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Rune Mystic #1
Runic Apprentice
Olin was a journeyman blacksmith, just promoted from apprentice as the story begins. He has everything he could want. A good master, a wonderful young lady he planned to court as soon as he had the coin to do so, and who cared for him as well.
Everything changes in one moment, as he forges his first sword, places his maker’s mark for the first time, and discovers the truth that will turn all his life’s plans, hopes, and expectations into ashes.
Olin is a rune mage, and it looked like his life was going to be turned upside down again, as he once more took up apprenticeship duties. He has very little choice in the matter, all mages served the royal family, compulsorily.
That won’t be his last surprise either. Join Olin on his path of discovery, as he does his best to forge his own destiny under the yolk of expectations, customs, and traditions of mage society.
Note: This is the first book of a trilogy. No major cliffhangers but expect a few unresolved plot threads. This story is told in the third person limited, from Olin’s point of view.
Everything changes in one moment, as he forges his first sword, places his maker’s mark for the first time, and discovers the truth that will turn all his life’s plans, hopes, and expectations into ashes.
Olin is a rune mage, and it looked like his life was going to be turned upside down again, as he once more took up apprenticeship duties. He has very little choice in the matter, all mages served the royal family, compulsorily.
That won’t be his last surprise either. Join Olin on his path of discovery, as he does his best to forge his own destiny under the yolk of expectations, customs, and traditions of mage society.
Note: This is the first book of a trilogy. No major cliffhangers but expect a few unresolved plot threads. This story is told in the third person limited, from Olin’s point of view.
193 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 18, 2020
822 people are currently reading
490 people want to read
About the author
D.L. Harrison
105 books197 followersI've been an avid book reader since I was a teenager in the 1980's. My preferred genre's are science fiction and fantasy.
I wrote some short stories and was encouraged to try writing and self publishing by some friends. I work in computers and writing is an obsessive hobby I have been trying to hone for a couple of years now. I'll let you judge if I have succeeded or not.
I wrote some short stories and was encouraged to try writing and self publishing by some friends. I work in computers and writing is an obsessive hobby I have been trying to hone for a couple of years now. I'll let you judge if I have succeeded or not.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 114 reviews
February 25, 2020
It was written well, plenty of detail in the world, the story came together good, the biggest issue I had was the lack of character growth or maybe call it instant growth (just add water). He discovers he is a Runic Mystic and has perfect memory, instinctively knows how Runes work and what they mean just by looking at them. Every woman he meets is stunningly gorgeous (he finds out they are all intelligent, kind, sultry, etc...) and are attracted to him. It kinda reads like an adolescent fantasy, it's like the author is really impatient for the main character to become the most powerful mage/warrior without any real effort while hooking up with the most beautiful and enticing woman in the world. I finished it, but don't think I will read any more in the series.
February 19, 2020
Fun read. Overused storyline
Boy loses girl but finds magic. 2 months later is now sure he wants to marry new girl. The girl he lost he’d known for 6 years and they’d actually articulated plans. But ... new girl. Boys magic is unusual which makes him a target.
The book is fun but predictable.
Boy loses girl but finds magic. 2 months later is now sure he wants to marry new girl. The girl he lost he’d known for 6 years and they’d actually articulated plans. But ... new girl. Boys magic is unusual which makes him a target.
The book is fun but predictable.
May 19, 2020
This book had huge amounts of potential but it just got completely bogged down with irrelevant details of the complicated workings of Runes. I just gave up. There were too many grammatical and punctuations errors for me to count and I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to work out where the stupid full stops were meant to go.
Sorry, but I won't be reading number 2!
Sorry, but I won't be reading number 2!
March 2, 2021
DNF, not even really worth the single star I've given it, but I decided to be generous
I am mystified as to how this poorly written offering has managed to garner a 4.13 rating. The narrative borders on truly awful, with the writer demonstrating an unfortunate lack of understanding of the contextual use of some of the words in his vocabulary e.g. describing a girl as sweet, kind and gentle (the exact phraseology escapes me) and then spoiling this image by having the girl smirk. The dictionary definition of smirk is 'a smile expressing smugness or scorn instead of pleasure', which does not tie in with the image the author is trying to create. Testing a hunch, I did a quick count and discovered that the author has used the word 'smirk' 41 times and the word 'smile' 51 times in this short read. Rather bizarre, when moderate use of a reasonable thesaurus would yield a variety of words that could be safely substituted.
I won't be wasting my time with any of the sequels, got MUCH better books to read!!
I am mystified as to how this poorly written offering has managed to garner a 4.13 rating. The narrative borders on truly awful, with the writer demonstrating an unfortunate lack of understanding of the contextual use of some of the words in his vocabulary e.g. describing a girl as sweet, kind and gentle (the exact phraseology escapes me) and then spoiling this image by having the girl smirk. The dictionary definition of smirk is 'a smile expressing smugness or scorn instead of pleasure', which does not tie in with the image the author is trying to create. Testing a hunch, I did a quick count and discovered that the author has used the word 'smirk' 41 times and the word 'smile' 51 times in this short read. Rather bizarre, when moderate use of a reasonable thesaurus would yield a variety of words that could be safely substituted.
I won't be wasting my time with any of the sequels, got MUCH better books to read!!
February 18, 2020
Excellent read
Unable to put the book down, I read it in one reading. Now I cannot wait for book two.
Excellent story line, the MC is not over powered and must learn and grown the same as others.
Unable to put the book down, I read it in one reading. Now I cannot wait for book two.
Excellent story line, the MC is not over powered and must learn and grown the same as others.
March 7, 2021
This was a decent story although there seemed to be a lot of ‘filler’ during the middle of the book and I found myself skipping through several chapters.
However there was definitely enough for to want to read the next book.
However there was definitely enough for to want to read the next book.
March 30, 2020
Well written but nothing original or particularly exciting. I found it a bit heavy on the courting and reflections on how much he loves his new girl, but it didn't cripple the narrative. Really not a lot else to say.
August 15, 2020
The beginning and the end were interesting but the middle part was mostly boring.
There are very few actual characters is this story and most of the few that do appear are not very interesting at all. This leads to the main character internally monologueing a lot about stuff that at least I didn't care much about.
The romance really didn't work for me. There really was not much there to care about.
It was all very flat and uninteresting as far as characters and their interplay went.
I guess the isolation and lack of people talking to the main character is a way part of the plot and you can have interesting stories about a character who is even more isolated, but that usually involves them doing something interesting or having some sort of internal conflict or growth going on. There was none of that here.
The closest thing the story had to a mystery went unanswered (at least in this novel) and the protagonist never actually thought about it too much.
The whole aspect of the main character going to a school of magic was neatly sidestepped by not actually showing much of that whole learning and classes thing at all. As a consequence we never saw many teachers or had the mc develop friendship or rivalries with classmates.
The protagonist power is the basic "I have the rarest elemental power of all the elements" power that overpowered protagonists in stories with elemental power systems usually have. On-top he had a power that allowed him to basically not needing to learn or think about his powers much at all because he instinctively understands everything.
I was also a bit annoyed that non of the first part of the story seemed to matter after that part was over. He never meets the characters again beyond some name drops and that whole background as a blacksmith seems to have become completely irrelevant as well. The protagonists never says or does anything that is in some way informed by his previous career as a blacksmith. It would have been easy to have him make observations about the various weapons and other forged objects he encounters like judging the craftsman ship of a sword. Or he could have seen problems through the lens of his background, but that never happened. The story would not have been much different if he had been a carpenter or a tailor before being discovered for all that it matters to the story.
Generally I fell the story could have been much better if instead of simply being told about all the nameless mages and apprentices first hand there might have been some actual interactions.
The few things I liked included the parts of the world building that were a bit novel. Usually when the commoner protagonist discovers they have a magic talent and get taken to the magic school for learning they rise up in society as the magic people are the ones in charge to some degree or another. To have the magicals be formerly in charge and then subjugated to server non-magical royals was refreshingly new and it was a good starting point for intrigues and ethical dilemmas.
There are very few actual characters is this story and most of the few that do appear are not very interesting at all. This leads to the main character internally monologueing a lot about stuff that at least I didn't care much about.
The romance really didn't work for me. There really was not much there to care about.
It was all very flat and uninteresting as far as characters and their interplay went.
I guess the isolation and lack of people talking to the main character is a way part of the plot and you can have interesting stories about a character who is even more isolated, but that usually involves them doing something interesting or having some sort of internal conflict or growth going on. There was none of that here.
The closest thing the story had to a mystery went unanswered (at least in this novel) and the protagonist never actually thought about it too much.
The whole aspect of the main character going to a school of magic was neatly sidestepped by not actually showing much of that whole learning and classes thing at all. As a consequence we never saw many teachers or had the mc develop friendship or rivalries with classmates.
The protagonist power is the basic "I have the rarest elemental power of all the elements" power that overpowered protagonists in stories with elemental power systems usually have. On-top he had a power that allowed him to basically not needing to learn or think about his powers much at all because he instinctively understands everything.
I was also a bit annoyed that non of the first part of the story seemed to matter after that part was over. He never meets the characters again beyond some name drops and that whole background as a blacksmith seems to have become completely irrelevant as well. The protagonists never says or does anything that is in some way informed by his previous career as a blacksmith. It would have been easy to have him make observations about the various weapons and other forged objects he encounters like judging the craftsman ship of a sword. Or he could have seen problems through the lens of his background, but that never happened. The story would not have been much different if he had been a carpenter or a tailor before being discovered for all that it matters to the story.
Generally I fell the story could have been much better if instead of simply being told about all the nameless mages and apprentices first hand there might have been some actual interactions.
The few things I liked included the parts of the world building that were a bit novel. Usually when the commoner protagonist discovers they have a magic talent and get taken to the magic school for learning they rise up in society as the magic people are the ones in charge to some degree or another. To have the magicals be formerly in charge and then subjugated to server non-magical royals was refreshingly new and it was a good starting point for intrigues and ethical dilemmas.
May 5, 2020
Rating 3.5 stars
Can a book be consider YA even if the characters are around 18? This book felt like a YA story. It was good but was kind of ...... plain is the best way I could describe it. Not much suspense. Not much conflict. Not a lot of highs or lows. Things just .... were.
The story follows Olin, an apprentice mage who makes his first sword. He placed his mark on the sword when he was done and it activated his magic. The mark turned out to be a rune and he is now a rune mage. He didn't really want to be a mage, but he has no choice. Every mage has to go the capital, train and swear loyalty to the crown. He has to leave the life he has known and the woman he was planning on courting. There is also something special about Olin. It was a fun easy read, but nothing special.
Can a book be consider YA even if the characters are around 18? This book felt like a YA story. It was good but was kind of ...... plain is the best way I could describe it. Not much suspense. Not much conflict. Not a lot of highs or lows. Things just .... were.
The story follows Olin, an apprentice mage who makes his first sword. He placed his mark on the sword when he was done and it activated his magic. The mark turned out to be a rune and he is now a rune mage. He didn't really want to be a mage, but he has no choice. Every mage has to go the capital, train and swear loyalty to the crown. He has to leave the life he has known and the woman he was planning on courting. There is also something special about Olin. It was a fun easy read, but nothing special.
June 7, 2020
Formulaic, but I was looking for magic school today. Olin is likeable. The magic is interesting. There are flaws, primarily in editing. When I hit the flaws, I think 2 stars. Otherwise 3.
The first is on the very first page: “it was an almost Zen-like experience for the eighteen-year old journeyman blacksmith.” That’s rather blunt. Some descriptions through the book relate descriptions to how he feels. Others are like this, raw info dump. There were two other opportunities in the first chapter, one in the very next sentence, to make this about him instead of info dump. That tendency to give lists of description shows up every now and then through the book.
There were a few homonyms, and one 1st person in an otherwise 3rd person book.
Much is simplistic, then there’d be chapters that were engaging.
And we finish off at a scene change with no other discernible break between books. He does say it’s a trilogy.
I agree with one reviewer: fun, but predictable. Disagree with him on an 18 year old getting over rejection.
I expect I’ll read the next but I might forget the details before I do.
The first is on the very first page: “it was an almost Zen-like experience for the eighteen-year old journeyman blacksmith.” That’s rather blunt. Some descriptions through the book relate descriptions to how he feels. Others are like this, raw info dump. There were two other opportunities in the first chapter, one in the very next sentence, to make this about him instead of info dump. That tendency to give lists of description shows up every now and then through the book.
There were a few homonyms, and one 1st person in an otherwise 3rd person book.
Much is simplistic, then there’d be chapters that were engaging.
And we finish off at a scene change with no other discernible break between books. He does say it’s a trilogy.
I agree with one reviewer: fun, but predictable. Disagree with him on an 18 year old getting over rejection.
I expect I’ll read the next but I might forget the details before I do.
March 3, 2020
A good, fun read
Blacksmith turned hero? Of course.
Good plot. Fun read. Fair character development. Interesting world that isn’t too complicated.
A few grammatical errors and at least two incorrect word choices, but those probably only bother me. I appreciate the PG language. A pretty good book for younger readers, too (which I am not).
All in all, grab this one and read it. You’ll like it.
Blacksmith turned hero? Of course.
Good plot. Fun read. Fair character development. Interesting world that isn’t too complicated.
A few grammatical errors and at least two incorrect word choices, but those probably only bother me. I appreciate the PG language. A pretty good book for younger readers, too (which I am not).
All in all, grab this one and read it. You’ll like it.
March 3, 2020
Amazing book
I love the characters in this book. Olin's entire existence is upended but he perseveres. He is an avid learner and a good person. His road is not an easy one but he puts in the work to be a better mage and person. I can't wait to see where the next book leads.
I love the characters in this book. Olin's entire existence is upended but he perseveres. He is an avid learner and a good person. His road is not an easy one but he puts in the work to be a better mage and person. I can't wait to see where the next book leads.
November 19, 2020
Interesting
Interesting read and storyline as development of friendships with is intertwined throughout the kingdoms as they struggle to save each kingdom.
Interesting read and storyline as development of friendships with is intertwined throughout the kingdoms as they struggle to save each kingdom.
February 23, 2020
Enjoyable Read
Olin is a journeyman apprentice blacksmith who violently discovers that he is a rune mage. In the blink of an eye he is torn from his life, family that he knew and the girl that he loved and whisked away to a new life as an apprentice mage. He encounters dangerous politics and discovers a new love. I like the action, humor, and romance. I look forward to another book.
Olin is a journeyman apprentice blacksmith who violently discovers that he is a rune mage. In the blink of an eye he is torn from his life, family that he knew and the girl that he loved and whisked away to a new life as an apprentice mage. He encounters dangerous politics and discovers a new love. I like the action, humor, and romance. I look forward to another book.
February 20, 2020
Good book
Great start to a new series. Slow and steady development of both the MCs power and his relationship. I was thankful the mage academy avoided some of the normal cliches. Could have used a bit more action but the next book is set-up for a faster pace. Can't wait to read it.
Great start to a new series. Slow and steady development of both the MCs power and his relationship. I was thankful the mage academy avoided some of the normal cliches. Could have used a bit more action but the next book is set-up for a faster pace. Can't wait to read it.
April 15, 2020
Harrison has an incredible idea for a magic system!! Just fantastic.... His characters are interesting for the most part even if some of them feel pretty cliche. My biggest problem with this book was that there was too much meaningless descriptive commentary. The book could have been probably 20% shorter and I would have felt a lot more excited about reading it if there was just less....
I was also starting to get the feeling that Olin was going to be one of those complete badass characters who never does anything wrong, wins every fight, gets the hottest girl in the who world and saves the Kingdom from.....everything.
I will never find out because I have no intention of reading any of the additional books.
I was also starting to get the feeling that Olin was going to be one of those complete badass characters who never does anything wrong, wins every fight, gets the hottest girl in the who world and saves the Kingdom from.....everything.
I will never find out because I have no intention of reading any of the additional books.
April 11, 2020
A solidly mediocre effort. It was a learning experience, I found out what happens in fiction when everyone acts reasonably. Nothing. Nothing happens, and it's boring. There was plenty of set up for something exciting to happen: broken hearts, wounded pride, insults given, but in every case every character controlled themselves so nothing happened the entire book except for narrative and magic theory.
August 17, 2022
DNF 60%. Using Goodreads' own description of two stars to summarize my feelings ultimately: "It was okay." It's somewhat enjoyable in a turn-your-brain-off kind of way, but the writing quality is beyond lacking.
I'm not buying all those good reviews: there's something going on here. I'm not saying somebody is employing bots, but I have my suspicions, just going by the terrible writing and completely missing QA.
---
Let's start with my biggest gripe: the punctuation is an absolute nightmare. The author uses commas for everything, though often times a full stop would've been correct. This doesn't just look weird, it mostly just stops the reading flow considerably.
The language is simple apart from the odd slightly more complex synonym here and there. All in all, language-wise, the entire thing might as well have been set in a modern day college. It's not terrible, but it's also not particularly great in any way. I don't really get a medieval vibe from it either.
Be aware that, on average, you can find at least about one grammatical or spelling mistake per page, even beyond punctuation. And when it's not an objective mistake, it's just awkward formulations or run-on sentences. Some examples:
"Even without taking direct harm, physics was still effective [...]"
"That could be part of it. She's also queen now, which could be part of it."
"It was somewhat of a relief actually, things could be a lot worse, not everyone got along as a rule, but in the tower, it seemed likely to work out save his one concern about Sam." - that's clearly missing a full stop or two
Descriptions feel a bit clinical. You get the basic layout of things - most of the time - but nothing beyond that. 90% of the time I honestly don't care all that much about the practical layout of things, personally. What I need instead is something to build atmosphere. There isn't much of that here, though.
---
Onto other things: the characters are incredibly generic, most notably the protagonist. He's your peak Gary Stue: he's nice to everybody, he's intelligent and studious, learns incredibly quickly, figures out everything immediately, women love him and he's ripped of course. He's also a super special and insanely rare (mystical even) mage called a "mystic", who can intuitively understand rune magic.
He has a love interest, though I couldn't for the life of me figure out what he sees in her. She's beautiful apparently, but a tree genuinely would have leagues more character in a single branch than she does in her entire beautiful body. She has no notable character traits - mental or physical - apart from being beautiful (which the author reiterates every chance they get.) We also learn pretty much nothing personal about her, while the protagonist is already starting to fall in love with her. Giving this the "Romance" tag is a huge stretch.
Apart from that, there's a bunch more side characters all with the same problem: they don't feel like real people. First of all, they're all physically perfect. Every single woman is incredibly beautiful and every man is chiseled and ripped. It gets a bit annoying after a while, and makes it that much more difficult to make them feel like individuals in my mind. They all sort of melt together into this soup of beautiful statues with some capabilities of speech but no emotions. The only side character with at least a semblance of emotion is his teacher (who is also hot, obviously.) I was kind of hoping she would be the love interest. At least she has a tiny excuse of a connection to the protagonist, and they have actual reasons to talk to each other.
The main character, supposedly, is very broken up about the loss of his old life and the end of his platonic almost-relationship. Unfortunately, we don't get to read about this apart from the odd mention. His mood is never impacted in any way, he's never sad on-page... he's just never impacted by it at all. Thinking about it: he's never emotionally impacted by anything. He finds out he is one of the rarest kinds of mages in the world? No reaction. He finds out he's even more than that: he is a mystic... a type of mage that hasn't been seen in centuries or some such. No reaction. He gets mock-killed in an arena battle by ways of painful fireball to the face? No reaction. The king was just assassinated and the political position of the mage-society is in great peril? No reaction.
I would've loved for him to just show any kind of emotion once in a while. This goes for all of the characters though; they have no emotions, no character traits... no life, basically. They're all zombies, strolling along doing zombie things.
The reason I really stopped reading though, was that the entire thing lacked some kind of hook to pull me in with. There is a hint of plot about half way through when we find out about an assassination targeting the royal family, but not much apart from that so far.
The whole "blacksmith becomes mage" thing was entertaining for a bit until he reached the academy and it all devolved into lesson upon lesson in theory about spell casting (but very little actual casting.) Even when there's not a lesson, the character postulates how he is going to fight people. And then there are pages upon pages of him learning runes and inscribing them on his gear, explaining how he might use them in future. What's missing is just anything other than theoretical talk, anything involving stakes... anything thrilling. Even the short arena battles don't do it here because there are no stakes: he can neither lose nor gain anything tangible through those battles. They're all just training. I'm not asking for a save-the-world plot; you can find great stakes in little things after all. But there's not even a worthwhile competition he works towards or anything.
---
There is just nothing that keeps me reading: the characters are boring and I can't root for any of them. The plot is non-existent so far. The romance is beyond bad because neither of the characters are interesting and their connection makes no sense. I actively don't want them to get together... and that's really bad, because I'm a sucker for a romantic sub plot.
I'm not buying all those good reviews: there's something going on here. I'm not saying somebody is employing bots, but I have my suspicions, just going by the terrible writing and completely missing QA.
---
Let's start with my biggest gripe: the punctuation is an absolute nightmare. The author uses commas for everything, though often times a full stop would've been correct. This doesn't just look weird, it mostly just stops the reading flow considerably.
The language is simple apart from the odd slightly more complex synonym here and there. All in all, language-wise, the entire thing might as well have been set in a modern day college. It's not terrible, but it's also not particularly great in any way. I don't really get a medieval vibe from it either.
Be aware that, on average, you can find at least about one grammatical or spelling mistake per page, even beyond punctuation. And when it's not an objective mistake, it's just awkward formulations or run-on sentences. Some examples:
"Even without taking direct harm, physics was still effective [...]"
"That could be part of it. She's also queen now, which could be part of it."
"It was somewhat of a relief actually, things could be a lot worse, not everyone got along as a rule, but in the tower, it seemed likely to work out save his one concern about Sam." - that's clearly missing a full stop or two
Descriptions feel a bit clinical. You get the basic layout of things - most of the time - but nothing beyond that. 90% of the time I honestly don't care all that much about the practical layout of things, personally. What I need instead is something to build atmosphere. There isn't much of that here, though.
---
Onto other things: the characters are incredibly generic, most notably the protagonist. He's your peak Gary Stue: he's nice to everybody, he's intelligent and studious, learns incredibly quickly, figures out everything immediately, women love him and he's ripped of course. He's also a super special and insanely rare (mystical even) mage called a "mystic", who can intuitively understand rune magic.
He has a love interest, though I couldn't for the life of me figure out what he sees in her. She's beautiful apparently, but a tree genuinely would have leagues more character in a single branch than she does in her entire beautiful body. She has no notable character traits - mental or physical - apart from being beautiful (which the author reiterates every chance they get.) We also learn pretty much nothing personal about her, while the protagonist is already starting to fall in love with her. Giving this the "Romance" tag is a huge stretch.
Apart from that, there's a bunch more side characters all with the same problem: they don't feel like real people. First of all, they're all physically perfect. Every single woman is incredibly beautiful and every man is chiseled and ripped. It gets a bit annoying after a while, and makes it that much more difficult to make them feel like individuals in my mind. They all sort of melt together into this soup of beautiful statues with some capabilities of speech but no emotions. The only side character with at least a semblance of emotion is his teacher (who is also hot, obviously.) I was kind of hoping she would be the love interest. At least she has a tiny excuse of a connection to the protagonist, and they have actual reasons to talk to each other.
The main character, supposedly, is very broken up about the loss of his old life and the end of his platonic almost-relationship. Unfortunately, we don't get to read about this apart from the odd mention. His mood is never impacted in any way, he's never sad on-page... he's just never impacted by it at all. Thinking about it: he's never emotionally impacted by anything. He finds out he is one of the rarest kinds of mages in the world? No reaction. He finds out he's even more than that: he is a mystic... a type of mage that hasn't been seen in centuries or some such. No reaction. He gets mock-killed in an arena battle by ways of painful fireball to the face? No reaction. The king was just assassinated and the political position of the mage-society is in great peril? No reaction.
I would've loved for him to just show any kind of emotion once in a while. This goes for all of the characters though; they have no emotions, no character traits... no life, basically. They're all zombies, strolling along doing zombie things.
The reason I really stopped reading though, was that the entire thing lacked some kind of hook to pull me in with. There is a hint of plot about half way through when we find out about an assassination targeting the royal family, but not much apart from that so far.
The whole "blacksmith becomes mage" thing was entertaining for a bit until he reached the academy and it all devolved into lesson upon lesson in theory about spell casting (but very little actual casting.) Even when there's not a lesson, the character postulates how he is going to fight people. And then there are pages upon pages of him learning runes and inscribing them on his gear, explaining how he might use them in future. What's missing is just anything other than theoretical talk, anything involving stakes... anything thrilling. Even the short arena battles don't do it here because there are no stakes: he can neither lose nor gain anything tangible through those battles. They're all just training. I'm not asking for a save-the-world plot; you can find great stakes in little things after all. But there's not even a worthwhile competition he works towards or anything.
---
There is just nothing that keeps me reading: the characters are boring and I can't root for any of them. The plot is non-existent so far. The romance is beyond bad because neither of the characters are interesting and their connection makes no sense. I actively don't want them to get together... and that's really bad, because I'm a sucker for a romantic sub plot.
August 16, 2020
Poorly Written
Appallingly bad writing from beginning to end makes it hard to follow the action in places. The author relies on pronouns paragraph to paragraph leaving the reader to question “who” is acting, thinking or otherwise the subject of the action. Other flaws including regular incorrect word choices (bared instead of bore, etc.) detract from the story line.
Appallingly bad writing from beginning to end makes it hard to follow the action in places. The author relies on pronouns paragraph to paragraph leaving the reader to question “who” is acting, thinking or otherwise the subject of the action. Other flaws including regular incorrect word choices (bared instead of bore, etc.) detract from the story line.
August 26, 2020
Imagine a world where everyone, be they 10 or 90 acts like a rational teenager on weed. You wouldn't be able to tell their age, gender, nationality ot character. Awkward jokes, strange questions, suppressed emotions, nonsensical dialogues. Did you imagine? This is it. Happy reading.
March 22, 2020
Excellent Story, Great Characters
There are many fantasy stories about young men and women who come to their own through magic. This book is one of those only it’s far more interesting than most I’ve read. The author takes great pain to make sure the reader understands where the story is going and explains the nuances involved thoroughly. I found it easy to read and absorb the writings within my minds eye because of his reality and descriptive writing. As with most multi-volume stories the plot thickens only to be continued in the next book. With the hero and heroine in the midst of the beginning of a war against their country they are saddled with guarding the royal family even though Olin, the hero, has been declared a mage far before his perceived maturity. I highly recommend this book for those who love clean fantasy adventures.
There are many fantasy stories about young men and women who come to their own through magic. This book is one of those only it’s far more interesting than most I’ve read. The author takes great pain to make sure the reader understands where the story is going and explains the nuances involved thoroughly. I found it easy to read and absorb the writings within my minds eye because of his reality and descriptive writing. As with most multi-volume stories the plot thickens only to be continued in the next book. With the hero and heroine in the midst of the beginning of a war against their country they are saddled with guarding the royal family even though Olin, the hero, has been declared a mage far before his perceived maturity. I highly recommend this book for those who love clean fantasy adventures.
June 19, 2020
Interesting idea, poor execution
There first few chapters were interesting and the magic system had me excited at first. However, this book has so many fundamental problems it would lost my interest (though I did finish it). These problems include;
Characters have hardly any discernible motivation, including the protagonist.
There is almost no conflict.
There are constant info dumps both in and out of dialogue.
Dialogue will be interrupted for a few paragraphs then jump right back in and expect you to remember what the last line was.
There are no emotional highs or lows.
Dialogue tags are so overdone it is beyond distracting.
Characters have no flaws and essentially no characteristics beyond "gorgeous" and "powerful".
I think this author could make this book worth a 3 star rating by writing a second draft and getting feedback from an editor or more experienced author.
There first few chapters were interesting and the magic system had me excited at first. However, this book has so many fundamental problems it would lost my interest (though I did finish it). These problems include;
Characters have hardly any discernible motivation, including the protagonist.
There is almost no conflict.
There are constant info dumps both in and out of dialogue.
Dialogue will be interrupted for a few paragraphs then jump right back in and expect you to remember what the last line was.
There are no emotional highs or lows.
Dialogue tags are so overdone it is beyond distracting.
Characters have no flaws and essentially no characteristics beyond "gorgeous" and "powerful".
I think this author could make this book worth a 3 star rating by writing a second draft and getting feedback from an editor or more experienced author.
January 25, 2021
2 stars means: "It was OK"
And that is how I felt about this book. The character and world development is really... shallow. Maybe there is a better word to describe it.
Diving a little deeper, the MC has this life altering event and just goes along with it... There is nothing that shows the MC background, he just show up from nowhere and becomes a blacksmith apprentice... Where did he came from, who are his parents, how did he appeared, where did he come from? Not important.
The last 3 years of his life as an apprentice and his "family" (the blacksmith master family) ? Not important.
In some ways, the MC has a straight development line from beginning to end (I've read all 3 books)... It's like the student that never studied, and now only gets A's all around.
The pacing and development in general felt quite lacking.
And that is how I felt about this book. The character and world development is really... shallow. Maybe there is a better word to describe it.
Diving a little deeper, the MC has this life altering event and just goes along with it... There is nothing that shows the MC background, he just show up from nowhere and becomes a blacksmith apprentice... Where did he came from, who are his parents, how did he appeared, where did he come from? Not important.
The last 3 years of his life as an apprentice and his "family" (the blacksmith master family) ? Not important.
In some ways, the MC has a straight development line from beginning to end (I've read all 3 books)... It's like the student that never studied, and now only gets A's all around.
The pacing and development in general felt quite lacking.
August 23, 2024
Unfortunately the book was really badly written. It constantly gave me the vibe of some 16 year old dude writing a book in his spare time whenever his day dreams gave him good ideas.
The story was actually really creative and refreshing, but it‘s just constantly let down by random knowledge bomb drops that make no sense at all.
Take the beginning: Character just had his whole life turned upside down and is left alone in a huge mage tower he‘s never seen in his life. He‘s supposed to find a specific person there. For some reason the tower is completely empty and the character has the time to explore every single room and describes which room has which function and apparently even enters all of the different bedrooms. I‘m sorry, but that was just the author wanting to give us the layout of the tower for later.
Really disappointing, because a good idea is let down by really bad writing.
The story was actually really creative and refreshing, but it‘s just constantly let down by random knowledge bomb drops that make no sense at all.
Take the beginning: Character just had his whole life turned upside down and is left alone in a huge mage tower he‘s never seen in his life. He‘s supposed to find a specific person there. For some reason the tower is completely empty and the character has the time to explore every single room and describes which room has which function and apparently even enters all of the different bedrooms. I‘m sorry, but that was just the author wanting to give us the layout of the tower for later.
Really disappointing, because a good idea is let down by really bad writing.
July 22, 2020
Thoroughly enjoyed
I have read so much fantasy that it all seems to run together.
Magic systems, worlds, politics, etc.
With this book I found myself engrossed. The magic system was very thought out and detailed and the characters were very relatable.
Yes, this book is a first of a trilogy and sets up the rest of the series well, and by this time I am deciding whether it is worth moving onto the next book in the series or move onto something else.
With this book, I am eager to see what happens.
Here are some things I am looking forward to finding out:
Who and where are his parents?
What is Tanner up to?
What are in the forbidden books and will he get to access them?
Onto the next book, to see if i get some answers!!!
I have read so much fantasy that it all seems to run together.
Magic systems, worlds, politics, etc.
With this book I found myself engrossed. The magic system was very thought out and detailed and the characters were very relatable.
Yes, this book is a first of a trilogy and sets up the rest of the series well, and by this time I am deciding whether it is worth moving onto the next book in the series or move onto something else.
With this book, I am eager to see what happens.
Here are some things I am looking forward to finding out:
Who and where are his parents?
What is Tanner up to?
What are in the forbidden books and will he get to access them?
Onto the next book, to see if i get some answers!!!
March 24, 2020
Falls short as a YA book.
33% into the book coarse words start then gradually appear more often. Not profane, just crude. Lost a star.
An interesting mix of a male hero but a powerful female co-heroine. Good morals in the two. Add a star.
Curiously fast start. Little character and relationship development until our heroine comes on the scene.
Difficult to stay attentive with the extensive magic explanations of innumerable runes and spells. Lost a star. But the plot is good and lightly intriguing and the magic system very imaginative. Add a star.
Two more books in the series.
33% into the book coarse words start then gradually appear more often. Not profane, just crude. Lost a star.
An interesting mix of a male hero but a powerful female co-heroine. Good morals in the two. Add a star.
Curiously fast start. Little character and relationship development until our heroine comes on the scene.
Difficult to stay attentive with the extensive magic explanations of innumerable runes and spells. Lost a star. But the plot is good and lightly intriguing and the magic system very imaginative. Add a star.
Two more books in the series.
April 22, 2020
Great story!
It's a coming of age story about a young mage with some secret enhancements to his abilities. I really liked that he guessed right off that he was special & concealed it to avoid the problems that come with being special. I liked the pretty, smartb& powerful girl he falls for. I think we should know more about his origins. And the writing is good,; the pace is good; but it seems like the writer got in a hurry toward the end of the book. The editing is only so so- you will enjoy it but you do have to back up and read some things over again. Sometimes you have to guess at who is speaking - too many pronouns and they don't always relate to their subjects.
It's a coming of age story about a young mage with some secret enhancements to his abilities. I really liked that he guessed right off that he was special & concealed it to avoid the problems that come with being special. I liked the pretty, smartb& powerful girl he falls for. I think we should know more about his origins. And the writing is good,; the pace is good; but it seems like the writer got in a hurry toward the end of the book. The editing is only so so- you will enjoy it but you do have to back up and read some things over again. Sometimes you have to guess at who is speaking - too many pronouns and they don't always relate to their subjects.
April 24, 2020
Highly entertaining!
I was caught by surprise when the apprentice blacksmith turned out to be a mage. I frequently read the "recommended for you" books from Amazon without reading a description of the book first and the design of the cover was interesting so it made sense to me that the book could be about an apprentice blacksmith 's journey. I think I was nearly as surprised as young Olin was when he woke up and found that he was a rune mage. Apart from that, I was able to relate to many of the struggles he went through in dealing with the changes and challenges he went through as the book progressed. I am very much looking forward to the next book in the series.
I was caught by surprise when the apprentice blacksmith turned out to be a mage. I frequently read the "recommended for you" books from Amazon without reading a description of the book first and the design of the cover was interesting so it made sense to me that the book could be about an apprentice blacksmith 's journey. I think I was nearly as surprised as young Olin was when he woke up and found that he was a rune mage. Apart from that, I was able to relate to many of the struggles he went through in dealing with the changes and challenges he went through as the book progressed. I am very much looking forward to the next book in the series.
June 7, 2020
Good plot, poor writing.
This has all the right elements for a cracking story but the writing is terrible. The author has a poor knowledge of English, using words in the wrong context or inappropriately. I particularly found his use of "smirked" very irritating. There is far too much complicated detail about the spells, I ended up skipping huge chunks.
As is always the problem with these kindle unlimited publications, the proof reading and writing is abysmal. I don't expect literature, but decent grammar and correct homophones would be nice. I do expect the correct use of such words as breaches and breeches; hordes and hoards. Could do better!
This has all the right elements for a cracking story but the writing is terrible. The author has a poor knowledge of English, using words in the wrong context or inappropriately. I particularly found his use of "smirked" very irritating. There is far too much complicated detail about the spells, I ended up skipping huge chunks.
As is always the problem with these kindle unlimited publications, the proof reading and writing is abysmal. I don't expect literature, but decent grammar and correct homophones would be nice. I do expect the correct use of such words as breaches and breeches; hordes and hoards. Could do better!
October 26, 2021
interesting magic system
For some reason I woke up extremely early today and I needed something to fully wake me up. This book follows Olin’s oath as an apprentice Mage who just discovered his magic and the magic society. He has to come to the harsh reality that he can no longer be a simple blacksmith and he adjusts presto well to the mew rules and customs of a segregated magic school as a fledgling mystic who is has instinctive knowledge of runes.
I enjoyed the magic system as well as the interactions between Olin and Lia. I wonder how the ambitions of the other master mages would affect Olin in the next instalment.
For some reason I woke up extremely early today and I needed something to fully wake me up. This book follows Olin’s oath as an apprentice Mage who just discovered his magic and the magic society. He has to come to the harsh reality that he can no longer be a simple blacksmith and he adjusts presto well to the mew rules and customs of a segregated magic school as a fledgling mystic who is has instinctive knowledge of runes.
I enjoyed the magic system as well as the interactions between Olin and Lia. I wonder how the ambitions of the other master mages would affect Olin in the next instalment.
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