Xandrian Stone Book 1: Beginning of a Legend

Lieutenant Stone #1

by Christian Alex Breitenstein

This is the first diary of Supreme Admiral (ret.) Xandrian Stone.

In this first diary he describes the beginning of his career, how he enters the Swiss Federated Space Navy and his first time in space.

There has been peace for almost 500 years, so the navy was not a place for adventurers or people thriving in dangerous environments but patient people who did not mind waiting half a life for their first time in space. The fleet was small, and if you were not special or distinguished yourself in the academy getting into a crew was very, very unlikely.

Some magical specialties like sensors or navigation were rare and sought after, so if you were born with an affinity for one of those colors you were in luck. Weapons was by far the most common color and – well, waiting list. Long waiting list.

Omni Wizards were the rarest by far. Those had no single affinity but an equal affinity for everything. Omnis did, therefore, never spend any time on any waiting list.

Xandrian Stone was back then an 18 year old hopeful youth who knew that he had strong magic – it just had not yet manifested itself. That was very common, and the classification officers had their classification rods to help dormant magic to manifest itself. So, Xandrian Stone begins his first diary when he was waiting in line, hoping for the classification rod to unlock his magic.

Just like every other youth attending Classification Day.

Genres: Magic

58 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 29, 2015

Reviews

[Teresa Carrigan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short book, but cheap so that's ok. Could use editing for spelling and grammar. Main character is 18yo and the text feels like it was written by a teenager, which is ok. The speed of promotion of the protagonist is very hard to swallow. I do not plan to reread this one or to read the sequels at all, but you might like it. Magic powers trump science in a futuristic setting with spaceships is also difficult for me to believe. You would think that the navy would also be looking for engineers.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

A interesting start to a series.

The story is starting out well as the world building is interesting but not just a data dump. The MC is starting off in a way to give lots of room to grow.

[richard a rishell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Different

Not what I expected but well written. Very short but hopefully next issue will be available. Wizards are a different take in sink fire.

[Diarmuid O'Sullivan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Painfully Bad

This is worse than what a competent author would create if he was writing badly intentionally. It is ridiculous. 


I read the author’s bio - the people that told him this was good instead of encouraging him to improve his writing failed him. Even the most basic writing advice found free online would have improved this. 


There are worse books available on Amazon, but this is really bad.

[Zoltán · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting mixture of science fiction and magic. I found a handful of interesting ideas in this novelette, but had mixed feelings on the whole as it has strong and weak points as well.

Pros:
- Nice basic idea of a magic based futuristic world.
- A good portion of the workings of the magic is nicely worked out.
- The story in general is started and set up well.

Cons:
- Writing style has a teenager feeling and I'm not talking about the teenage/YA MC.
- Even taking into consideration that this is an introduction to a custom world, it gets too lexical or article style at points. It has a periodic story-lecture-story-lecture flow.
- The "new kid on the block" doesn't always mix well with "one of history's greatest magicians joins the army".


The book is a version of "Harry Potter in Space Academy (Ender's Game)". It's a nice story in general and it has a potential to unfold into a full one, but this book doesn't stand on its own. Considering reading the next part.

[Austin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing

I was skeptical of the whole diary thing, but it works for this story. Especially explaining things in an almost cheaty way for the author and reader alike. The author doesn't have to be so particular and precise, while the reader gets the facts without any dilly. The story itself is original, and entertaining at that! There are a few unexpected mechanics, but I suppose that's what an author strives for. Originality... Anyway, this story seems great so far. As long as the rest of the series holds up to the first book's standards, I would easily recommend this story to any SciFi or fiction reader alike.

[Robert Tonkiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have read the original version and this rebooted version. Without giving any spoilers I think I can safely say I agree with the authors decision to reboot the story. Is still as appealing and has laid a better opening episode for what appears to be developing for future episodes of what will be hopefully be a much larger book. I hope to see more soon.

[Angela Higgins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting

This is the first time I have read a book by this author. I
Found it interesting and find myself wanting to find out more. I will keep reading.