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The Chronicles of Grimm Dragonblaster #1
A Mage in the Making
At the age of seven, Grimm Afelnor is sent from his grandfather's forge to learn the craft of magic at Arnor House of the Ancient and Honourable Guild of Magic-users, Sorcerers and Thaumaturges.
He soon learns that his beloved grandfather, Loras Afelnor, is not the simple blacksmith he appears. Once a powerful Mage Questor of the Seventh Rank, Loras fell into disgrace and was banished from the Guild, his name and honours stricken from the Guild records.
As a charity Student and the grandson of the reviled Oathbreaker, Grimm faces a difficult and uncertain future in the class-obsessed House. His lowly status also permits the ambitious and unscrupulous Prelate, Thorn Virias, to submit Grimm to the grueling Questor Ordeal. Brutally trained to become a human weapon, Grimm is driven to the very brink of insanity by the man who betrayed his grandfather.
He soon learns that his beloved grandfather, Loras Afelnor, is not the simple blacksmith he appears. Once a powerful Mage Questor of the Seventh Rank, Loras fell into disgrace and was banished from the Guild, his name and honours stricken from the Guild records.
As a charity Student and the grandson of the reviled Oathbreaker, Grimm faces a difficult and uncertain future in the class-obsessed House. His lowly status also permits the ambitious and unscrupulous Prelate, Thorn Virias, to submit Grimm to the grueling Questor Ordeal. Brutally trained to become a human weapon, Grimm is driven to the very brink of insanity by the man who betrayed his grandfather.
292 pages, Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 2007
6 people are currently reading
84 people want to read
About the author
Alastair J. Archibald
8 books10 followersAlastair is employed as the quality manager at an electronics company. In addition to writing, he is a keen guitarist, singer and songwriter, and he also enjoys playing pool. Alastair lives in southeast England.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 11, 2010
I think this book could use a lot of professional editing.
Grimm was not a well-balanced character. He's almost super-humanly good at practically everything academic and only struggled in less important things like penmanship, dancing and painting.
There were a lot of info-dumps - many of them on the exact details of how the magic system works. In my mind, that's something that the author should definitely know but the reader doesn't need to read pages and pages of that information unless it's something that's going to become extremely important later on. (Checkov's Gun?) And since there weren't info dumps on subjects such as the history of the world or its political structure, it makes me wonder if those other subjects are as fleshed out in the author's mind as the magic is.
I also think there was a lot of internal inconsistencies. There were quite a few times that things were mentioned, then dropped - especially if they were supposed to happen long after they were first mentioned. Maybe we're supposed to assume that they DID happen and they were just too unimportant to mention, but my overall impression is that they were forgotten.
Last, there's a lot of things that are told rather than shown, especially with the caste system. We know Grimm's food is "bland", but what makes it bland? We know there's a hierarchy based on wealth and we see some of the policies, but we never see it shown in social interaction to anyone but Grimm and his best friends.
The saddest part about this book is that when I bought it, I also bought the next two since it was highly reviewed and sounded interesting. So now, I have 2 more books just sitting there awaiting either sheer boredom or masochism for me to actually bother to read them.
This is a revised review. My original, ranting, laundry list of a review is below in the spoiler tags.
Grimm was not a well-balanced character. He's almost super-humanly good at practically everything academic and only struggled in less important things like penmanship, dancing and painting.
There were a lot of info-dumps - many of them on the exact details of how the magic system works. In my mind, that's something that the author should definitely know but the reader doesn't need to read pages and pages of that information unless it's something that's going to become extremely important later on. (Checkov's Gun?) And since there weren't info dumps on subjects such as the history of the world or its political structure, it makes me wonder if those other subjects are as fleshed out in the author's mind as the magic is.
I also think there was a lot of internal inconsistencies. There were quite a few times that things were mentioned, then dropped - especially if they were supposed to happen long after they were first mentioned. Maybe we're supposed to assume that they DID happen and they were just too unimportant to mention, but my overall impression is that they were forgotten.
Last, there's a lot of things that are told rather than shown, especially with the caste system. We know Grimm's food is "bland", but what makes it bland? We know there's a hierarchy based on wealth and we see some of the policies, but we never see it shown in social interaction to anyone but Grimm and his best friends.
The saddest part about this book is that when I bought it, I also bought the next two since it was highly reviewed and sounded interesting. So now, I have 2 more books just sitting there awaiting either sheer boredom or masochism for me to actually bother to read them.
This is a revised review. My original, ranting, laundry list of a review is below in the spoiler tags.
July 1, 2012
To be fair, I have not read the book, I only started it and stopped after the first few chapters. But when in chapter three there is still not one female character even mentioned that isn't evil to the core, I think a girl is excused from continuing to read this and pick up a more gender-friendly book.
June 1, 2017
Interesting story, but the chapters and chapters of runic language lessons were extremely tedious. The middle of the book could have been compressed in half and been better for it. The MC, Grimm, developed his personality from a precocious seven years old to his current 15 in a steady character building that flowed well. I'm hoping that the second book improves or I will probably not read the third.
October 26, 2011
Cliche characters, weak storytelling and poor dialog.
A Mage in the Making reads more like a very young adult book or maybe the first draft of a high-school author. The way characters think and act is cliche and if you can read passages from the seven year old protagonist such as, [cue the horribly fake English accent] "I am ever so hungry, Sir Doorkeeper, but you couldn't take Granfer's letter to the Chief Wizard now, could you?" without wanting to rip the book to shreds then you are a less picky reader than I.
If it were only the dialog that were so poorly composed the book might be decent, but the descriptive passages are no better. They don't flow well and try too hard to tell rather than show,
"Thorn's hands trembled as if palsied, and the letter fell to the desk. Deeply troubled, he climbed to his feet and for a few minutes paced the room like a caged animal, brow furrowed in thought and heavy breaths shivering his body."
All in all, if you are a young reader you might get some enjoyment out of this book. It has an interesting back-story, but the author doesn't deliver on the believability of the characters.
A Mage in the Making reads more like a very young adult book or maybe the first draft of a high-school author. The way characters think and act is cliche and if you can read passages from the seven year old protagonist such as, [cue the horribly fake English accent] "I am ever so hungry, Sir Doorkeeper, but you couldn't take Granfer's letter to the Chief Wizard now, could you?" without wanting to rip the book to shreds then you are a less picky reader than I.
If it were only the dialog that were so poorly composed the book might be decent, but the descriptive passages are no better. They don't flow well and try too hard to tell rather than show,
"Thorn's hands trembled as if palsied, and the letter fell to the desk. Deeply troubled, he climbed to his feet and for a few minutes paced the room like a caged animal, brow furrowed in thought and heavy breaths shivering his body."
All in all, if you are a young reader you might get some enjoyment out of this book. It has an interesting back-story, but the author doesn't deliver on the believability of the characters.
April 8, 2015
An enjoyable coming of age... for a mage. The lowly are lifted, evil is resisted, kindness outshines the attempts of bullies to belittle and degrade. Although the book doesn't have an official ending, it finishes off nicely leaving it open to continuation within another story. For some this might be a turn off. This isn't a deep thought provoking tale, but it is a fun escape with heart. Geared toward the younger teen and to be read with that in mind.
December 22, 2010
Another surprisingly good indie read. Full review: http://fantasybookreviewer.blogspot.c...
December 26, 2010
Nice read, although a bit predictable
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews