If you're in the mood for a great story with a pure mage main character, then don't be deterred by the awkward cover art and give this book a try.
The story follows our MC, Quinto, a young man living in a rural village who gets pressed/kidnapped into military service when he manifests his magic abilities. It quickly becomes apparent that he has a talent for magic, but this also causes him just as much trouble as anything since he's a Hubite, which is a disparaged minority race in his country.
The magic was fun and interesting, and involves manifesting tendrils of power called threads and then thickening and weaving them into strings that create various magical effects. A wizard's skill is generally measured by how many strings they can cast. It reminded me a little of the Madwand series by Roger Zelazny, which is the only other fantasy story I can think of that used strings to visualize magic.
The plot generally seems to follow a bit of the Hero's Journey, but with one obstacle after another as the any success on the part of the MC is met by further jealousy or racism. It reminded me a little of Heartwood Mage by James Haddock where you have a MC who is simply trying to develop his powers and settle down in life, but people just won't stop messing with him. Though this book is quite a bit more focused on the politics than the action and killing.
The writing felt a bit stilted at times, with a lack of sentence variation and dialogue being very on the nose, but overall I really enjoyed the story, the characters, and especially the magic.
I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a solid fantasy with a spellcaster main character. Especially if you are tired of OP spellblade-type characters, the wizards in this series focus almost exclusively on magic, with sidearms sometimes being present but often not making much difference.