Arcane Pathfinder Book 1: Arcane Magic

Arcane Pathfinder #1

by Mashton XX, Mashton XY

Samantha is a young attorney transported to an alternate reality in her sleep across the Void and time. She soon finds that the world she wakes up in is controlled by an all-powerful System with mechanics similar to the fantasy games she played back on Earth.

After a brutal introduction to her new reality, Samantha (Sam) is given a class explicitly curated by the enigmatic System.

Equal parts artist, survivor, explorer, and battle junkie, Sam's only limitation is her lack of knowledge about her new magical powers and the System controlling her new reality. A limitation she is quickly overcoming as she explores and battles her way across the landscape, learning and improving along the way!

Follow Sam’s adventures as she explores the fantastic and deadly new world she has found herself in.

Genres: Fantasy

303 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 29, 2023

Reviews

[Jacob Proffitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a LitRPG isekai and it is, frankly, a bit of a mess. Sam arrives in a fantasy world with no idea where she is and finds herself with a system and a bunch of errors that the system needs to adjust for because it doesn't know how to account for outworlders of her type. This and a bunch of challenges that are way beyond her level end up making her completely over powered. So it's a fairly standard power fantasy. And if power fantasy is all you're after, it's frankly a pretty good one.

Both the character and setting are completely unhinged, however. Some examples are in order. Sam finds a river and heads downstream to find civilization (sensible). And comes to foothills for the mountains. Because rivers flow towards mountains in this world, I suppose. Want more? In choosing her class, Sam leans into "I've never wanted to settle down" which is why she ends up with "Pathfinder" as a class. She's a no-strings wanderer. And always has been. Uh huh. Which is why she is a lawyer with a successful sole practice. I mean. Law school is the opposite of not settling down and a sole practice? Yeah, that only happens if someone establishes themselves locally. Okay, one more. Sam is American. It's mentioned specifically twice. Only. Everything is meters and kilometers from the jump. Seriously, we aren't a page or two past "American" and she confronts something "a meter away".

Sam is also flat-out crazy, taking on insane risks, nearly dying a lot, experimenting with unknowns mid-combat, but also discovering a bunch of ways to work around things with her crazy class and skills. Oh. And she is a classic Mary Sue and all that implies. Once she finds people, she immediately starts her own girl club by being completely non-prejudiced about the people she meets and killing the bandits and schemers along the way.

I'll admit that my three stars is solely because I'm in a power fantasy mood and I was able to just roll with everything else. I skimmed some of the more out-there bits, but I was engaged enough I'll pick up the next book.

A note about Chaste/Steamy: Sam is a bit of a free spirit. In the original 70s vein. And bisexual. Probably bisexual as her main opportunities are women so the bi is based on a couple throw-away internal dialogue moments that included males. There's enough losing clothes and semi intimate moments with hints of more for this not to qualify for chaste. But there's no detail and only really flirting on page so it isn't steamy, either. So I can't justify either tag.

[Wendy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Big, big sigh.

It’s not the book’s fault that what I thought it promised (an exploration focused character with a class that would allow them to make/discover spells based on creativity and situation) was not the reality (a kind of Green Lantern thing and basically a ticket to conveniently overpower everything).

What I can fault it for is offering a dipshit cardboard MC who does not really want to explore. She makes dumb, chaotic, selfish and impulsive decisions. And maybe that would be cool if character wasn’t the only “stat” that will probably never grow. Piling on a companion/clunky romance who comes with her own arbitrary set of challenges (oh, she’s like a vampire, no a cannibal, no a dual entity…) and an oppressive church, and antagonistic characters all with plot armor, makes it more frustrating.

I probably should have stopped reading after the throwaway suggestion that her first mana construction was a sex toy. 🤦‍♀️

[Bobbe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sam is incredible irresponsible and behaves like a 5 year old a lot of the time. Extremely suspicious of people to trusting in like one page.

[Junior · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started great

Then it went off the rails like a multi-train catastrophe. Words do not suffice to explain how terrible it became after the MC hooked up with her partner in crime. Then it gets weird and pointless. Then It just gets stupid. None of the premise of the MC's whole awakening/class ever is actualized.

Note to self: do not continue

[Dallin Tyner · Rating 5 out of 5]

great read!

Fun take and I couldn’t put this down. Story flowed really well throughout. Cant wait to read the next book.

[Roberto Flores · Rating 2 out of 5]

The characters are flat and lack any real depth. The section in the city is meant to expound on the charades but fails miserably and is just very boring. The ending is very forced, and the addition of the Church is heavy-handed. All of this was a good idea poorly executed.

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hadn’t originally planned to write a review for this. I kept wanting to give it a chance, but the more I read, the more frustrated I became. Normally, I’m all in for an isekai/LitRPG with an overpowered female protagonist — that’s high on my “just enjoy the ride” reading list. But this one never clicked.

