Outlier Mage 2: Darvist

Outlier Mage #2

by Ken Pence

Baron Lee and Lady Bala are headed to Denshu, his gift from the King. There is an imposter mage who has taken off his province and he must woo the residents to support him while taking down the imposter. The town is 17th century in most of its infrastructure and trade. Lee knows the new king put his strongest mages in the southernmost town in the kingdom - adjacent to Darvist. Lee knows the King plans to abscond with the remainder of the huge loan it had obtained from Darvist and Lee's 'gift' of nobility and the Denshu province was to give the king time to get away from a followup invasion.

Lee has to upgrade the town and raise the standards of the people he has come to respect before they can assist him. He is experimenting with the two portals he confiscated during the last invasion to see if he can stop the next attack or give him the means to respond. He thinks he has some of the keys to using the magic to portals since he can't do it with 24th century electronics. He is mastering the ability to create matter from the zero-point mana energy he can produce. This nearly inexhaustible supply of mana may give him the means if he can learn to control it and teach his closest associates. Anna is staying by his side now and the town has become accustomed to her presence but she has limited powers. Bala is training the townspeople with magical abilities to support the defense of the town.

Genres: Fantasy

297 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 21, 2024

About the author

Ken R Pence, Ph.D. is a professor of engineering at Vanderbilt University. He is a retired captain from the Metro Nashville Police Department where he served 31 years (16 on SWAT) and has taught police and military in the US and Europe (England, Germany, France, and Northern Ireland) in confrontation management skills. He has researched sniper shot location for DARPA, acoustic sensors to protect African elephant herds and inexpensive magnetic levitation. He lives in Nashville with his wife and his large - drooling - black lab (Drools Verne).

ken.pence@vanderbilt.edu

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good!

[Eric Blanz · Rating 1 out of 5]

No character for this mc

MC has a completely inconsistent attitude and behavior. The minute he is bothered by killing an obvious sociopath, the very next chapter he off handily incinerated five guys before even talking to them. Acts as though he is a genius then flatly ignores how he is giving his enemies potential access to his very own trump card for no apparent reason. The whole thing is full of stuff like this, along with cold and stunted dialogue that is has about as much emotional content as reading baking instruction from a box

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, sometimes an author uses a trick to get out of a situation, and it just blows the entire story. I won't say what the trick was in this case, but introducing the concept of this other person just blew the entire story for me. Not a single hint of such a person, then poof, suddenly there's an explanation for everything that's been happening, and with no need to explain a single thing. No, no, no. Not my style. I don't think I'll be continuing with this series.
For what it's worth though, the story was fairly interesting up to that point.

[J. Libenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

curt and to the point, but enjoyable

It seemed rather curt and to the point, almost beyond direct-ness, but was as enjoyable as the 1st book in this series, sainting for the next already.

[Michael Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic

Another great book in this series, if you liked lux but wanted more swords and sorcery fighting and mages then this is a book for you plus I think we have just started on the tip of the iceberg in stories for this world.

[Bill Tillman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outlier Mage

Lee is the hero of this two book series!It is far too heavy on telling the story. The tale of a compassionate mage that goes around fixing every wrong is entertaining. I hope the author take my critical view in the right way! Good tale Ken!

[Tendo Kayiira · Rating 5 out of 5]

More of the same

Magic and tech. The MC continues his life by taking care of his new people and then checking out Darvist. More fighting and cooking. More rescues. So far so good. What's next??

[Jan Gable · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Sequel

I enjoy the characters and the situations. The story has enough learning situations to make it interesting and an enjoyable experience.

[Michael Gnizak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent sequel!

I enjoyed it. It was fun and interesting. The plot had some layers with the political intrigue and made sense. Looking forward to the next book!

[billy cardon · Rating 5 out of 5]

outer mage 2

Very good storyline and keep you entertained with all the locals and everybody enjoy, just remember, you have to read the first one to get to this one

[Johnie C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good read

I enjoyed reading this book very much and I recommend this book to anyone who likes magic and futuristic human development.

[Elrica Francisca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great story

Lee and Ana's adventure seems to be far from over, and I can't wait to read about the next adventure.

[Teresa Hawkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

More action

There is a lot more action in this book than the first. The magical fights and the variety of magical abilities was very interesting

[Pip · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Will Knight · Rating 1 out of 5]

Note to self: big fat nope.

[RandomLibrarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still enjoying this....