The Mage

by Jim Farris

It is another Time, on another World ... a world of Magic ... on this world, over sixteen centuries ago, a vast civilization once thrived ... Hyperborea ... and within this ancient and powerful civilization, a great Battle-Mage known as Eddas Ayar lived. The mightiest of the Hyperborean Battle-Mages. But now, ages later, the Hyperboreans are long gone, their greatest buildings are little more than broken rubble poking out from centuries of overgrowth. New civilizations have arisen--and new peoples. And within his tomb beneath the earth, the spirit of Eddas Ayar, held within an enchanted crystal vial, slept on ... until, one day, a half-elf thief entered the ancient tomb, intending to rob it of it's treasures. Eddas, rising from the sleep of ages, steals her body, and enters the world ...

Genres: Fantasy

ebook

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

So, you want to know more about me?



Well, alright. =)



I am thirty-seven, happily married for thirteen years, no children, and live in a small college town in Southeastern New Mexico famous only for the production of Valencia peanuts. I am self-educated with a smattering of military and college experience of no real consequence or importance, I've never been arrested nor comitted any crime more serious than a parking violation. I don't do drugs nor do I drink, but I do smoke. I have self-published my own paper & pencil roleplaying-game system, which is currently out-of-print. I write novels, compose and perform music for my novels in MIDI and Mp3 format, but otherwise live the life of a hermit. My major influences are Heinlien, Asimov, L. Sprague DeCamp, Fletcher Pratt, Tolkien. That is probably all I want the public to ever know about me, as my life is really so incredibly dull that knowing more about me actually detracts from the reading enjoyment of my work. Check out more of my works at http://www.jim-farris.com or http://come.to/xaa http://xaa.tripod.com

Reviews

[Iori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book, some typo but it's an interesting story!

[Michelle Tabor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not sure where my husband obtained this book at, but he has been aggravating me to read it for about six months now. I succumbed to his wished because I was out of things to read. But to the review...

FIVE STARS, mostly.

I was pleasantly surprised by this little find. I have read a lot of fantasy series, some amazing! and some that I had to force myself to finish. This one has started off quite intriguing. I immensely enjoyed the main character (Eddas/Raven)'s poor plight, and it caused quite a big of girlish giggles from me, during the beginning. About 1/3 through, there's a scene that really should have been reworked or something (the below decks ship scene, trying to to spoil anything here.) Just completely lost the momentum of the story and made me try to find a reason it was necessary for the story. My only guess is to use it as a device to bring the main characters closer? Not sure, but once that uncomfortable bit was over with, the story resumed it speedy momentum, while at the same time giving us some nifty lore about the world.

Towards the end, this book gave me the feeling of overwhelming grief and sadness. I actually got teary-eyed from it. I did notice that that's a theme in this book - nitty-gritty truth. Life isn't easy and sometimes it sucks big time, even for fictional characters. I just wanted to wrap poor Eddas in a hug and say, "there, there, you whiny hag."

I wonder why this book hasn't been picked up by TOR. This seems up their alley, if a few scenes were edited to not lose the flow of the story. I really enjoyed this and am continuing on to the next in the series.

[Dow · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh.

I picked up this book because the premise seemed interesting: an ancient magician revives himself by taking over the body of a graverobber.

From the first page, it became clear this book is an unedited piece of amateur writing. Typos remained, unnecessary words bloated every sentence, repetitive phrases drew me out of the scene, and the monotonous narration counteracted what little voice the protagonist had.

I'm tolerant of poor prose if it's at least easy to read, but this took it to a terrible extreme. The author leaves nothing to interpretation; practically half of the narration is unnecessary overexplanation. When the protagonist does something, the narration notes why, and why an alternative couldn't have worked. When the protagonist says something that might be interpreted as a joke, the narration notes it's a joke, and the protagonist goes out of his way to laugh at it.

I soon got the feeling this book wasn't written for people looking for a well-written story, but rather for readers searching a different kind of stimulation. In retrospect, I really should've seen it coming: stripped of its details, the premise effectively describes a man snatching the body of a young woman. Cue juvenile body awareness at every opportunity. Leaving aside the initial body examination, his breast chafe as he crawls through a narrow opening, his nipples grow hard when he stands outside in the cold air, and his vagina is instantly wet when he remembers his long-dead prostitute. Within the first ten pages.

Tossed the book out when the protagonist finds a fucking chainmail bikini and proceeds to magically remove his pubic hair.

Ugh.

[Eugene Gorodinsky · Rating 2 out of 5]

How this book managed to get 4+ rating on Goodreads is beyond me. The story has so many contradictions in it, I'm surprised this book was not self published. The character behavior is at times inconsistent with their normal behavior. For example, at one point the main character warns others that their enemy will resort to sneakiness and that he will probably be the target, after which he promptly falls for the enemy's guile himself. Another example is where the main character describes another character as a powerful mage and then describes the same character as a hedge wizard. And the whole book is like that: it's as if the author couldn't decide how his characters should behave. World-building is just as weak. You would think that this being a fantasy novel, the author would be a little imaginative in his attempt at creating a magical fantasy world. Nope. Imagination is not this author's forte, as is evidenced by _every_ culture behaving in almost exactly the same way. I'm honestly surprised I was able to finish this book.