Crude Magic

The Hunger

by Michael D. Young

From the world of The Hunger, Crude Magic is a short story about Meckule, a mage nobleman who needs to be the first to harvest a magical fossil from deep in the earth to prevent a war but can’t figure out how to do it in time. He has built his empire on harvesting the remains of ancient creatures, which his companies then process to create the materials needed for people everywhere to use magic, but times are changing and his failure could mean death to his entire industry. To complicate matters, he is being blackmailed by a shadowy third party who leaves cryptic notes affixed by daggers to his desk, causing him to push up his timetable even further.

37 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 6, 2017

About the author

Though Michael grew up traveling the world with his military family, he now lives in Utah with his wife, Jen, and their three children, where he creates online curriculum for Brigham Young University. He is a graduate of BYU and Western Governors University with degrees in German Teaching, Music, Educational Leadership, and Instructional Design. He enjoys acting in community theater, podcasting, playing and writing music, and spending time with his family. He played for years with the Bells on Temple Square and is now a member of the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square.

He is the author of the novels in The Canticle Kingdom Series, The Last Archangel Series, the Chess Quest Series, and the Penultimate Dawn Cycle (The Hunger), the Wonderful Week for a Quest Series, as well as several non-fiction works, including An Advent Carols Countdown, Sacred Days, Sacred Songs, The Song of the Righteous, As Saints We Sing, and The Song of the Saints. He has also had work featured in various online and print magazines such as Bards and Sages Quarterly, Mindflights, Meridian, Nugent Magazine, The New Era, Keeping Tab, Allegory, Liahona, and Ensign.

Reviews

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not many words are wasted as we follow a nobleman who is mining for fossilised dragons and planning to use the parts in spells. Life seems to be cheap around here, especially the lives of apprentices. I can appreciate the worldbuilding and characters, but I still didn't love the tale, probably because we don't meet anyone but antiheroes.

Violence and unpleasant death scenes mean I'd recommend the tale for adults or mature YAs. I would be interested in reading more of the series, if we get a character to cheer for. I downloaded an ARC from Instafreebie. This is an unbiased review.

[Amina D'Anima · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was a such good fantasy novella! :D i really want to discover the Hunger to see what is coming next :)))