dreary, everyday life.

Excerpt

“I am here for your orientation.” The man paused before changing the picture on the screen. “So, if you leave this classroom today with one nugget of information, I want it to be this: secrecy is the number one rule. You’ve heard this before you began your specialized magical training, but it is of the upmost importance, so you’ll hear it many more times. The public isn’t ready for magic yet.” He switched the slide to a cartoon of a witch being burned at the stake. “We must first find out what it is, and how it works, before the public can find out about it. We are doing valiant work here. Holding back the chaos and making magic follow our rules.”

The next slide said only THE CURSE.

“You have all already been voluntarily cursed before magic was revealed to you. I am not here to waste your time or my own going over the gory details of The Curse, but I do want to remind you that it is real and not something you want to test. You have already gone through a vigorous clearance process. You wouldn’t have been chosen to have magic revealed to you unless you passed that screening, and showed particular aptitude for whatever your field happens to be.

“Of course, some magic is going to slip out. Other governments are dying to know what is going on here. And we’ve had considerable trouble with the Conjuring Department. Several conjured gargoyles and the like have gotten offsite and caused all kinds of havoc. Is anyone here a Conjurer?”

Harris, Silvia, and Patrick tentatively raised their hands.

“As I’m sure you know, you’ve been brought in for a major project that is about to take place any day now. Your diligence will be of the upmost importance when it does.”

Amazon | Goodreads

Check out the review at Kirkus Reviews

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

K.R.R. Lockhaven lives with his wife and two sons in Washington State. Together, they conjured a bearded dragon named Sandy who rules over a hoard of sand and devours crickets by the dozens. When not writing or raising kids, he works as a firefighter/paramedic.

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