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Mark of the Fool #9

Mark of the Fool 9

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As the enemy escalates, it’s time for Alex to free himself of his limitations once and for all.

The Mark of the Fool.

A ‘gift’ from Uldar that enhances the bearer’s ability to learn any skill, but—in return—one cannot practise magic, engage in combat or use divinity at all. Alex Roth, the latest Fool, has found ways around his limitations.

Now, however, he has hit a wall.

To master the most powerful spells, Alex discovers that the Mark can no longer be worked around. It must be removed…or transformed. Luckily, The Fool of The Traveller’s cycle had laid down the groundwork to transform the Mark of the Fool, but her notes and equipment are hidden away in her sanctum somewhere in the far north.

If Alex wants to be truly free, he must find it.

And time is running out.

The Ravener continues to escalate and the hidden church hunts him relentlessly.

Will he transform the Mark in time and unleash his true potential or will his enemies find him first? In either case, their confrontation will be a mighty reckoning.

Book 9 of the Best-Selling series. Continue your fantastical journey into a coming-of-age magic academy fantasy with a weak-to-strong progression into power, deepening mystery, a setting inspired by D&D, detailed world building and magical science, action, comedy, slice-of-life, and GameLit elements.

839 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 12, 2025

832 people are currently reading
796 people want to read

About the author

J.M. Clarke

25 books575 followers

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5 stars
1,999 (66%)
4 stars
793 (26%)
3 stars
201 (6%)
2 stars
25 (<1%)
1 star
8 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 100 reviews
Profile Image for Steve Naylor.
2,483 reviews127 followers
March 7, 2025
Rating 5.0 stars

There are always pivotal books in a series. The one book where everything changes, or at the least we get all the answers we wanted. This is that book. There have been other books in this series with revelations that changed things, but not like this. Overall this was an excellent book in the series. There have been some filler books in the series, but this wasn't one of those. I am looking forward to the next one.
Profile Image for Michael Kahan.
88 reviews
Read
February 12, 2025
This is cheating a bit, since I read this book on Royal Road where it was posted in progress. But I did read all of it and I read it this year.

Anyway, it was nice to see the main character overcome his (literally) god-given handicap and really be able to kick some ass, and give some comeuppance to a smugly annoying set of villains. It also does some nice setup for the finale and has said main character asking his mentors good questions that boil down to "What should I do when I graduate/finish the plot?" which is honestly a question I wish more characters thought about. This was a fun read. It's not the pinnacle of literature or anything, but the series is pretty consistantly enjoyable.
Profile Image for Trax Armstrong.
95 reviews
February 16, 2025
Crap!
I must lay my thoughts out on this one.

I really struggled with this one. It was overly wordy, unnecessarily sentimental, and filled with so much fluff that it became hard to enjoy.

The tone felt more suited for a young girl living in Manhattan than for an older audience.

Additionally, I couldn’t quite understand the decision to use modern parlance throughout the book.

While I noticed it in the previous installments, here it just felt overdone and out of place.

Please make book 10 better even if takes the next 6 months to be completed.
Profile Image for Taylor Z.
433 reviews8 followers
October 19, 2025
This series is incredible. Well-written, the magic system is intricate and interesting. The characters and themes have depth and the pacing is flawless.
159 reviews1 follower
March 28, 2025
It's time to lead!

The fact that our climactic battle happened in the first half of the book was wild, but the chance to take a little break and catch back up was great.
Though that makes the next book feel like it'll probably be all over with action and intensity. Can't wait!
2,524 reviews71 followers
February 21, 2025
The last couple have seemed like setups, this one takes the story and runs.
Profile Image for Fernando.
555 reviews2 followers
July 21, 2025
Slow and steady. A lot of plot threads get closed and things feel like they are culminating. Looks like the next one will be epic.
27 reviews1 follower
March 5, 2025
good addition to the series - if a bit long winded in last half

It continues to unfold secrets setup from the beginning of the story making it an enjoyable read. The action is really great in the first half and keeps you reading. I was really devouring it until maybe around 60% when the action abruptly stopped and the main character spent too much time basically reminiscing and traveling around the world picking up lose ends. A little would have been okay but it felt like the story stalled for a good third of the book there until we got towards the end and he threw in some interesting twists again. This might be the weakest in the series so far because of that section - almost feels like he realized he wrote too much and needed to save some for book ten so filled pages - which I didn’t really like. But I’m still reading and plan to buy #10 as soon as it comes out! Very solid progression fantasy series!
Profile Image for Thorsten.
309 reviews4 followers
August 6, 2025
Mixed bag. There are instances of great storytelling, where the story advances in leaps and bounds and learning Uldar's backstory was great. Other parts of it are insufferably verbose, where the narrative goes on for dozens of pages, meandering in circles and accomplishing nothing. The rest is really unsatisfying growth in the MC; we spent seven books following the MC's agonizingly slow growth and development, and it's all cast aside by loading him up with heaps of unearned power.
Profile Image for William Howe.
1,800 reviews87 followers
February 16, 2025
umm

So. 5 stars because I have enjoyed the series. And if you’ve read all the way to 9 books, there needs to be a *compelling* reason to give less than 5.

