Deceptions

Ascendant #3

by Craig Alanson

Koren Bladewell now knows he is a wizard, but he is lost in the wilderness, cut off from help and unable to use his powers. The enemy is poised at the border with an overwhelming invasion force, and it will take wizards, soldiers and a young, untested princess to hold off defeat long enough for Koren to be trained and grow into his power. But he might not wish to help those who deceived him and destroyed his life

Genres: Fantasy, Audiobook, Fiction, Adventure, Magic, Action, Young Adult

315 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2018

About the author

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My Bio:
Craig Alanson used to create financial reports for a large IT services company. Writing fiction at nights and on weekends, he finally independently published three novels on Amazon. Within 6 months of his first ebook release, he was able to quit his day job and pursue a full-time writing career.

The breakout success of Columbus Day (Expeditionary Force, Book 1) reached new heights when Podium Audio released it in audio format, narrated by Audie Award Winner R.C. Bray. The Columbus Day audiobook was a huge hit, and a finalist for an Audie Award as Audiobook of the Year.

The ExForce series, as it is known to fans, has gone on to 10 books/audiobooks, many of which have hit the NYT best-seller list, with a 11th book releasing June 2021 and 14 books planned.

Craig has also published a spin-off series, ExForce: Mavericks; an ExForce audio drama, Homefront; a fantasy trilogy, Ascendent; and a young adult space opera, Aces. Craig lives in Virginia with his wife, who loves him even though he perpetually refuses to clean the garage.

Reviews

[Kacy❁ · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was basically 14 hours of side missions that were not beneficial to the story. It all ender in a very anticlimactic rush. No background story of the Demon, no real battles, just a "kbye." Very disappointed.

[Shonari · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a disappointment. The author lost the plot about halfway into book two. Storylines were rushed, character development was stunted and timelines just didn't make sense. It's like the author got tired of the series and just scraped book 3 together just to get it over with.

[Kian · Rating 1 out of 5]

WHAT? WTF? i don't have enough energy to state how many things i found disappointing in this series.

[Noura Noman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Books 1 and 2 were good stories leading to this culmination in Deceptions. While I liked book 3, I think it may have done with less sailing details and less beating of many topics to death. The continued explanations of and repetitions of certain aspects was slightly insulting to the reader. But perhaps the author had his reasons.

[Vikash Kathirvel · Rating 1 out of 5]

What an absolute disappointment. Way too rushed. In fact it seems worse than the normal rushed endings, it just seems like the author gave up on the series and decided to wrap things up as quickly as possible. Which is made even worse because of how slow progression was in book 1

**(Spoilers Below)**

We have no clue what the motivations of big bad were, we meet him and in a single scene he is defeated by our completely untrained magician.

There is basically no character progression. Hero learns that everyone has been lying to him and his parents have died? He is angry for a few pages and then no reaction after. And he just helps his liars with no explanation needed?

And the romance, lol no progression here either. Teenage infatuation in first book, and then we just have them get together in the epilogue.

Just don't bother starting the series, or if you have reached this far don't bother finishing it, the author surely hasn't bothered to.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad!

[Alice Boyd · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is the definition of lazy writing and poorly thought out story lines. How many pages did we slog through the mountains doing the same thing over and over again? Felt like 2/3 of the book. Then when it comes to the final conflict, they just magically win without any real work being put in. Only one character really seemed to have any development, the Falco kid. I came into this series for the narrator, and he was the only redeeming quality.

[Tanya Low · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aaaahhh, I loved it! What a fun series, I felt a lot of frustration through the first two books but in the end two thumbs up! Great for younger readers, too, like voracious preteens that need challenging books and enjoy fantasy!

[Craig Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It did feel on occasion that it was a little drawn out but overall it was a good listen. I'm not sure where all the hate for the ending is coming from as i couldn't see it ending another way.

[Philippe Jolicoeur · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lost it’s edge.

[Trevor Brannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

The third and final installment in the Ascendant series was mostly slow and uninteresting. There were a few exciting moments and a sweet ending.

[Nate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deceptions by Craig Alanson is the third and final story regarding the adventures of Koren Bladewell, the unlucky wizard boy with limitless power yet little knowledge on how to use it. Stuck in the Dwarven mountains, the orcs now hunt him down and try to keep him from reaching his homeland. The princess and her army will try to hold off the demon hordes for at least one more season to give time for the wizards to thwart the demon. However, she must fend against threats of assassination and treachery from within. Finally, two royal wizards go deep into the heart of the enemy to distract the demon and hopefully hold off the forces of evil one more time.

What started off as a coming of age story becomes a hasty affair where Alanson just tries to wrap it up quickly. We don't really see Koren grow as a wizard. In fact, at the end, he is really none the wiser about his wizard power. And furthermore, Koren doesn't even get a lot of airtime in the book. It was as if the author didn't know how to wrap up his story.

Instead, we get a lot of airtime of wizards procuring a boat to sail to the enemy pirate dockyards. We have an elaborate plot to divert attention away from the wizards who are trying to get near the demon. But these protagonists really do not have much to do in the end, and they offer little help to Koren which is mystifying.

The story keeps the princess/regent largely separate from Koren and they only come back together at the end. And her airtime during the story is a bit more robust than Koren's. In fact, the treachery of the Falco family and the plots against the princess are probably the best portion of the book.

I really enjoy Alanson's sci-fi series as he has a flair for comedy and he can choreagraph journey's and traveling to far off places very well. Alanson can create a tension filled situation and provide you cliffhangers and keep you on the edge of your seat. However, Alanson seems to be missing the naunced elements of fantasy, notably delving into the sources of the mystical powers driving a world and its impact on character development. Also, building the world with a sense of place, meaning, and history seems a bit of a challenge. The final volume falls a bit flat with Koren neither developing much as a character or as a wizard.

[Nathan Betzen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I almost never write reviews, but this time the story stuck with me so long after reading it I finally felt obliged to. Here be spoilers.

To some degree, I felt like this trilogy was a little of a bait and switch. The first book, though frustrating, was a pretty fun story, where Korin and his associates are all together and discovery, intrigue, etc. run rampant.

Then the next two books explode that situation, which is initially fine, but that style of story never comes back. It was essentially one book that was one kind of story, followed by two books that were entirely another kind of story. I can't really blame the author for this. It happens in fantasy all the time. It's literally the exact plot of LOTR. The first book is the fellowship, then the fellowship is sundered and we see what happens.

I just get tired of those kinds of stories. Alanson does a really great job of writing about how groups of strangers can come together to become family in the Exforce series and in the end work together to solve a mess. I was hoping for something similar here. Instead, Frodo's ring (to extend the metaphor) is tossed into Mt Doom, Samwise dies, and a pair of wizards (eagles) carry Frodo home. Then a quick chapter tying up loose ends, and the story is over.

It's a good story. But the story I wanted, the one hinted at in the first book, was one where Korin and Ariana work together, perhaps with the guidance of the wizard council, to conquer the big bad. Don't know if Alanson will ever come back to this series, but if he does, I hope we finally get to see the path of a wizard learning his or her powers, even if over time and under duress.

[Morgan .P · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically I really loved the first book. Ascendant really felt like a well written classic high fantasy with a classic hero and side characters. There was little focus on the enemy and the political and social adventures were fun to witness as a young boy navigated his new surroundings of the royal castle and people. Book 2 (slight spoilers) is taken completely away from that original book I loved with the protagonist knowing he is exiled and running from the law. Politics take over a lot of the book (which is fine) as war begins to rumble for the rest of the characters. Book 3 has all of our characters and parties slowly coming back together as they head towards the climax of their stories and end of their arks. But right at the end (spoilers) as the protagonist is split with his military escort, the writing really seems to go haywire:..

major spoilers: Right at this point, alone every character seems to become a little crazy, acting more deranged or archetypal of their usual self. Not only does this happen as the story all of a sudden is rapidly approaching its end, but the climax is not satisfying at all. There is no battle sequence, only strategy description, and as our protagonist faces his final fight it is over in an instant, with hours of build up beforehand, and it ends strangely, before all the characters head home and ‘wrap up’ their stories in rapid succession, like theatre actors who have gone over-time and want to go home.

Regardless of the insane end, the first book was great and I enjoyed the writer’s style. That’s all I’ll say.

[Denae Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reader thoughts: This was a great ending, although I would have been more satisfied if the climax resolution had been foreshadowed a bit more. At least it was decently clever.

In this book, I was less interested in Koren. I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe it was because not much really happened with him, not in the way of character development. I was much more interested in the one duke's son and watching how he transformed. The wizards chartering a ship was given too much space, too many pages. The coincidence of them being on the same ship Koren used was neat, though.

At the risk of giving away too much, the end was happy. That's what I like the best.

I wanted Koren and the princess/regent to have more scenes together. I really wanted them to be allies and work together, but I guess they'll only get the first book for that. This wanting of mine added tension, however.

Writer thoughts: See, if the reader is looking forward to a particular moment (like when Koren and the princess meet again), the reading will seem faster. An author can foreshadow a moment like that and then put it off until later in the book so that readers keep turning pages, eager to see when this event finally occurs.

This is the same as when readers know a secret the characters don't know, and the reader sits on the edge of the figurative seat, just waiting for the character to finally find out the secret. It is good writing strategy. I underutilize it.

[Dylan Mullaley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Audiobook
Whole series review

This was a hate-read, not gonna lie. I don't want to write a hole long thing so I'll try to be brief: this is just another trash fantasy series that's derivative and uninspired. The ONE thing that kept me hate-reading all three damn books though was this series stupid conceit of hiding the fact that the MC is a wizard from him. Not just any wizard either, a once-in-a-generation talent without enough latent power to fry the dark-lord without even trying. MC is a special boy, fair enough nothing new there, BUT you'd think this fuckin all-powerful kid would eventually find out that he's able to do magic. You'd think that wouldn't you? I mean, how could he do these wondrous feats himself and yet not know? They story would have to almost be a satire, slap-stick comedy in order to keep him ignorant. Only, its not...this kid doesn't find out he's a wizard until the END OF THE WHOLE SERIES! I mean what?!? How is that possible. It's soooooo stupid I couldn't believe it. So I endeavored to hate-read this thing until he found it, hence why I ended up reading the whole thing.

The craziest part? This same author somehow wrote the Columbus day series! Which is actually good! Mysteries on mysteries...

[Ronnie Bunshaft · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got what I expected. Again, this series isn't for me. It's for 13 year olds who haven't read much and it was fine for that. Everything was incredibly simplistic and painfully stereotypical. No surprises.

I certainly wish more characters actually had impactful story lines. Basically nothing mattered beyond the main kid getting to the demon and he accomplished that by letting himself get captured. Ironically, the princess's regent mother had the right idea. Everyone should have played defense while he went off and found some orcs to capture him. Kind of makes the whole thing silly. The Indus or other nations never mattered. The master wizards who went to provide a distraction never actually did anything. And the rest of the characters fought in pointless battles.

Sorry Craig. I love expeditionary force but not this.

[OpinionatedObserver · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had such great expectations for this book series when I read the first one. Sadly, each book was progressively worse than the last. My criticism of the first book about the author not exploring the story of this big bad demon carried through to the entire series. Unless I missed it, I only saw some hurried explanation about some old wizard summoning it and at the end of the book.
I waited 3 books for Koren to be trained and become the savour if the world. And midway through this one I had to stop and Google if there was a 4th book in the series. Because absolutely nothing was happening with him. I think his character development actually regressed in this book. Shocking
I've never seen a character fail to live up to their potential as much as this one. I Just don't understand the writers choices for him.
Yeah. . .
Also, the magic system is ridiculous "tHe sPiRiTs"

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent conclusion to the series. There were a lot of convenient coincidences that aren't really explained, except by a character suddenly stating something that is then accepted by the characters as fact, but without a solid foundation.

It was an enjoyable read/listen. The kindle version was full of typos and small continuity errors that I've come to expect from Alanson, but like with his Expeditionary Force series it didn't detract from my overall enjoyment of the series. That enjoyment was definitely enhanced by listening also to the Audible narration of the excellent Tim Gerard Reynolds who could make almost any story worth listening to.

[Lorna Moylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very entertaining end to the trilogy,some areas seemed a little too long of a build up,some typos hair and there,but I'd highly recommend it and the two books in the trilogy,I loved every minute of Koren and Ariana's adventures

I enjoyed reading this book very much .It's a clever ending to an extremely entertaining trilogy,although there were some typos and at times an odd area seemed to go on slightly longer than needed .I particularly liked the way the author slipped seamlessly from one character's story to the next allowing the reader to understand what was happening to each character simultaneously,overall a thoroughly good read highly recommended.

[Daddy_o · Rating 3 out of 5]

If this story would have ended differently, I would have given this book a 1. This was more like a lead into a more indepth story. I felt like there were so many paths that we never went down and so many twists that we never explored. Good story, but the villain could have been bigger and badder. I would have also liked more min-adventures the young man's journey that would have added layers. Good story, but very thin. Perhaps it was meant for a younger audience. Were I a YA I can see giving this a 4.

[Joshua · Rating 2 out of 5]

This series felt like it promised a lot but didn’t deliver much. From reading the future about connected two people are (and then never having them meet up again for the rest of the series) to powerful Magics that are barely ever used. Even the ending felt very unsatisfying. The antagonists were extremely basic, almost cartoonish villains with little substance. And for an enemy that should’ve been so obviously evil, it felt weird that most of the world sat complacent, expecting just one country to fight the war in its own.

Overall I thought it had a lot of potential, but fell very short.

[David James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay series, easy read, characters are a little cliche

It’s good series for a quick read but one book too long. Sadly I admit I skipped book #2 and frankly it took me no more than three chapters into book #3 to piece what I might have missed in book #2. However, I suspect I missed a few interesting plot developments that would have been entertaining to see through. Some characters took a while to develop depth, others, just too cliche, which made me skip over their obvious choices.

[Cynthia Egbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this wrapped up well and I enjoyed the series. There were a few loose ends and questions that were left unanswered for me but I can let those go. There was the one death that really broke my heart but it was a fitting end for a true hero. All in all, this was a satisfying series on audio, the narrator was superb with his voices. My husband, who suffers from Alzheimer's also listened with me and seemed to appreciate it as well and was able to follow the action well which means a lot to me. If you like stories with princesses, wizards, demons and so forth, give this one a try!

[Matt · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfortunately, this book suffers from many of the same issues some of Craig’s other series suffer from: his story just goes no where for long periods of time.

Similar to book 2, this book is basically a long fetch quest. The MC spends most of his book doing the same thing over multiple chapters. I accidentally kept my audiobook running for an hour while not listening to the story but realized that although he’s now in a new location (sort of), he’s still doing the exact same thing (this lasted about 10 of the 16 hours).

This was just bad.

[Stuart Cliffe · Rating 5 out of 5]

All is resolved

I had some reservations about the first two books in this series when no matter what happened *everyone* jumped to the wrong conclusions. Never had the wrong end of so many sticks been so firmly grasped by so many characters worth so little reason. This book does a fair job of explaining all of that and getting everyone back on the same page. Pun definitely intended...

[Ralph Trickey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I consider this to be weakest of the three.
I'll try to discuss in broad strokes, but I will include spoilers.

My main dislike is the fact that the main character was at the end controlled by 'feelings' from other, more powerful characters in deciding what to do. Without that, I think it would have been far more powerful a story. With it, he's just a pawn.

I did enjoy the series and the ending though.

[Abhijeet Basu · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a finale!! I will be honest. The first two books were a drag. Especially Book 2. The only reason I read them was because Craig's other series, Expeditionary Force, of which I am a huge fan.

However, things get very different in this one! Finally all that boredom inducing passages in the previous books make some sense. The pace of the story is fast and the attention grabbers are everywhere! all in all an excellent finale' to the series. Wish there was book 4!

[Andrus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of Craig Alanson, and I love his sci-fi series. For me this book, as great of a page turner as it is, was very anti-climactic. It's like if Tolkien had had Frodo just walk up to Mordor and drop the ring in the lava without needing Sam to carry him, without having Gollum attack him, and without him fighting temptation. I hope that this series does get a new story arc, and that Alanson is much more indulgent of the magic lovers in his audience.

[Michael Jozwik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trilogy is good and a very enjoyable light read. I got through the trilogy in about a week. There is not a tremendous amount of depth, but the story is solid. Some characters, that I thought were going to be main characters, just seem to vanish (eg the mother regent). I really thought we could get some good daughter-mother conflict there. Otherwise, I really liked the series. I look forward to spin-off books or series that might happen.