The main character is introduced as an accomplished trial lawyer, yet her behavior often feels childish and illogical. The writing leans heavily into “men writing women” territory. For example, she tells us she doesn’t wear underwear often anyway (pg 20), so she isn’t bothered by having to wear pants without it. Later, she prioritizes making a sex toy over a weapon in a survival scenario because “a girl has needs” (pg 95). She even fights naked, reasoning that she doesn’t want to ruin her brand-new armor against enemies she doesn’t consider dangerous enough (pg 206). None of this makes her feel relatable or believable as a character.

Her relationship with her partner is equally baffling. I never understood what they actually liked about each other beyond mutual attraction. At one point, Nara reflects on Sam: “Sam was also fun to hang out with and talk to. She was always smiling, looked directly at whoever was speaking to her, and stayed actively engaged in the conversation most of the time.” (pg 254). And I’m left speechless. That’s the bar? She smiles, listens, and isn’t judgmental? Those are baseline qualities you’d expect to notice on a first date, not the foundation of a supposedly meaningful bond. The dynamic feels shallow, and the survival dependency between them seems to be the only glue holding it together.

Clearly, plenty of readers enjoy this — the star ratings prove it. But I’m not the intended audience, and after finishing this installment, I can say with certainty that I won’t be continuing the series.

[Starr · Rating 4 out of 5]

This gets a 4 because I'm disgusted with the author for tying the mc to a partner it ruined the story it was unwanted or needed 😤 plus because of what the girlfriend is the mc will eventually have to kill her or be killed by her girlfriend plus why the book was a little over 1/2 way through why put her in a relationship and bog down the book with this foolishness it was really good now it's all about the relationship gross hopefully the girlfriend will die or leave because this is like having an abusive partner that beats you randomly then acts all sweet and the stupid mc is attached to her and let's her do it going to keep listening 🎶 hopefully the girlfriend will die or leave because this is ruining this book is don't want to read a romance book i came here for a LitRPG

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arcane Pathfinder is the first book in this series, and it's really good. It's hard to find a LitRPG story that has a main character that has a unique class and was transported from earth, and that handles the whole progression thing just about as well as can be expected. The author does a really good job with this story. There were one or two inconsistencies, but nothing that would impact the story significantly. If you're like me, and like unique classes, starting from nothing, and taking names and kicking a$$, then you want to settle in, and read this story, it's a good one.

[Christopher Belan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can't get enough

I love this story, and the MC has the perfect attitude . There were a couple of instances when I had to suspend my disbelief of a young lawyer owner of her own firm, that didn't take the time to read the fine print on everything once she figured out how to access the system. If the author had given her a different background, I think things would have flowed better. I like the story of an orphan alien discovering their powers and this one has lots of twists that I enjoyed. Please keep up the great content. Both the combat and character development is awesome.

[Will Knight]

Note to self: nope.

I don't know if I'm picky, or just in a slump, but the audiobook narrator didn't do it for me.

If you narrate the MC in a battle, flesh melting under a monster's attack in a harrowing experience... with the energy level of someone reading the label in a bottle of a can of soda, I'm going to excuse myself and go elsewhere.

[Kinsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit more focused on dialog than action scenes which I like more focus on the action/adventure rather than awkward character interactions. Not bad, just didn’t hold my attention as well as other lit RPG books I’ve read.

At this point I’m not going to continue the series but may pick it back up at a later date.

[Nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

that escalated quickly

From waking up in a strange world to getting a ton of overpowered buffs to turning into a one woman wrecking crew (and that’s before she hits the bars in town).

Snarky System, inner monologues, a hint of magical technology and space travel via magic, and a lingering mystery make this worth reading more in the series.

[Monty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too nonsensical. Eye rolling level of WTF!?.. I just couldn't stop shaking my head and ended up starting to compose this review. Its pretty much a continuous issue it seems.. I am at the 1h40m mark listening to the audiobook and so far immersion has eluded me completely.

[Trent Spikes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Imagine torture!

Straight up the mc gets tortured by the author for every fight and then somehow wins the fight with 1hp. The intelligence level of the mc is set to about negative 10 so she doesn’t learn from her abundance of terrible decisions.

[Matthew Bertrand · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being as I am the author...I think it's a great book!

[Krunal Sheth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great start to the series, definitely making me want to read more!

[Autum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed

I liked this book and immediately jumped to book two. Unfortunately that one did not live up to this one.

[Alexander Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant

I can honestly say that i dont remember the last time a book made me laugh so hard. Seriously there were times I was laughing so much I couldn't see.

[Trianda Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

so far so good

Interesting look on the use of the FL abilities, quite a few nuggets dropped in just to keep one guessing, definitely looking forward to book 2.

[Laura May · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite slow and *very* Mary Sue, but the world-building at the end has me intrigued and earned an extra, quizzical, star.

[Chris Massey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent, good premise but a bit less well-written than others in the genre.

[maxamoud · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm surprised

Its actually good book and finished this book in one setting my eyes are hurting thank author. Im hoping next book doesn't lose the momentum.

[Johnie C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good read

I enjoyed reading the book very much and I recommend this book to anyone who likes LitRPG and progression types of books with lots of action.

[Akshay · Rating 2 out of 5]

so much potential in first half, as if second part was written by different author.