But I struggled reading this book.

It’s the penultimate book of the series, so it gets a little slack since it is setting up the climactic events of the end game. But there was a lot of navel gazing and philosophical discussions. Stuff that didn’t *need* to be done.

‘What are you going to do after?’ How about we get to ‘after’ first, *then* consider what to do.

I also don’t like that ‘nobody’ died. None of the ‘good guys’ were even sidelined with injuries for very long. There were close calls, but nobody is even limping (any more than normal).

I’m grumping about some stuff, but I will pre-order the next book anyway. Sunk-cost fallacy or no, I want to know how it’s going to end.
2 reviews
February 19, 2025
masterful story telling

I’m upset because I have to wait to get book 10!

I’ve recently taken to reading (listening) more and this whole series I’ve listened to 3x already on audible (1-7 available)… but this one has some character and awesome nerdom using technical wizardry developments that I don’t think I’ve experienced anywhere else… there are limits, there are developments, there are hurdles, there are “realistic” problems to solve… love it.

Hats off to the author for the great story telling in an immense world of worlds and the serious twist and cliffhanger at the end…

So now I have to wait.
Profile Image for Gareth Otton.
Author 5 books131 followers
March 25, 2025
Mark of the Fool 9 is another solid edition in a great series, but again, it has enough flaws to keep it from being 5-star material. This is frustrating because the story being told here is genuinely fantastic, but there are significant issues that can't be ignored.

The problem with this book is that everything is way too drawn out. Information that should be delivered in a single page instead spans multiple chapters. Moments of high intensity grind to a halt as a character navel-gazes about their decisions and everything leading to that moment. The main fight scenes that would be epic if they lasted only a few chapters get dragged out over tens of chapters. What should be moments of nostalgia as characters reflect how far they have come, leading into the final book, instead take up a third of the novel.

Considering the subject matter, this book should have been the most satisfying in this series. So many promises made in this series are fulfilled here, but it dragged out so much it was a chore to read at times.

The Alex Verus series by Benedict Jacka is an Urban Fantasy, but I can't help comparing it to this book. That series also has a character fighting out of his weight class until the penultimate book, where he finally reaches the potential the series has been promising for so long. The way in which that potential is reached occurs with many of the same story beats to the point where I couldn't help but think of that story as I was reading this one. The big difference is that where this book draws the climax of that particular arc out over hundreds of pages, that book condensed all of that awesomeness into one of the most satisfying chapters I have read in any series ever.

I once heard writing advice on Brandon Sanderson's Writing Excuses podcast where the hosts pointed out one of the most common differences between experienced and inexperienced writers, and one of the most profound ways to make stories more impactful. If you have multiple high-impact events in a story, an inexperienced writer's instinct is to devote a chapter to each one to let it stand proud alone and prolong a period of high emotion in the reader. Experienced writers know that heightened emotions can't be sustained for such long periods in readers without feeling artificial and diluting the impact of these events. An experienced writer knows it is better to bring these moments as close together as possible, concentrating the impact of all the events at once, and delivering a big bang of emotion to the reader that is much more memorable.

Since hearing this advice maybe 10-15 years ago, I have kept it in mind while reading thousands of novels and watching hundreds of movies, and this rule plays out true every time. It seems counterintuitive, but condensing books down and fighting the instinct to let each moment stand proud on its own does wonders for novels, and it would have helped here massively.

Overall, this book should have been 5 stars. The events chronicled here are everything I have been hoping to see in this series for a while. The execution, however, significantly diminished the experience. Ultimately, I think this was a 3.5-star book that I will round up to 4. It is enjoyable, but I was hoping for more.

That said, the underlying story is in a great place, and I have high hopes that this series will finish strong in the next book. I can't wait to read it.
1 review
November 10, 2025
This is a story about religion vs secular humanism, except the author fundamentally does not understand how religious people think in the slightest. It's like reading a book by someone who doesn't understand how some basic emotion like anger works.

The author treats religious extremists as believing the ends justify the means. He thinks religious extremists feel guilty for the harm they cause, but believe their god's plan will justify all the harm after the fact. The problem is that a religious person would have no reason to feel guilty for these sorts of actions in the first place. The author doesn't understand that when a religious person acts on the authority of their god, that is a MORAL action. As in, enacting divine will is a MORAL GOOD, independent of who it hurts or harms. A religious person would feel MORALLY FULFILLED by by harming someone at the command of their god. In fact, if the person being harmed is also a member of the same religion, the victim stands a good chance of agreeing with the aggressor and accepting their punishment willingly. If the aggressor could fulfill his divine orders to harm someone while still showing some kindness and clemency to a repentent victim, he would be fulfilling literally every moral impulse all at once and would not have even the slightest reason to regret his choices.

Anyways, apart from that it's essentially a fun and exciting superhero story, but the religious themes fall flat because this author really fundamentally does not understand something really basic about how most people think about religion.
92 reviews
July 8, 2025
Yeah sorry this is just too much plothole/lazy writing for one book. So MC gets jumped in the woods and gets his ass handed to him in the second to last book in the series by re-used antagonists.

(As an aside, one of the antagonists is an antagonist just because he's a bad guy and wants to kill people. This is what you do when you're a writer but you can't write baddies for beans. Make a random psycho appear!)

Now, naturally, the writer thinks "hm I want my MC to be alone for a bit how do I accomplish this?" He settles on "if I am near my family they will get hurt!" This is a plothole. Earlier our intrepid writer added the ability for the MC to go wherever he wants, whenever he wants. He doesn't need to stay away from anything at any time. He says this explicitly. Now, he says "I got attacked ergo I must never go back to the city!" Did the attack turn off the teleportation power? Maybe just his brain?
81 reviews
December 9, 2025
By god he's done it again.

I mean, these were originally written on Royal Road. It makes sense that there's not much of a gap from book to book. But man, J.M Clarke is really killing it with these storylines. I'm curious to know if he had the reveal regarding Uldar/Ravener planned from the start. I'm sure the idea was there, but in the specific way that the author went about it. None of the progression, of either the villains or the heroes, feels forced. Only one aspect felt like it went too quickly, and that's with literally dozens of plot points going on at once. The aspect I'm referring to is the experiment that Alex did to himself which requires soulstuff (trying not to spoil). All-in-all, we knew he was going to complete this step eventually, but it felt very fast for how massive a change it was. Almost like an afterthought from the original use of bane. In any case, it's just one small part. Otherwise, everything else is neat and orderly! Very excited to see how it ends.
Profile Image for Gary.
680 reviews7 followers
February 23, 2025
Mr. Roth (why can't the professor use his first name like everybody else?) starts out by stealing a bunch of books (spells) that just overwhelm the reader with a bunch of junk, in the sense that when you are almost omnipotent there isn't a lot of spice or suspense for the reader. Fortunately, once he got done with that opening move Clarke really hit his grove.

This book reveals the Mark change (no spoiler to say that he DOESN'T die in the process), and why the Mark was changed from the General to the Fool in the first place. Very compatible and believable within this story's text flow.

This book also reveals Uldar's plan/reasoning behind the cycle. Again, another excellent section. We have to wait for Book 10 though, to see it brought to a successful conclusion.
Profile Image for Mel M..
16 reviews1 follower
March 20, 2025
I’m only going to write a review for this book because I read all nine book in a two week period and don’t want to review them all. Obviously I like the series. It’s a unique plot and the characters still out in my head as memorable. My complaints are that while reading the book, even I could notice it needed an editor. In some areas there are grammar mistakes, often phrases repeat and all of the book could use a good trimming. Sometimes I found myself frustrated with the writing because the characters absolutely do not sound like they are in their late teens and early 20s. That being said …. I tore through these books in two weeks. So I recommend them. The bottom line is they are fun AND could use an editor
35 reviews
February 24, 2025
Another great book.

Brilliant setup for the final book. So many great things about this book, great characters, fun action sequence, even a little comedy and romance. But one of the things that sets these books apart is, for lack of a better description, the "magical sciences and research" is unique and detailed. I love when they research and breakdown some magic item or spell. It's done with imagination and great detail. Wish I could say more but sorry no spoilers.
Highly recommended
2 reviews
Currently reading
March 15, 2025
"Mark of the Fool 9" continues to captivate readers with its blend of magic, adventure, and character growth. The protagonist, Alex, faces escalating challenges as he seeks to overcome the limitations of his Mark and unlock his true potential. The book is praised for its intricate world-building, engaging plot, and the balance of action, humor, and slice-of-life elements. Fans of the series appreciate its progression and the setup for an exciting finale. It's a compelling read for those who enjoy fantasy with a touch of D&D-inspired storytelling.
Profile Image for Dan Francis.
26 reviews
April 3, 2025
My God, Best of the Series

For years now I have been on and off on this series. It’s been a great read and I put it in the top ten of my science fiction collection.

However, this book finally brought all the turmoil of these heroes to a close. I am not certain but i wouldn’t be surprised if book 10 is the finale and Im so excited I may black out.

J.M. Clarke, the character building in this series rivals almost any series I’ve ever read, and I have read A-LOT of fantasy books.

Highly recommend to anyone looking for a new series.
Profile Image for Jonathan.
636 reviews1 follower
December 4, 2025
fun

I binge listened to the books so it all kind of blends together. I think in this one they are trying to find the past Fool’s hideaway so they can fix the mark and finish off the hidden church. Meanwhile they examine what their god left behind. The church gets finished. The mark fixed. But that just means the final mission is about to start.

It’s a good YA series. Neat world that gains detail and depth with each book. It maintains its pace and character growth. The narrator is awesome. Please enjoy.
Profile Image for Angela.
508 reviews4 followers
December 12, 2025
Men are messed up, but Gods even more (and the worshipers the most messed). The theme (or the explanations) from this book are not new: if people stop believing, the god fades or dies, so being a god, they can do no matter what to stay relevant (suddenly not a benevolent god anymore).
I liked this book a lot because it focuses heavily on Alex rejecting the role Uldar assigned him. He thinks and adapts, thinks and adapts and rewrites his fate to free himself from the marks of his God.

Also the "Easter egg" from this book (or maybe it was in Book 8) was "we are the champions" song.
132 reviews
February 20, 2025
Great escalation and suspense

This book does a great job of following up the previous. It balances the consequences of the end of the previous book with plenty of new ongoing mysteries and challenges.

More focus is put on Alex's personal progress as he is forced to respond to the climax of the previous book. This does unfortunately take focus away from other characters, but they are still as fun and interesting as ever.
6 reviews
March 2, 2025
entertaining and original

Great story. Is lively and original with a Fun progression.

My only real critique is that the author re-hashes the post too muck or spends too long on dialogue that doesn’t really move the story. Some conversations are important, some just aren’t. I find my self skimming paragraphs or almost whole pages to get to the next action point.

Any way over all great work and fun read
Profile Image for William Moses Jr..
429 reviews30 followers
April 23, 2025
After the disappointment I felt with the previous book, this book was a delightful return to form. Once again, exciting revelations, increases in power, and pleasant meditations on things that would normally matter to a person, but are too often ignored in progression fantasy books. All in all a delightful read, and I'm very much looking forward to reading the final book in this series once it comes out.
Profile Image for The Lover.
112 reviews
December 29, 2024
A

Well shit, I finished book 8 and 9 in the same day.

My eyes don't feel right and it's about to be 1 am.

Well I suppose I didn't complete the books in the same day but you get the thought.

Well onto the review, this book follows it's predecessor, as it should've, and continues by bolstering the power of Alex.

I love power progression, so I love this book.
Profile Image for rolando cruz.
26 reviews
February 21, 2025
Great BookSeries

I’ve read books 1 to 9 and every time it ends, there’s a hollow feeling inside me. Each book has its own moment, strength and excitement. I like book 9 among others because it has a lot of philosophical issues raised in it. Also, there’s a lot of moral values that any smart young people should pick up. I really enjoyed it.
3 reviews
February 22, 2025
What an Amazing Whirlwind!

This is by far my favorite book of the series! The humor, the growth and development of the characters are such a contrast. I loved the reference to past adventures and even though Baelin is still sorely missed, I loved the progression of this book. I couldn’t put it down! I don’t want this adventure to end. What a great story!
79 reviews3 followers
March 14, 2025
Foolishly good

A General good time! Mark my words, you won't want to put this book down!
Okay I'm done. Probably.
In all seriousness, though, this book was a fantastic entry in the series and in a lot of ways a culmination of threads that have been building since book 1. (I especially loved the breakdown of why Young Adults are always the Chosen One(s) in stories instead of a 40 year old parent of 3).
Definitely one of my favorites series and can't wait to see where the author takes things next!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 100 reviews

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