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Star Mage Exile

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A merc band on the edge of survival…

A suicidal rescue mission…

A mage in hiding…

Carina Lin is a slum brat turned merc, with a twist. She’s also a mage.

Carina would love to use her mage powers when she fights. If only life were that simple. In her part of the galaxy, mages live in fear of discovery. Slavery and torture are the best they can expect.

So when a young boy is kidnapped and Carina embarks on a suicidal mission to save his life, she faces a terrible decision. For the rescue plan to succeed, she must Cast. But if she does, it could mean the end of everything for her.

Star Mage Exile is the prequel to the dark, exciting space fantasy, Star Mage Saga.

118 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 26, 2018

32 people are currently reading
89 people want to read

About the author

J.J. Green

105 books392 followers
J.J. Green is a British-Australian science fiction author with a lifelong love of distant landscapes, intriguing cultures and fascinating places. She was born within the sound of the bells of Mary-le-Bow church in Cheapside, London, making her a bona fide Cockney, and she lived in Australia, Laos and Taiwan before returning to the UK to settle down in Cambridge.

Green’s novels weave science-based speculation with richly personal stories. Her works explore themes of environmental degradation, political conflict, mythical resonance, human resilience, and the ethics of technology and expansion. Her characters—often strong women—navigate future worlds grounded in both scientific plausibility and mythic imagination.

Sign up to J.J. Green's reader group at jjgreenauthor.com

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5 stars
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40 (33%)
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20 (16%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
Profile Image for Adrian.
691 reviews278 followers
January 11, 2022
An interesting and non stop prequel. More thoughts soon

I have been meaning to read more by JJ Green for some time and given this was for a while on offer as a Kindle book, I jumped at the opportunity, as i already had a few Starmage novels on my Kindle.

This novella focusses on Carina's early adult life as part of a mercenary group for hire throughout the galaxy. During a mission that goes spectacularly wrong, Carina begins to realise that maybe she isn't cut out for the life of a merc. Her boss, friend, mentor and saviour agrees with her thoughts.

Her last mission to rescue a small boy goes horribly wrong, many of her colleagues are killed and they fail in their task. Using her special skills of "casting" she discovers exactly where the young boy is held to finish her last mission.
She persuades her boss and colleagues to go on this rescue without telling them how she knows where the boy is located. Successfully rescuing the child although most of her team are killed, she again uses her special casting abilities this time in front of the boy. Strangely he is aware of what she is doing, could this boy be a long lost relative, how does he know about casting, are there people in his family with the ability ?
Returning the boy to his immensely wealthy family she receives confirmation that someone in the family is aware of casting. She now knows she is not alone in the galaxy and there are other special people like her.

A short novella that packs an awful lot into its few pages, and I have to say it is dragging me in, to go further into the series, so I'm glad I have a few of the books already loaded on my Kindle.
Profile Image for Montzalee Wittmann.
5,245 reviews2,350 followers
February 26, 2018
Interesting short story

Star Mage Exile Prequel to Dark Space Fantasy Star Mage Saga is an interesting and touching story. It is about a mage, which it seems that being a mage is not looked on favorably, and she and other mercs are hired to rescue a boy. Nice story.
Profile Image for Viki.
Author 8 books39 followers
May 25, 2019
Good enough for a prequel.

Highly technological society stretching across the universe where magic is forbidden? Yes, please. And I do like when the magic is so "scientific", a matter of making potions, drawing symbols, having the right type of mind, the right amount of concentration and will...

But so do I like the instinctive or hard-won or really any kind of magic. Really, I liked almost every kind of magic.

There was a little too much of the "I am such a loner but I am still going to rescue that poor boy" stuff. It's a little too obvious for my taste but:

a) the cover
b) it's a prequel
Profile Image for Noone.
832 reviews14 followers
April 27, 2023
I am really sorry I have to give this such a bad rating because it clearly seems like it is a passion project, but the author just didn't have the skills to pull any of it off.
The dialogue is wooden and stilted. There is very little logical consistency or just basic logic in general. The problems reach from telling someone a crucial secret and only afterward asking for a promise not to reveal it (which is not just a formality in this case), to reinforcements running, guns blazing, along a corridor towards their captured teammates who are in the process of freeing themselves. Friendly fire, anyone? This is just one of many examples of these supposedly hardened mercenaries doing things only a bloody amateur would do, and miraculously getting away with it.
There are just countless examples of situations that show clearly that the author didn't think about them critically. Furthermore, in many cases, the author just didn't do enough research, if any at all.
The driving motivation seems to have been to orchestrate cool action movie scenes, not create a coherent narrative.
And here I am sorry again because this didn't come across to me as laziness but just as ignorance and more importantly unawareness of said ignorance.
The world-building is shallow and naive and so are the characters. The book fails to explain many crucial details necessary for a lot of circumstances to make any sense but spends quite a bit of time on unnecessary details. It's not that there is far too much detail but that the priorities are just so backward in what the reader is being told. (And this is assuming that the reader is just missing information and not that these things really just don't make any sense.)
There is one word that describes this book very well. Amateurish. And I don't mean this as an insult.
It reads as if it was written by someone with very little idea of how to write a proper story let alone build a grand sci-fi setting.
Profile Image for Claire.
Author 32 books237 followers
May 15, 2019
Recap: Carina is an unlikely merc with a big secret. When the latest job for the Black Dogs goes south, she risks revealing her true nature to survive.

Review: This is a great short story prequel that delivers in world building, characterisation and laws of magic. I like that it's not click your fingers and bang. It felt like there was a real richness to the background detail and the characters were so well defined that you felt sad to leave some of them despite the brief tale. It's a great entry book to the series with lots of intrigue and no real idea of what exactly is going to happen next. I also enjoyed the blend of sci fi tech, a proper fantasy space opera!
Profile Image for The Mysterious Reader.
3,589 reviews66 followers
March 21, 2018
Ok, this is just a a “quickie” review. Unfortunately, I’m in in a hospital and asked my husband to post this since I don’t have the time to do better - even though the book definitely deserves it.

Bottom line: five stars. This was one wonderfully fun novel and definitely recommended. It had just what I wanted and was well written and with a great plot and great cast of characters.
577 reviews
April 14, 2018
👍 great treat

A enjoyable read with the right mix of information and action to keep you wanting to know what's next. The story builds as you are drawn into what is happening. You are not going anywhere until you finish the story.
831 reviews10 followers
March 5, 2018
Exciting prequel!

Eagerly awaiting the first book in for me a exciting series that has a interesting twist towards a mage finding herself!
Profile Image for Steve.
906 reviews17 followers
January 20, 2025
This was decent for a prequel.
It has elements of fantasy, space opera, and magic. This combination is not my normal read, but I will continue this series.
Profile Image for Sarah Woods.
95 reviews8 followers
January 19, 2018
The prequel to the “Star Mage Saga” sets a standard that the remaining books will be expected to match.

A female misfit alongside plenty of other misfits form a slightly awkward team of mercenaries. They’re paid to do unsavoury jobs, but thankfully Carina possesses emotions (and ‘magic’) that stop this being a slash-and-run story.

From the beginning, it’s clear that the author has a very detailed understanding of the world she has created. The scene is very well set in the first couple of pages so that, by the end of the first chapter, I felt I had a grasp on the situation and a good inkling of the world behind the story. Despite this clarity it’s still subtle in its presentation. There’s none of the frustration that can result from too much background detail when it’s the action that should take centre stage.

There’s combat a-plenty with some decent tactical moments, lots of action, just enough detail to the violence without it being too graphic, and a combination of weaponry plus hands-on fighting. Yet some moments are…poignant. There are the quiet moments between the action where something deeper is encountered. It’s this that takes “Star Mage Exile” to a level beyond that of typical action-based sci-fi. Of course by mixing fantasy elements with classic science fiction, there was always going to be an added depth to the story.

It’s remarkable in just a few chapters that I found myself with an emotional investment in the lives of some characters, in particular, of course, Carina. Definitely a sign of excellent writing that the personalities are defined enough for me to care, although there are several characters who almost appear and disappear too fast to justify naming.

A great ‘ending’ to “Star Mage Exile” inspires feelings of hope for the protagonist I’ve already grown to love, and I’m rooting for good things for her in the next book (which I can’t wait to read!) although I’m anticipating her road will be anything but smooth.
Profile Image for OldBird.
1,850 reviews
July 26, 2018
Carina Lin is a junior member of the Black Dogs mercenary group. To save a child from kidnappers, she's faced with a dilemma: use her forbidden magic to locate and rescue the boy while risking her own safety, or leave him to an uncertain but most likely deadly fate?

The strength of the book lies in it's guns-blazing space mercs running into battle. If you like action, there's a fair amount of it here. The pacing can be quite quick but it's not difficult to follow. I didn't feel overly strongly about any of the characters due to their mostly named bit-part roles, but Carina's a nice enough tough but not overly tropey action heroine. Some dialogue, especially with the child, felt a bit unnatural.

I was left a little disappointed by just how little the fantasy side of it came through. I was intrigued by the magic in space premise, but something about the magic doesn't quite feel integrated with the setting. I'd hope that the world and reasoning behind the magic is bad mentality got explained more in the main series.

I did like the story, but just felt it was missing something that would make it more than just an action sci-fi short.
Profile Image for Bonnie Dale Keck.
4,677 reviews58 followers
January 28, 2018
kindle unlimited, somewhat interesting start of new series, if had been more established series would have given even lower score after reading this, combination of star wars, firefly, and few other things {one of the space war ones} but couldn't really get in to it, so one of my will probably read the next one to see if things fleshed out, eth.

A merc band on the edge of survival…A suicidal rescue mission…
A mage in hiding…Carina Lin is a slum brat turned merc, with a twist. She’s also a mage. Carina would love to use her mage powers when she fights. If only life were that simple. In her part of the galaxy, mages live in fear of discovery. Slavery and torture are the best they can expect.
So when a young boy is kidnapped and Carina embarks on a suicidal mission to save his life, she faces a terrible decision. For the rescue plan to succeed, she must Cast. But if she does, it could mean the end of everything for her.

Star Mage Exile is the prequel to the dark, exciting space fantasy, Star Mage Saga.
Profile Image for Dennis Zimmerman.
383 reviews
June 20, 2020
First off I've run into a first time situation.
I read "Star Mage Quest" as the pre book to the series. But when I went to post my review it wouldn't show up in "Goodreads" list.
What showed up was the title, "Star Mage Exile". This seems to be the same book but retitled.
Both show as Star Mage Saga, #0.5.

Although I’m mainly a hard-SF fan, I do love me a good magic story as well. The Star Mage stories are wonderful. The SF aspects are downplayed, so as not to confuse or conflict with the main story. The magic is consistent and relatively straightforward (as I like it).
But where the story SHINES is in the characters that JJ so successfully has created. You empathize and care for Carina and her siblings (well, most of them) .… and you viscerally *hate* Stefan. This is what all storytelling should do.
And, the plot itself has plenty of twists and turns - usually I’m fairly good at foreseeing things a bit ahead - but this one kept me surprised repeatedly.
And, finally, I was glued to it. I could not put it down- read it all in one sitting.
On to Dark Mage Rises!!
124 reviews
July 14, 2018
A short introduction to a new series. Carina Lin, a young girl, fights for her life as part of a merc company currently tasked with the rescue of a six year old boy. She has a secret weapon but when she uses it she opens herself to slavery and torture. Mages are not looked upon with favor. She chose to carry out the cast and saved her team but she has to pretend she is as clueless about what occurred as everyone else.

Facing disbandment, the team must take on the rescue of a kidnapped member of a warring clan; fail and one clan is your enemy, succeed and the other is out to terminate your unit. Succeed or fail her captain has advised her to seek another line of work. What will the future hold for an 18 year old mage whos' only other skill is warfare?
27 reviews1 follower
July 23, 2018
So she said her mother disappeared, and the woman who is darius' mother wouldn't meet her but instead gave her a bag with multiple items to help the young mage, among said items was a stone of the sort carinas grandma used to sell for a living. Indicating that she had known the old woman well enough, that even with all her wealth, she still bothered to buy the simple polished stones. And considering that she had enough real jewels to spare that she gave some to carina, why would she want to buy the stones unless she simply wanted to support the grandma.
who else is seeing the implications here. wow it is so hard to write anything when this stupid keyboard won't stop glitching.
Of course I'm probably wrong, but it's fun to speculate.
Profile Image for Joe Pranaitis.
Author 23 books87 followers
March 7, 2019
Author J.J. Green brings us the first adventure for mercenary and mage Carina Lin. Carina has been a mage all her short life and a mercenary since her grandmother passed away. Now her team the Black Dogs are sent to retrieve a kidnapped boy who is being held by one of the most ruthless families in all of space. Carina knows that the boy is on the planet that the Duchess is orbiting but she has to cast in order to find him but this only happens after their first failed attempt to do so. Along the way we learn that Mages where exiled from  humanities home but they don't know which star to look for. This is a great introduction to the Star Mage series and I look forward reading the next book. I highly recommend this book to all science fantasy fans. 
Profile Image for Selaya Morton.
221 reviews3 followers
November 17, 2018
Hm: this series looks like it could be fun! I guess we can all identify with Carina as someone who ends up out on her own, so to speak, simply for doing too good a job. I know I've had jobs where the employer is only interested in results & bottom lines.....and the Gods help those who don't - or even DO - produce. Rule #4: don't show up the boss! Anyway, I liked the setup and the lengths Carina goes to in order to disguise her abilities. I also wonder if there might be a kindred spirit in her future in the form of.....no; wait - no spoilers here. I'll definitely be adding the next couple of books (at least) to my list.
2,445 reviews13 followers
May 8, 2018
Mixed genre book - magic, technology, band of friends.
Carina is a young mage hiding her abilities while fighting as a member of a mercenary band.
Magic is forbidden but she is able to use it in secret to protect the mercenaries - suddenly the enemy aren't there any more.
After an unsuccessful rescue mission, the mercenary band separates and so she and her close friends set off to complete the rescue.
Profile Image for Barbara.
1,336 reviews55 followers
March 28, 2019
Carina Lin is working with a mercenary band and hiding her abilities as a mage. She has no family or friends except the captain who recruited her to work as a mercenary. When she helps rescue a young boy who was kidnapped, she may have to use her abilities and risk exposure of her secret. This was a prequel to the Star Mage Saga and I’m looking forward to reading more about Carina and what happens to her in the future.
225 reviews1 follower
January 24, 2023
An interesting prequel and encouraging as to where the book series will go. There will clearly be some interesting world building happening in the book series. I teetered in a 3.5 but opted for 4 rather than 3 purely on the originality of the prequel. I have not read any of the books in the series yet at the time of writing this review.

For me, Daughter of Discord corresponded to this prequel, so have had to repost this review here.
Profile Image for Kaye.
7,177 reviews71 followers
March 15, 2018
HOPE ON FOR A WILD RIDE!!!
Oh man. I'm just going to jump right in here. I loved the read with all of its twists and turns and surprises around every corner. Scenes so realistic you can almost feel the heat. The characters are relatable and their personalities are true to form. Detail so vivid you actually think you can see it. JJ did an exceptional job bringing this read to life
70 reviews1 follower
August 6, 2018
This book has great pace, well-developed characters and story arcs. It even has the requisite hated villain only this time the villain is a... The main character is very interesting and not quite what you would think of as a Merc. The magic in this book is unlike anything I have read before and that is a
nice change. I am looking forward to reading Book One.
Profile Image for PJ Lea.
1,064 reviews
March 20, 2018
This prequel has a decent amount of pages to set up the story for the series proper, something that it achieves well.
It has a decent amount of action, as well as some insight into Carina and her secret. She's a likeable character from the start.
791 reviews6 followers
January 23, 2019
an existing and interesting book. Carina is working working with a group of mercs only she is a mage and that is her secret. As an orphan she was taught how to cast and that has helped her in the past but it appears that her past may have caught up with her. Very good reading.
Profile Image for Julian White.
1,715 reviews8 followers
April 1, 2020
Kobo epub, 79 pages (from author)

Prequel to the series, with an engaging heroine who starts out as a mercenary (but has a secret) but by the end of the story has a new path to follow.

A more than decent introduction to a series that will no doubt live up to the author's high standards.
Profile Image for Philip Jones.
93 reviews
June 25, 2020
Liked story and bought next part to see where it continues to.-- amazon unlimited, book bub, book rebel, some one emailed link to get this one free and now following this author as continue to read more books by J.J. Green
294 reviews5 followers
August 14, 2020
YOU CAN FIND SOMETHING TRULY SPECIAL TO READ!😍 IN THIS BOOK!😍

HERE IS WHAT I CAN SAY ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND STORYLINE!😍 BUY THIS NOW!!😍LET A WONDERFUL STORYLINE, THAT HAS BEEN WOVEN BY AUTHOR'S 🎁GIFTED WRITTEN CHARACTERS THAT SHE CREATED! 😍☺😊🙂😀😄

Profile Image for Larry B Gray.
Author 6 books155 followers
November 15, 2020
Great Adventure

This is an excellent novella full of action and adventure.It is fast and makes for an excellent read . I love the storyline and the author's story telling style. I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.
Profile Image for IMHO.
709 reviews3 followers
January 28, 2018
J.J. Green's "Star Mage Exile" is a Great start to a new series!
Highly Recommended -
It is a MUST READ LIST addition.
Profile Image for Ian.
126 reviews
May 24, 2018
A good start waiting with baetted Breath for the next.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews

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