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The Legacy of Androva #6
Surviving Magic
My name is Galen and I never wanted to know the future. Life as an underage magician on Androva was already complicated. Using illegal spells on professors, opening portals to strange new worlds, and trying to avoid being matched with the wrong girl.
Then I found the right girl and everything changed. I made some choices I can’t take back. I opened a doorway in time and now I know that a great evil is coming. I’m nearly seventeen and I’m a pretty good magician, but that won’t be nearly enough. No one on Androva will believe me – the runaway who chose love instead of duty. If I get this wrong, there’s a lot more than my own life at risk…
Although Surviving Magic is part of the Legacy of Androva series, it can also be read independently. However, if you have read Seeking Magic and want to know more about Galen, Surviving Magic is his story. The book retells part of Seeking Magic from Galen’s point of view. Suitable for lower young adult and older.
Book 1: Stealing Magic
Book 2: Capturing Magic
Book 3: Seeking Magic
Book 4: Controlling Magic
Book 5: Breaking Magic
Book 6: Surviving Magic
Then I found the right girl and everything changed. I made some choices I can’t take back. I opened a doorway in time and now I know that a great evil is coming. I’m nearly seventeen and I’m a pretty good magician, but that won’t be nearly enough. No one on Androva will believe me – the runaway who chose love instead of duty. If I get this wrong, there’s a lot more than my own life at risk…
Although Surviving Magic is part of the Legacy of Androva series, it can also be read independently. However, if you have read Seeking Magic and want to know more about Galen, Surviving Magic is his story. The book retells part of Seeking Magic from Galen’s point of view. Suitable for lower young adult and older.
Book 1: Stealing Magic
Book 2: Capturing Magic
Book 3: Seeking Magic
Book 4: Controlling Magic
Book 5: Breaking Magic
Book 6: Surviving Magic
- GenresFantasy
330 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 13, 2017
68 people are currently reading
62 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 7, 2018
That. Was. AWESOME!
Drawn right back in to Androva's history, culture, magic, and the characters you simply can't say no to. Though connected by the series, it stands on its own stalwart and true.
Drawn right back in to Androva's history, culture, magic, and the characters you simply can't say no to. Though connected by the series, it stands on its own stalwart and true.
March 23, 2018
I think this book works best if you’ve read and enjoyed the whole Legacy of Androva series, mostly because Galen isn’t very good at explaining things so the reader is thrown into the magical world of Androva with no lead in or introduction. Galen is not an observant narrator, he doesn’t tell you how things work or what things look like. It just is. Which is fine if you know this series quite well, but if you’re new or – like me – haven’t read all of the books, you might feel a little confused about what’s going on at the beginning.
It also doesn’t help that Galen is something of a magical genius. He never has to work things out – they just work for him. It’s kind of annoying at times, actually, because he just gets stuff. Useful when things start to go wrong, but mostly a little too convenient the rest of the time.
When he’s not being annoyingly brilliant, Galen’s quite nice. He doesn’t really have much time for anything except magic, but he’s not arrogant and is always willing to help his friend Nico deal with his problems. He’s a bit oblivious to what’s going on, but as long as magic’s involved, he’s a good guy to have around.
The plot is interesting, especially in the first half, although there are a lot of time jumps. Galen’s magic education is fast, and mostly glossed over, but once we reach Pompeii it gets pretty interesting. For once in his life things don’t come easily to Galen, and it was good to see him having to work stuff out. This is also where the other books come in as there’s a bit of character crossover.
After Pompeii there’s a lot more time jumping and then a lot of stuff happens very quickly with no explanation, neatly tying up a few earlier threads and making everything a little too neat. For me, anyway. There’s so much going on, a lot of it really interesting and dangerous, but we don’t see any of it. Mostly we’re there at the start of the bad stuff, then right at the end, and we have no idea how everything reached that point. Which is a real shame, because the potential is pretty huge but it reads more like an afterthought.
So, while I liked parts of this book, overall it didn’t quite work for me. Galen was a nice character, but his narration had problems and it would have been great to have had more detail about what was going on. I also wish the ending had been given more attention instead of being rushed through. If you’re a fan of this series you’ll probably still find plenty to enjoy, especially as various threads are woven together, but personally, I was left feeling as if it didn’t quite reach its full potential.
(Review copy provided by the author.)
It also doesn’t help that Galen is something of a magical genius. He never has to work things out – they just work for him. It’s kind of annoying at times, actually, because he just gets stuff. Useful when things start to go wrong, but mostly a little too convenient the rest of the time.
When he’s not being annoyingly brilliant, Galen’s quite nice. He doesn’t really have much time for anything except magic, but he’s not arrogant and is always willing to help his friend Nico deal with his problems. He’s a bit oblivious to what’s going on, but as long as magic’s involved, he’s a good guy to have around.
The plot is interesting, especially in the first half, although there are a lot of time jumps. Galen’s magic education is fast, and mostly glossed over, but once we reach Pompeii it gets pretty interesting. For once in his life things don’t come easily to Galen, and it was good to see him having to work stuff out. This is also where the other books come in as there’s a bit of character crossover.
After Pompeii there’s a lot more time jumping and then a lot of stuff happens very quickly with no explanation, neatly tying up a few earlier threads and making everything a little too neat. For me, anyway. There’s so much going on, a lot of it really interesting and dangerous, but we don’t see any of it. Mostly we’re there at the start of the bad stuff, then right at the end, and we have no idea how everything reached that point. Which is a real shame, because the potential is pretty huge but it reads more like an afterthought.
So, while I liked parts of this book, overall it didn’t quite work for me. Galen was a nice character, but his narration had problems and it would have been great to have had more detail about what was going on. I also wish the ending had been given more attention instead of being rushed through. If you’re a fan of this series you’ll probably still find plenty to enjoy, especially as various threads are woven together, but personally, I was left feeling as if it didn’t quite reach its full potential.
(Review copy provided by the author.)
June 6, 2022
✯✧ ☾ 𝕾𝖚𝖗𝖛𝖎𝖛𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝕸𝖆𝖌𝖎𝖈☽✧✯
Galen, a talented underage magician from Androva, is powerful and has created several new spells. Galen befriends Nico, and together the two become close friends and research partners. But over time tension arises in their friendship and they become distant. Galen has been constantly visiting Pompeii. When Galen turns eighteen, he will be matched with a girl he will have to marry. But Galen has never found anyone he loves in that way until he does. A Terran girl named Claudia. But Galen's life is ruined when Claudia dies when a volcano explodes. Until Galen finds the key to saving Claudia: Go back in time.
This book was filled with friendship, romance, and emotion. I enjoyed this book nearly as much as Callax's book and infinitely better than the other four books. I really love Alex C. Vick's writing style in Callax's and Galen's stories. I enjoyed how it started when they were young with small scenes when Galen gets older, and older which helps build his character. Galen is a genius, but because of that he never really struggles with magic. I found Nico an intriguing character. His downfall/struggling was evident but also emotional.
Claudia and Galen's romance was okay. I did find that Alex for both Callax and Galen's book, starts the romance near the middle. When scenes from book three, and this book got weaved together, it was interesting. The ending wasn't the most conclusive, but I hope to see more from Galen's character in the next book.
✅PLOT
🆗CHARACTER
🆗PLOT TWIST
Galen, a talented underage magician from Androva, is powerful and has created several new spells. Galen befriends Nico, and together the two become close friends and research partners. But over time tension arises in their friendship and they become distant. Galen has been constantly visiting Pompeii. When Galen turns eighteen, he will be matched with a girl he will have to marry. But Galen has never found anyone he loves in that way until he does. A Terran girl named Claudia. But Galen's life is ruined when Claudia dies when a volcano explodes. Until Galen finds the key to saving Claudia: Go back in time.
This book was filled with friendship, romance, and emotion. I enjoyed this book nearly as much as Callax's book and infinitely better than the other four books. I really love Alex C. Vick's writing style in Callax's and Galen's stories. I enjoyed how it started when they were young with small scenes when Galen gets older, and older which helps build his character. Galen is a genius, but because of that he never really struggles with magic. I found Nico an intriguing character. His downfall/struggling was evident but also emotional.
Claudia and Galen's romance was okay. I did find that Alex for both Callax and Galen's book, starts the romance near the middle. When scenes from book three, and this book got weaved together, it was interesting. The ending wasn't the most conclusive, but I hope to see more from Galen's character in the next book.
✅PLOT
🆗CHARACTER
🆗PLOT TWIST
December 31, 2022
Intense in action
I read this sequel last. It's the best in the series. There is the least insta love of them all and still a lot of surprises that I couldn't guess from previous books. However, there are spoilers in the last book that ruined a surprise or two in this one. So I recommend reading the series in order.
By the way, it was strange to read about Galen as an underage magician, because I got the impression from previous books that Galen was a grown-up. Actually it was distracting in all the books how every protagonist is between 16 and 18 years old. I know it's the age of the target readers, but still.
I like 1st person POV in this sequel (after I got used to it in the 5th book), while I also like that the Book 7 retained 3rd person POV.
I read this sequel last. It's the best in the series. There is the least insta love of them all and still a lot of surprises that I couldn't guess from previous books. However, there are spoilers in the last book that ruined a surprise or two in this one. So I recommend reading the series in order.
By the way, it was strange to read about Galen as an underage magician, because I got the impression from previous books that Galen was a grown-up. Actually it was distracting in all the books how every protagonist is between 16 and 18 years old. I know it's the age of the target readers, but still.
I like 1st person POV in this sequel (after I got used to it in the 5th book), while I also like that the Book 7 retained 3rd person POV.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews