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The Wandsmith: Crucible
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 21, 2026
It's easily one of the best out this year
Not only is the main character a British Nigerian man in his 20s, but the story is well written, well edited, and spicy. Every bit of power fantasy that is in this book is either well earned or makes a certain kind of sense based on the main character's prior experience. There is a little bit of deus ex. Machina is involved in some of the power scaling, but much of it keeps the character interesting and is a novel way of addressing certain super-cosmic powers. I am immediately running to get to the next book.
Not only is the main character a British Nigerian man in his 20s, but the story is well written, well edited, and spicy. Every bit of power fantasy that is in this book is either well earned or makes a certain kind of sense based on the main character's prior experience. There is a little bit of deus ex. Machina is involved in some of the power scaling, but much of it keeps the character interesting and is a novel way of addressing certain super-cosmic powers. I am immediately running to get to the next book.
August 9, 2026
This book had a really good plot, but it fell short of being a great story. For one, it was just too long, with too much time spent theorycrafting and world building. For all of the details the MC and the reader are given, there is too little of the promised action.
The MC is a 23yr old man from England that runs into a Greater Succubus while leaving from a failed date attempt. She kidnaps him to hell, where he manages to escape while sorely injured. Through sheer grit, he rescues a Sprite, finds an armory, and manages to kill a few more demons. Then he runs into a Crucible, where he starts to undergo trials to gain in strength. All of this involves a ton of misery the MC suffers, as his will is pitted against various forces. And it's his will that will have to carry the day.
There are only 2 actual LIs in this book, and they aren't introduced for quite a while. And then things drag out a ton before anything happens. While the book's blurb warns of lots of violence and explicit sex, there isn't much sex to be seen, and it isn't erotica explicit. I didn't mind the two LIs, but it feels more like they fall into his lap than anything else. They are simply fascinated by his unexpected aura.
For as long as the book was, there were very few errors. This really should have been two books, but since they two LIs were introduced so late, it wouldn't have had a haremlit feel to it if it wasn't so long.
I will read a sequel to this.
The MC is a 23yr old man from England that runs into a Greater Succubus while leaving from a failed date attempt. She kidnaps him to hell, where he manages to escape while sorely injured. Through sheer grit, he rescues a Sprite, finds an armory, and manages to kill a few more demons. Then he runs into a Crucible, where he starts to undergo trials to gain in strength. All of this involves a ton of misery the MC suffers, as his will is pitted against various forces. And it's his will that will have to carry the day.
There are only 2 actual LIs in this book, and they aren't introduced for quite a while. And then things drag out a ton before anything happens. While the book's blurb warns of lots of violence and explicit sex, there isn't much sex to be seen, and it isn't erotica explicit. I didn't mind the two LIs, but it feels more like they fall into his lap than anything else. They are simply fascinated by his unexpected aura.
For as long as the book was, there were very few errors. This really should have been two books, but since they two LIs were introduced so late, it wouldn't have had a haremlit feel to it if it wasn't so long.
I will read a sequel to this.
July 24, 2026
Truly an incredible start for this series
Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2026
Format: Kindle
You know a series is good when you have to have a mental battle with yourself every night to stop reading so you can get some sleep... only to then lose spectacularly with the usual mantra of, "just one more chapter", before realizing its 2:30am and you have to get ready for work soon in a few hours.
The sheer volume of world and character building being done here is the densest I've come across from this genre with its scale giving me the vibes of something from Elden Ring or Dark Souls in all the right ways. It is filled with a diverse background of fantastical creatures complete with their own culture, politics, and customs. And how they both meld and clash with each other makes the setting feel lived-in with a wealth of history. The magic system here is easily the most dense I've ever read & seems ripe for being used in an actual tabletop game.
The characters feel 3 dimensional in their personalities, their purviews of their worlds and circumstances, and how it affects them on an emotion, mental, and spiritual level.
Ori is an absolute delight of an MC. It's not an easy task to balance one having such OP abilities while still making them feel like an underdog to root for, so hats off to the author D-STAHL for succeeding in doing just that. It's really refreshing to have an MC of such immense power have moments of heartfelt vulnerability and struggles while doing their best to hold onto their humanity in a world that's constantly trying to strip it away or turn them into something else entirely. But really it's the quieter moments that really shows what so special about Ori. The banter and bonds he has with other characters feel very real and heartfelt, making the more romantic moments hit that much deeper. And his crafting abilities and creativity thanks to his earthly engineering background are great to behold when they're put into use. If I had to compare it to something else I quite love, it's like watching a OP artificer from DnD taking the boundaries between modern science and the settings magic system and shattering them both for metaphorical, and quite literal, explosive results.
Not to be outdone by the slow burn moments; the fight scenes are immensely satisfying to read as not only can they range in scale of something from LoTR, but the creativity in which they play out makes sure to keep your attention locked in and will have you more than once go "WTF?! That was awesome!". I will say though that if you are not a fan of slow burn progress/pacing in a story then this might not be for you as this series takes it's time in establishing it's, plot, setting, characters, and the systems that govern it's magic and people with immense detail, for better or worse.
TL;DR - I highly recommend this series; the worldbuilding is easily the best I've come across so far in the LitRPG and Haremlit genre and the characters have great levels of depth to them with their dialogue between each other always a delight to read. The details for it's magic system is so incredibly dense to the point where I kinda want it to be turned into its own tabletop game so I can play the different builds, and abilities I'm reading. Again, the pacing is more akin to a slow burn so if you don't mind a story that takes it's time, while doing a great job in keeping you invested, then absolutely give The Wandsmith a shot!
Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2026
Format: Kindle
You know a series is good when you have to have a mental battle with yourself every night to stop reading so you can get some sleep... only to then lose spectacularly with the usual mantra of, "just one more chapter", before realizing its 2:30am and you have to get ready for work soon in a few hours.
The sheer volume of world and character building being done here is the densest I've come across from this genre with its scale giving me the vibes of something from Elden Ring or Dark Souls in all the right ways. It is filled with a diverse background of fantastical creatures complete with their own culture, politics, and customs. And how they both meld and clash with each other makes the setting feel lived-in with a wealth of history. The magic system here is easily the most dense I've ever read & seems ripe for being used in an actual tabletop game.
The characters feel 3 dimensional in their personalities, their purviews of their worlds and circumstances, and how it affects them on an emotion, mental, and spiritual level.
Ori is an absolute delight of an MC. It's not an easy task to balance one having such OP abilities while still making them feel like an underdog to root for, so hats off to the author D-STAHL for succeeding in doing just that. It's really refreshing to have an MC of such immense power have moments of heartfelt vulnerability and struggles while doing their best to hold onto their humanity in a world that's constantly trying to strip it away or turn them into something else entirely. But really it's the quieter moments that really shows what so special about Ori. The banter and bonds he has with other characters feel very real and heartfelt, making the more romantic moments hit that much deeper. And his crafting abilities and creativity thanks to his earthly engineering background are great to behold when they're put into use. If I had to compare it to something else I quite love, it's like watching a OP artificer from DnD taking the boundaries between modern science and the settings magic system and shattering them both for metaphorical, and quite literal, explosive results.
Not to be outdone by the slow burn moments; the fight scenes are immensely satisfying to read as not only can they range in scale of something from LoTR, but the creativity in which they play out makes sure to keep your attention locked in and will have you more than once go "WTF?! That was awesome!". I will say though that if you are not a fan of slow burn progress/pacing in a story then this might not be for you as this series takes it's time in establishing it's, plot, setting, characters, and the systems that govern it's magic and people with immense detail, for better or worse.
TL;DR - I highly recommend this series; the worldbuilding is easily the best I've come across so far in the LitRPG and Haremlit genre and the characters have great levels of depth to them with their dialogue between each other always a delight to read. The details for it's magic system is so incredibly dense to the point where I kinda want it to be turned into its own tabletop game so I can play the different builds, and abilities I'm reading. Again, the pacing is more akin to a slow burn so if you don't mind a story that takes it's time, while doing a great job in keeping you invested, then absolutely give The Wandsmith a shot!
June 15, 2026
I enjoyed this, with caveats. I found the MC generally sympathetic and easy to root for. I find it interesting how often I find the most imaginative and innovative magic systems in haremlit. That's the case here as well. As with this author's Sword Saint series, the magic system almost requires note-taking to keep track of all the ranks, unified attributes, paracausal energies, affinities, and everything else. There are so many pieces and moving parts. Which makes it all the more frustrating when the narrative immediately positions the MC outside that carefully constructed framework, and that many of his accomplishments boil down to hand-wavily "concentrating really hard" wish fulfillment.
Part of me was drawn in enough to want to see where this goes in the next book, but between the rapid power escalation of the MC by the end of the book and my patience having worn thin with being asked to learn increasingly complicated rules for a system from which the protagonist seems largely exempt, I'm left feeling pretty ambivalent.
Also, as a random aside, no idea why this is called "The Wandsmith" when it clearly should have been "Bondweaver."
Part of me was drawn in enough to want to see where this goes in the next book, but between the rapid power escalation of the MC by the end of the book and my patience having worn thin with being asked to learn increasingly complicated rules for a system from which the protagonist seems largely exempt, I'm left feeling pretty ambivalent.
Also, as a random aside, no idea why this is called "The Wandsmith" when it clearly should have been "Bondweaver."
June 24, 2026
A very good start to anew series
Okay this is pretty dang good.
World building is absolutely on point, characters great and the sheer scale that’s being revealed is huge.
The writing from a technical point is great, prose is great, pacing is pretty decent for the most part.
There’s a lot to like here.
One thing that I want to point out is that the exposition and some world building details are *DENSE*
It’s not necessarily a bad thing here mind you, but there were a few points where it seems like it could be a little lighter on the depth and density of explanations. And then conversely, some points where it could be further expounded upon.
All in all, a great first entry and I’m looking forward to more.
Okay this is pretty dang good.
World building is absolutely on point, characters great and the sheer scale that’s being revealed is huge.
The writing from a technical point is great, prose is great, pacing is pretty decent for the most part.
There’s a lot to like here.
One thing that I want to point out is that the exposition and some world building details are *DENSE*
It’s not necessarily a bad thing here mind you, but there were a few points where it seems like it could be a little lighter on the depth and density of explanations. And then conversely, some points where it could be further expounded upon.
All in all, a great first entry and I’m looking forward to more.
July 8, 2026
Well damn that was good
What a book. It seeped into my brain and lived there for every free moment of the last few days. It's dense, complicated and full of crunchy magic details but also bloody brilliant!
There is everything you want to read in here. It's got good romance. Great action. Toil and trouble and the imagery is gorgeous.
What a book. It seeped into my brain and lived there for every free moment of the last few days. It's dense, complicated and full of crunchy magic details but also bloody brilliant!
There is everything you want to read in here. It's got good romance. Great action. Toil and trouble and the imagery is gorgeous.
June 19, 2026
Worth reading
Good pacing. Good character development. There were some slow spots, but, they felt necessary. Enjoyed it immensely . Give it a try
Good pacing. Good character development. There were some slow spots, but, they felt necessary. Enjoyed it immensely . Give it a try
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews