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Secret Records of Axel Font
The Effaced (Secret Records of Axel Font
Framed. Hunted. But not alone.
Axel Font, once the champion metal sorcerer of the underground arena, wants nothing more than to live a quiet life as an airship engineer. But with constables come knocking on his door and claiming he's under investigation for the murder of a member of the Senate, privatized paramilitary start trying to shoot him, and someone starts making appearances as his old masked identity, he's not likely to get the chance.
Forced to delve back into the city's underground, Axel must reconnect with his old contacts and forge himself new ones, all without losing himself to the person he used to be.
Because someone is pulling the strings of this city, and they seem hell-bent on framing him...
Axel Font, once the champion metal sorcerer of the underground arena, wants nothing more than to live a quiet life as an airship engineer. But with constables come knocking on his door and claiming he's under investigation for the murder of a member of the Senate, privatized paramilitary start trying to shoot him, and someone starts making appearances as his old masked identity, he's not likely to get the chance.
Forced to delve back into the city's underground, Axel must reconnect with his old contacts and forge himself new ones, all without losing himself to the person he used to be.
Because someone is pulling the strings of this city, and they seem hell-bent on framing him...
- GenresFantasy
378 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 22, 2025
15 people are currently reading
24 people want to read
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 2, 2025
I don't watch much TV, but when Arcane dropped in 2021, I was hooked. I'm not even a League of Legends player and think it's some of the best fantasy TV to come out this decade. The Effaced felt a lot like watching the first season of Arcane: steampunk meets magitech, a city with a class-war brewing, great fight scenes from a talented protagonist, and a rapidly escalating situation. This book isn't going to win any awards innovation or complexity, but it was an incredibly fun read, and Tobias Begley remains one of my favorite authors.
Read if Looking for: easy reading, action-packed fantasy, hard magic systems, a surprisingly wide variety of assassins
Avoid if you Dislike: the occasional typo, easter eggs to author's other series, characters that don't grow in power
Elevator Pitch:
Axel Font is an airship technician haunted by his past as a child gladiator and assassin, now trying to live a quiet life. When a Senator is murdered and he gets framed for the crime however, he finds himself wrapped up in a city-wide conspiracy far above his pay grade. This happens right as his old 'mother' has arrived back in town with a new child soldier who has been conditioned to unconditional violence. Axel grapples with needing to pick back up the skills of his old life and struggling to maintain the humanity he's clawed back as an adult.
What Worked for Me:
This book was the type of breezy, action-packed book that was hard to put down. It was fun to turn my brain off and enjoy the ride. Begley did a phenomenal job of managing the pacing in this story. He kept things moving, drip fed us clues and bits of lore, and established clear relationship dynamics amongst characters that felt natural. Right as one plot point is cooling down, another is introduced to escalate the situation. The fight scenes are exciting, well choreographed, and not so common as to feel dull and repetitive. The setting felt familiar enough to latch onto easily - the higher you go the richer you are, with criminal underbelly of the city - without feeling like a rip off of another work. It's got some pretty overt thematic work about abuse of systemic power, and how that has a disproportionate impact on those living in poverty. It fits the narrative of the book well, just don't go in expecting nuance or thematic depth.
Begley is known for writing in the progression fantasy space. While I wouldn't call this book progression fantasy, this book definitely has a harder magic system than the typical urban fantasy would. The main character uses metal magic, with a few tricks up his sleeve that allowed him to function especially well as an assassin. However, other major characters are wardcrafters, enchanters, and druids whose magic comes from bonds with extraplanar creatures. You won't get detailed infodumps about how everything works (the main character already knows the basics after all) but its clear Begley has a clear picture of how magic works in this world that you gain insight into as the book goes on. It just felt evocative and engaging in much the same way that the magic of Mage Errant did.
Finally, this book had a great cast of characters. Axel is delightful, grappling with his past life and trying to figure out how much violence he needs to embody in order to survive this ordeal. He's also queer, without a relationship in sight, which was a breath of fresh air. You've also got ambitious researchers, far too eager street urchins, and paranoid childhood friends that take security far too seriously. Begley isn't going to rival Robin Hobb for character depth, but the players in this story were interesting, had great dialogue, and were generally just a blast to read about.
What Didn't Work For Me:
This book had a couple small issues that bugged me. There more typos than you'd find in a traditionally published book, but not so many it ripped me out of the narrative. There were a few moments of awkward convenience early on, where I could see the author placing characters in contact with each other so that the story could move on. Once these establishing scenes had finished though, things flowed naturally and the dynamics were great.
I think there may be some issues for other readers that didn't bug me too much. This book is part of a world of one of the author's previous series, Journals of Evander Tailor (phenomenal books if you're looking for a magic school, path to power, tear down the nobility story). There are some easter eggs to the events of these books (and the protagonist makes a brief appearance) but knowing the events of this series are not essential for reading this book. It's tough for me to accurately judge, but I think some readers will feel the shadow of this previous series hanging over The Effaced. Similarly, I wonder if the magic system would feel less well-realized to a reader who hadn't read the previous series, in which the character got plenty of lessons and lectures about how magic worked at the school he attended.
Conclusion: an action-packed steampunk/magitech book that's just good fun
Want More Reviews Like This? Try my blog CosmicReads
Read if Looking for: easy reading, action-packed fantasy, hard magic systems, a surprisingly wide variety of assassins
Avoid if you Dislike: the occasional typo, easter eggs to author's other series, characters that don't grow in power
Elevator Pitch:
Axel Font is an airship technician haunted by his past as a child gladiator and assassin, now trying to live a quiet life. When a Senator is murdered and he gets framed for the crime however, he finds himself wrapped up in a city-wide conspiracy far above his pay grade. This happens right as his old 'mother' has arrived back in town with a new child soldier who has been conditioned to unconditional violence. Axel grapples with needing to pick back up the skills of his old life and struggling to maintain the humanity he's clawed back as an adult.
What Worked for Me:
This book was the type of breezy, action-packed book that was hard to put down. It was fun to turn my brain off and enjoy the ride. Begley did a phenomenal job of managing the pacing in this story. He kept things moving, drip fed us clues and bits of lore, and established clear relationship dynamics amongst characters that felt natural. Right as one plot point is cooling down, another is introduced to escalate the situation. The fight scenes are exciting, well choreographed, and not so common as to feel dull and repetitive. The setting felt familiar enough to latch onto easily - the higher you go the richer you are, with criminal underbelly of the city - without feeling like a rip off of another work. It's got some pretty overt thematic work about abuse of systemic power, and how that has a disproportionate impact on those living in poverty. It fits the narrative of the book well, just don't go in expecting nuance or thematic depth.
Begley is known for writing in the progression fantasy space. While I wouldn't call this book progression fantasy, this book definitely has a harder magic system than the typical urban fantasy would. The main character uses metal magic, with a few tricks up his sleeve that allowed him to function especially well as an assassin. However, other major characters are wardcrafters, enchanters, and druids whose magic comes from bonds with extraplanar creatures. You won't get detailed infodumps about how everything works (the main character already knows the basics after all) but its clear Begley has a clear picture of how magic works in this world that you gain insight into as the book goes on. It just felt evocative and engaging in much the same way that the magic of Mage Errant did.
Finally, this book had a great cast of characters. Axel is delightful, grappling with his past life and trying to figure out how much violence he needs to embody in order to survive this ordeal. He's also queer, without a relationship in sight, which was a breath of fresh air. You've also got ambitious researchers, far too eager street urchins, and paranoid childhood friends that take security far too seriously. Begley isn't going to rival Robin Hobb for character depth, but the players in this story were interesting, had great dialogue, and were generally just a blast to read about.
What Didn't Work For Me:
This book had a couple small issues that bugged me. There more typos than you'd find in a traditionally published book, but not so many it ripped me out of the narrative. There were a few moments of awkward convenience early on, where I could see the author placing characters in contact with each other so that the story could move on. Once these establishing scenes had finished though, things flowed naturally and the dynamics were great.
I think there may be some issues for other readers that didn't bug me too much. This book is part of a world of one of the author's previous series, Journals of Evander Tailor (phenomenal books if you're looking for a magic school, path to power, tear down the nobility story). There are some easter eggs to the events of these books (and the protagonist makes a brief appearance) but knowing the events of this series are not essential for reading this book. It's tough for me to accurately judge, but I think some readers will feel the shadow of this previous series hanging over The Effaced. Similarly, I wonder if the magic system would feel less well-realized to a reader who hadn't read the previous series, in which the character got plenty of lessons and lectures about how magic worked at the school he attended.
Conclusion: an action-packed steampunk/magitech book that's just good fun
Want More Reviews Like This? Try my blog CosmicReads
Displaying 1 of 1 review