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The Formerly Dark Mage
Silvia is a dark mage. Unfortunately she finds herself about to be sacrificed. Someone must have told her evil master about her plans to kill him and take over. After that, things just seem to go downhill. She has no choice but to escape the kingdom of Zual, something that to her knowledge has never been done before. She will need to deal with many issues she never had to face before.
Among those issues, the white mages, and her conscience.
Note: This is a standalone book, not the beginning of a series.
Among those issues, the white mages, and her conscience.
Note: This is a standalone book, not the beginning of a series.
214 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 2014
58 people are currently reading
61 people want to read
About the author
D.L. Harrison
105 books197 followersI've been an avid book reader since I was a teenager in the 1980's. My preferred genre's are science fiction and fantasy.
I wrote some short stories and was encouraged to try writing and self publishing by some friends. I work in computers and writing is an obsessive hobby I have been trying to hone for a couple of years now. I'll let you judge if I have succeeded or not.
I wrote some short stories and was encouraged to try writing and self publishing by some friends. I work in computers and writing is an obsessive hobby I have been trying to hone for a couple of years now. I'll let you judge if I have succeeded or not.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
February 15, 2021
My "first impressions" review is retained below, documenting my reactions to the updated cover art and, in a first for me, the book's title page, which shockingly required comment.
Of course, that stuff is just window dressing, right? Some readers will happily overlook such things if the book delivers enjoyable content. I am not one of them, but that's fine, different strokes and all that. This author has an established readership and has continued to publish stories regularly since this first book.
Since content is key, you might enjoy this book if you don't mind thin characters, a bland setting, frequent run-on sentences, a fair number of grammatical errors despite a post-publication correction pass, a plot that doesn't reallly go anywhere, an underdeveloped magic system that offers rules only so that the main character can break them, and... ellipses. Lots and lots of... ellipses, and almost every one them is... unnecessary. At least half of the chapters end with an ellipsis...
I think that people who like this book like the main character, Silvia, who I suppose is mildly sassy and stands up well for herself. The book's entire concept is that Silvia was raised as a dark mage, in the evil kingdom ruled by evil mages who do evil things because evil, and when she finds herself about to be evilled out of existence, she prays for deliverance and lo and behold, an angel saves her but only if she never uses dark magic again. Great, a redemption arc! That could be good story. Except, she makes it painfully clear that she was never really evil, she only committed evil acts against evil people because otherwise she would have been killed herself. So really the only arc we get is "change in personal circumstances allowing the character to be herself." She satisfies the restrictions on her new life by immediately using neutral magic to murder her captor horribly. But, she didn't use dark magic for this murder, so it's okay! The gods are satisfied. She continues to use "neutral" magic to slaughter evil foes when necessary, sometimes impaling several dark mages with rock spears, sometimes vaporizing twenty mages at a time in a massive explosion, but NOT EVIL, she has to protect herself and her new friends and countrymen from the nameless, faceless evil forces of the evil kingdom next door.
Silvia is a boon to her new home kingdom, because she figures out terrific new ways to use magic in increasingly powerful and useful ways that no one else has figured out. This is the actual plot of the book; it's a series of episodes in which Silvia overcomes challenges before they even present themselves, though good planning and unique understanding of how this world's magic can work. All the while, she is obsessed with robe color. Only dark mages wear black, but she just won't look good in white, so is there any way she could get away with being a white mage but wearing green or blue instead? This come up A LOT. And when she finally has to wear white, oh hey it doesn't look bad at all, go figure. Great suspense there.
We get some occasional nods to Silvia's dark past, but it's mostly water under the bridge by chapter five or so. I'm not sure her new moral grounding holds up at the end, though, when she considers getting romantic with her apprentice once she graduates. Power imbalance much? Is it okay for an eighteen-year-old high school graduate to date one of his or her recent teachers?
Supporting characters are barely differentiated beyond their surface roles. They all speak with the same voice, a light modern casual tone that doesn't suit the medieval fantasy setting. For example, at one point the king of Lethia says, "I wouldn't worry about that part since it's a fill in type thing so you don't have to deal with them." That's the royal fill in type thing. There are basically two characters: friends of Silvia, and evil dudes, most of which are featureless black robes, but for variety this group includes anyone who sneers at Silvia at any point.
The setting is even blander than the characters. The landscape is largely blank. There is a mountain range between evil realm and Lethia, and a river between Lethia and neighboring Sandoval (or, once, Zandoval), some other kingdom beyond that, but aside from nondescript towns that only exist so camping doesn't have to happen, there is no reason not to picture a flat, blank terrain in between the very few named locations. There's really nothing in the book to inspire imagination or immerse yourself into. Any potentially interesting story threads, such as interest in affairs from "the gods" at one point, or Silvia's childhood, are immediately dropped once introduced. That angel who kicked off Silvia's changed circumstances nopes out of the story after just one more mention in the first half of the book.
That's all I have to say about that. Content aside, a good line edit would bump the book up a notch in my estimation.
-----------------------------------------
(Original "first impressions" pre-review)
I only started reading this, but it's off to a rocky start and I want to start recording my reactions. Warning: I'm going to get snippy. I will read the whole thing and I reserve final judgment. This was a group read chosen recently by a group promoting self-published books, which I joined because I want to know where the good stuff is.
So. First impressions. The cover:
Stock photo of flames, fine, whatever. But that's just the original cover. Here is the current cover on Kindle:
This reminds me unfortunately of:
I mean, it's better than that, but still in the same ballpark, no? Either way, look at the bottom of the "sexy mage" cover. See where it says, "Author: D. L. Harrison"? HOLY CRAP, IS THAT WHAT THOSE NAMES I KEEP SEEING ON BOOK COVERS MEAN? THEY INDICATE THE AUTHOR? I've gone all this time never realizing.
(Apologies to the author at this point. But really, you don't put "Author" or "By" on a book cover.)
Let's move on. What's next? Oh, it's the title page:
I'm sorry, did you say, "A Formerly Dark Mage," and not, "The Formerly Dark Mage"? Which is it, pretty please?
At this point, for no particular reason, I check the book's back matter, sometimes authors will thank their editorial team or something. I at least find this about this 2014 book: "It has also been edited as of August 2016 to fix grammar issues." Great! Of course, that's supposed to happen before the book is published the first time, but that's fine, because grammar issues fixed! Except, you missed some, more than a few. Nothing horrendous, it doesn't remotely approach Moon People or anything like that. Mostly what I see is commas where there should be periods breaking up separate statements, and some sentences that beg for re-writing for clarity of meaning.
Also there's an extra line break in between each paragraph.
As for story and character and the rest of the actual content, it's okay so far, I have some criticisms but I will give the book a fair shake. After all, I am reserving final judgment.
For the record, did the main character look at herself in a mirror and then describe herself physically? Yes, yes she did.
Of course, that stuff is just window dressing, right? Some readers will happily overlook such things if the book delivers enjoyable content. I am not one of them, but that's fine, different strokes and all that. This author has an established readership and has continued to publish stories regularly since this first book.
Since content is key, you might enjoy this book if you don't mind thin characters, a bland setting, frequent run-on sentences, a fair number of grammatical errors despite a post-publication correction pass, a plot that doesn't reallly go anywhere, an underdeveloped magic system that offers rules only so that the main character can break them, and... ellipses. Lots and lots of... ellipses, and almost every one them is... unnecessary. At least half of the chapters end with an ellipsis...
I think that people who like this book like the main character, Silvia, who I suppose is mildly sassy and stands up well for herself. The book's entire concept is that Silvia was raised as a dark mage, in the evil kingdom ruled by evil mages who do evil things because evil, and when she finds herself about to be evilled out of existence, she prays for deliverance and lo and behold, an angel saves her but only if she never uses dark magic again. Great, a redemption arc! That could be good story. Except, she makes it painfully clear that she was never really evil, she only committed evil acts against evil people because otherwise she would have been killed herself. So really the only arc we get is "change in personal circumstances allowing the character to be herself." She satisfies the restrictions on her new life by immediately using neutral magic to murder her captor horribly. But, she didn't use dark magic for this murder, so it's okay! The gods are satisfied. She continues to use "neutral" magic to slaughter evil foes when necessary, sometimes impaling several dark mages with rock spears, sometimes vaporizing twenty mages at a time in a massive explosion, but NOT EVIL, she has to protect herself and her new friends and countrymen from the nameless, faceless evil forces of the evil kingdom next door.
Silvia is a boon to her new home kingdom, because she figures out terrific new ways to use magic in increasingly powerful and useful ways that no one else has figured out. This is the actual plot of the book; it's a series of episodes in which Silvia overcomes challenges before they even present themselves, though good planning and unique understanding of how this world's magic can work. All the while, she is obsessed with robe color. Only dark mages wear black, but she just won't look good in white, so is there any way she could get away with being a white mage but wearing green or blue instead? This come up A LOT. And when she finally has to wear white, oh hey it doesn't look bad at all, go figure. Great suspense there.
We get some occasional nods to Silvia's dark past, but it's mostly water under the bridge by chapter five or so. I'm not sure her new moral grounding holds up at the end, though, when she considers getting romantic with her apprentice once she graduates. Power imbalance much? Is it okay for an eighteen-year-old high school graduate to date one of his or her recent teachers?
Supporting characters are barely differentiated beyond their surface roles. They all speak with the same voice, a light modern casual tone that doesn't suit the medieval fantasy setting. For example, at one point the king of Lethia says, "I wouldn't worry about that part since it's a fill in type thing so you don't have to deal with them." That's the royal fill in type thing. There are basically two characters: friends of Silvia, and evil dudes, most of which are featureless black robes, but for variety this group includes anyone who sneers at Silvia at any point.
The setting is even blander than the characters. The landscape is largely blank. There is a mountain range between evil realm and Lethia, and a river between Lethia and neighboring Sandoval (or, once, Zandoval), some other kingdom beyond that, but aside from nondescript towns that only exist so camping doesn't have to happen, there is no reason not to picture a flat, blank terrain in between the very few named locations. There's really nothing in the book to inspire imagination or immerse yourself into. Any potentially interesting story threads, such as interest in affairs from "the gods" at one point, or Silvia's childhood, are immediately dropped once introduced. That angel who kicked off Silvia's changed circumstances nopes out of the story after just one more mention in the first half of the book.
That's all I have to say about that. Content aside, a good line edit would bump the book up a notch in my estimation.
-----------------------------------------
(Original "first impressions" pre-review)
I only started reading this, but it's off to a rocky start and I want to start recording my reactions. Warning: I'm going to get snippy. I will read the whole thing and I reserve final judgment. This was a group read chosen recently by a group promoting self-published books, which I joined because I want to know where the good stuff is.
So. First impressions. The cover:
Stock photo of flames, fine, whatever. But that's just the original cover. Here is the current cover on Kindle:
This reminds me unfortunately of:
I mean, it's better than that, but still in the same ballpark, no? Either way, look at the bottom of the "sexy mage" cover. See where it says, "Author: D. L. Harrison"? HOLY CRAP, IS THAT WHAT THOSE NAMES I KEEP SEEING ON BOOK COVERS MEAN? THEY INDICATE THE AUTHOR? I've gone all this time never realizing.
(Apologies to the author at this point. But really, you don't put "Author" or "By" on a book cover.)
Let's move on. What's next? Oh, it's the title page:
A Formerly Dark Mage*shakes head* homina homina homina
Author: D. L. Harrison
I'm sorry, did you say, "A Formerly Dark Mage," and not, "The Formerly Dark Mage"? Which is it, pretty please?
At this point, for no particular reason, I check the book's back matter, sometimes authors will thank their editorial team or something. I at least find this about this 2014 book: "It has also been edited as of August 2016 to fix grammar issues." Great! Of course, that's supposed to happen before the book is published the first time, but that's fine, because grammar issues fixed! Except, you missed some, more than a few. Nothing horrendous, it doesn't remotely approach Moon People or anything like that. Mostly what I see is commas where there should be periods breaking up separate statements, and some sentences that beg for re-writing for clarity of meaning.
Also there's an extra line break in between each paragraph.
As for story and character and the rest of the actual content, it's okay so far, I have some criticisms but I will give the book a fair shake. After all, I am reserving final judgment.
For the record, did the main character look at herself in a mirror and then describe herself physically? Yes, yes she did.
December 1, 2020
The wit was the standout for me.
I thought the storyline was unique and I didn't feel like I was reading the same old same old novel. I really appreciated that it's a stand alone too. Those are really hard to find nowadays, especially in the Fantasy genre.
This book did drag on in some areas, and I noticed a few others felt that way too after reading their reviews. There were some areas that could have been trimmed, while other areas needed a bit more.
Overall, this was a good book.
I thought the storyline was unique and I didn't feel like I was reading the same old same old novel. I really appreciated that it's a stand alone too. Those are really hard to find nowadays, especially in the Fantasy genre.
This book did drag on in some areas, and I noticed a few others felt that way too after reading their reviews. There were some areas that could have been trimmed, while other areas needed a bit more.
Overall, this was a good book.
October 11, 2016
I found this book over amazon and feel it has a lot of strong points and some weaknesses.
The beginning had me trying to suppress my laughing very hard in the subway (kind of like "Waldo Rabbit"). I found the Silvia to be an engaging character and the magic system was interesting and could provide infinite possibilities. I also noticed very spelling mistakes for an indie novel (2?)!
On the other hand, i thought the change in Silvia was too fast and thus a lot of potential for funny and awkward moments was missed, especially later on. I also thought it strange that apart from the swords there were so few magic items. Maybe the White Council tried to suppress this?
All in all, i found it to be a very enjoyable read and would like to read more books in this world and/or with Silvia.
The beginning had me trying to suppress my laughing very hard in the subway (kind of like "Waldo Rabbit"). I found the Silvia to be an engaging character and the magic system was interesting and could provide infinite possibilities. I also noticed very spelling mistakes for an indie novel (2?)!
On the other hand, i thought the change in Silvia was too fast and thus a lot of potential for funny and awkward moments was missed, especially later on. I also thought it strange that apart from the swords there were so few magic items. Maybe the White Council tried to suppress this?
All in all, i found it to be a very enjoyable read and would like to read more books in this world and/or with Silvia.
July 16, 2015
Very good fantasy book
I really enjoyed this book. It has an interesting magic system that feels unique but isn't too different and doesn't feel like it was changed just for the sake of having a different magic system. I would consider this book a little on the short side with around 200 pages but it does a good job of pacing so it doesn't feel short. I really enjoyed following the protagonist as she grew and through her constant search for redemption. What wound up happening with her love interest was kind of strange but also interesting. Highly recommend if you enjoy fantasy books.
I really enjoyed this book. It has an interesting magic system that feels unique but isn't too different and doesn't feel like it was changed just for the sake of having a different magic system. I would consider this book a little on the short side with around 200 pages but it does a good job of pacing so it doesn't feel short. I really enjoyed following the protagonist as she grew and through her constant search for redemption. What wound up happening with her love interest was kind of strange but also interesting. Highly recommend if you enjoy fantasy books.
December 31, 2016
A boring power-trip fantasy with flat characters and no real development in the people or the story.
No real plot or ending to speak of.
The book often felt like it was rambling with no substance and just doing whatever the main character wanted.
The one thing I did like was the magic system, but that fizzled out as there is no real cost and no way to keep anyone else from using her tricks.
No real plot or ending to speak of.
The book often felt like it was rambling with no substance and just doing whatever the main character wanted.
The one thing I did like was the magic system, but that fizzled out as there is no real cost and no way to keep anyone else from using her tricks.
July 6, 2016
Awesome, but main character too op with thick plot armor.
September 11, 2023
A very good story. It has good characters, good story premise, good writing, and most important it was very entertaining. I just realised that the Author has also written 2 other series that I have read and really enjoyed. So I will be reading the rest of his works soon. I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it to all.
December 23, 2018
Good fantasy book
Interesting and good fantasy book. I liked main character. And it was on kindle unlimited (which is how i found it). I arleady plan to read other books from this author.
Interesting and good fantasy book. I liked main character. And it was on kindle unlimited (which is how i found it). I arleady plan to read other books from this author.
October 23, 2020
A good stand alone book
When so many authors are writing series, it's nice to have a good stand alone story.
The hero's growth and progress are sort of believable, but make huge jumps at times.
The hero's inner struggle is pretty engaging. Likeable hero's and unlikable villians.
When so many authors are writing series, it's nice to have a good stand alone story.
The hero's growth and progress are sort of believable, but make huge jumps at times.
The hero's inner struggle is pretty engaging. Likeable hero's and unlikable villians.
January 22, 2021
Ok
Not a bad read. Decent story and plot mechanics, if a bit light, but that’s not unexpected given the authors other works. Felt it was left unfinished though.
Not a bad read. Decent story and plot mechanics, if a bit light, but that’s not unexpected given the authors other works. Felt it was left unfinished though.
April 9, 2022
These books are definitely great. I couldn´t put it.
July 26, 2024
A tale set in a time when magic was present and the lands were ruled by royalty. This was a magnificent story it was packed with plenty of good verses evil. 😊
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥❗
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥❗
December 1, 2020
I thought the storyline was a good set-up, and enjoyable. The MC's inner struggle was the most engaging part, and made him likeable and relatable. And on the flip side, the villain was a believable villain.
However, my, hopefully constructive criticism, is that there was a lot of things that didn't add to the story, (almost rambling) while there were other things that I felt like needed to be more developed. There were a few times that I felt like the story took a big jump, and could have been slowed down a bit.
However, I still enjoyed the read, and the MC, and would be open to reading more from this author. I also love that this a stand alone. Those are so hard to find these days, especially good ones.
However, my, hopefully constructive criticism, is that there was a lot of things that didn't add to the story, (almost rambling) while there were other things that I felt like needed to be more developed. There were a few times that I felt like the story took a big jump, and could have been slowed down a bit.
However, I still enjoyed the read, and the MC, and would be open to reading more from this author. I also love that this a stand alone. Those are so hard to find these days, especially good ones.
February 10, 2017
Not bad.
A fun little book. Good concept. A little, bland, I suppose. A lot of "and then this happened" sort of thing. Still, I can't say I didn't like it.
A fun little book. Good concept. A little, bland, I suppose. A lot of "and then this happened" sort of thing. Still, I can't say I didn't like it.
November 10, 2020
This was a quick and enjoyable fantasy novel. Silvia comes to realize she was never a true dark mage, it wasn't in her character. The tale has humorous wit and her plight is believable. I cheered for her all the way! Any lover of fantasy will love this book!
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews