Pirate Wizard

Seas of Avalon #1

by Michael Angel

Beaten, bruised, and shot, Caleb Ledger dives off a burning yacht, desperately trying to cling to life.

It doesn’t work.

Instead of a briny death, Caleb finds himself reborn in the world of Avalon. A place of magic, levels, and quests filled with adventure involving mystery, rescues, dragons, and a revenge-obsessed warlock.

After a rocky arrival, Caleb hunts for a buoyant way to adapt to his new life. With no way to make an honest living upon the sea, there’s an obvious answer: the path of the privateer, the byway of the buccaneer, the skull and crossbones. Armed with a cutlass, pistol, and weather magic, Caleb stands no chance unless he figures out how to level up in a hurry!

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure

577 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 15, 2022

About the author

Michael Angel's fictional worlds range from the former Soviet province of Ozrabek to the magic-filled realm of Andeluvia.

His eBooks, audio books, and paperbacks populate shelves in 12 different languages. However, despite keeping a keen eye out for globe-trotting epidemiologists, unicorns, or galactic marshals, none have yet put in an appearance on Hollywood Boulevard.

THE PLAGUE WALKER PANDEMIC MEDICAL THRILLERS~
The Devil's Noose
The Reaper's Scythe
The Blood Zone
The Wildfire Pathogen
The Plague Walker (A Leigh Austen Short Thriller)

FANTASY & FORENSICS ~
Centaur of the Crime
The Deer Prince's Murder
Grand Theft Griffin
A Perjury of Owls
Forgery of the Phoenix
Assault in the Wizard Degree
Trafficking in Demons
A Warrant of Wyverns
The Conspiracy of Unicorns
Dragon with a Deadly Weapon
Forensics and Dragon Fire (Fantasy & Forensics Novella)

APOCALYPSE WITH A SIDE OF GRILLED SPAM ~
Episode One
Episode Two
Episode Three
Episode Four
Season One Compilation

STANDALONE SF/F NOVELS~
The Detective & The Unicorn
The Wizard, The Warlord, and The Hidden Woman
I Married the Third Horseman

THE AMANDA LOVE UNIVERSE ~
A Shovelful of Stars
Pay To Pray
Dogfight
A Planet Torn
Fringe Space Tales (Amanda Love Compilation)

COLLECTIONS & SHORTS~
Never Mind the Princess, Save the *Dragon*
Treasure of the Silver Star
Sylph
Gatekeeper and Goddess
So a Dragon, a Muse, and an Alien Walk Into a Bar...
Predators and Prey
Deepest Fears
Three Acts of Courage
Strange Powers, Stranger Places
Crisis Points
Love's Origins
Cyber Son
Cantaloupes and Wild Shoshone
Vala Staffwielder
Little Girl Lost
Love's Labors and Lies
The Haute Couture Time Traveler
Blood, Sweat, and Fears (an 18-story compendium)

Michael Angel's welcome mat is out at MichaelAngelWriter.weebly.com. Or, feel free to stop by and say 'hello' to the kind folks who publish his material at BantyHenPublishing.com.

Reviews

[Johnny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book one

Mistakes: Why they keep referring to the Griffin as a drake I have no idea. Those are two different types of mythical creatures.

The flashbacks as dreams are annoying. Didn't really care about his past since the gods said he wouldn't have any memory of his life on earth.

If they died why leave the Griffin in an old body?

The constant repeating of every single skill and other stat sheets added nothing to the story and was just fluff to pad the page count.

The talking mythical creatures as part of the crew didn't work for me. They would have taken up a lot of space on the ship.

If he needs gold to unlock spells and information, why didn't he give one share straight to the ship? He is spending his money so how is he planning to buy supplies or repairs for his ship? Steal the money from the crew?

Cliffhanger ending. Absolutely the worst thing that you can do to a book.

3/10 the story does have some decent bits scattered about.

[Trey richardson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Uninteresting magic

The plot isn’t bad but the magic system is uninteresting. Calling the MC a wizard is being liberal with the term. Not only is there very little magic (misleading cover art) but the little you see is boring. His abilities are useless and some of the worst magic I’ve seen in a book in a while. The whole rescue daughter debacle made no sense. The princess was enamored with the unicorn you could have just had her get the ring on the princess.

[DJ DC · Rating 5 out of 5]

Action packed pirate adventure with a litrpg experience. A surprisingly well written, epic and fun trilogy. vibes of Sea of Thieves game and very much Pirates of the Caribbean visuals and elements. Very entertaining.

[Omri Dallal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Welcome to the world of pirate wizards where the EXP is pointless and the levels don’t matter

The premise is good, who wouldn’t want to hear about a drug lord on his way to become a pirate wizard in the fight for justice?

I sure wanted to. But alas, the premise get lost in the background of lunatic side characters who spit repeating phrases like an old online RPG games NPC, a non mater death and leveling system, strange ways to learn new magic that some time involve pay the gods gold (but only in gold coins!) and sometime involve leveling (I think? It's not clear).

This is not all bad though, there is good writing hiding between the word count tricks and the really weird system that hands out quests after you have already decided to do something.

I did finish the book with enjoyment, but I did need to ignore a lot of pointless stuff in it.

Will I pick up number 2? I might while I wait for other titles to come out.

3/5 sure, why not?

[Amalga Mat1on · Rating 3 out of 5]

Our main character meets a tragic end and finds himself to be judged amongst the gods. He's granted new life and finds himself on a cruel island. With little guidance regarding the direction he should go, the MC makes some odd allies and tyrannical enemies, in his escape for freedom and all kinds of discoveries.

There is a heavy emphasis in the word "escape" because that's pretty much the foundation of this book. The series so far has been as enjoyable even if it appears misleading at times. The LitRPG elements are pretty lite, from the experience gained to the quests that are offered. The MC starts off in a ROUGH spot, but after spending some time to...confine himself, and collect his bearings, the story picks up after meeting some unique allies. The setting, plot, and characters are enjoyable.

One major gripe to say about the series. When adding a title for every chapter, there is a fine line between small foreshadowing and giving a spoiler. This book crossed that line. It's a waste starting a chapter and knowing EXACTLY what's about to happen in said chapter. Strongly recommend being more vague with chapter titles in future books, or just not having them altogether.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're a pirate story fan, this one should be right up your alley.
I'm kind of on the fence about pirate stories. Sometimes they're great, and other times they're completely useless in my opinion. This one is actually pretty good. I wouldn't have chosen to read this one if I was just looking around for something to read, but my good friend Steve had this one in his currently reading list, so I picked it up to give it a look. (Thanks Steve).
I'm likely to read the next one in the series. I'm looking forward to the crew finding their refuge, though I'm guessing that won't be accomplished in the next volume. :)

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5-3 stars

Listened on audible. Which added a few extra issues. The male narrator was great, the female, not so much. Her voicing fit the “game play” voice, but none of the actual characters felt right.

I get that he’s a ‘beginning character’ but I would hope for slightly better magic, and that he would get some better spells as he progressed. He’s also progressing very fast.

The flashbacks, while giving backstory, don’t add much. We get that he was a less-than-good person & needs to choose to be better. I am indecisive about how useful they are.

I will see if it improves with the next book.

[Roberto Flores · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reminds me of watching a high school play.

The world building and system set up are just bad. They are flimsy and used as cheap plot armor. The skills and level ups are situational, they are only given so as to be immediately used for easy plot advancement. The character work is poor. The MC is meant to be conflicted, but it never works. This makes the flashbacks pointless. Nowhere near enough effort has been put into the world building. This whole thing is an idea that was never fully fleshed out, so it was doomed to be poorly executed.

[John #Audible · Rating 2 out of 5]

The MC is this story was basically a drug smuggler and a terrible one at that because the MC is a idiot. The same crap or lack of brain cells he performed in his previous life he is doing the same in his new life. Bottom line he was a low life drug smuggler trying to get a easy pass in life.

Oh and what is the deal with these totally useless skills and Gods.

[Jonathan Robichaux · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it

this book was fantastic. not a numbers heavy litrpg like most others and deals more in the grey areas with the MC being a former drug runner. great first entry into a new series

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, it makes you want the 2nd

I couldn’t stop reading it, the cover draws you in but the story keeps you going. Main character developed well. Pirates and the open sea plus magic is something I didn’t know I wanted so badly. I will be getting the 2nd book asap.

[Paul Hefka · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good start.

I enjoyed reading this book. It was fun and entertaining. The story and characters were interesting and engaging. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next. This book is definitely worth reading.

[Jack Jurdon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good read

The title actually got my attention. I was happy to discover this book and would highly recommend reading it if you like pirate novels. Looking forward to reading book two.

[Brad · Rating 5 out of 5]

good read

Good writing. Like the MC well enough but something about the pacing I just don’t like. We’ll see in a few months how I feel about wanting to read the second book but for now putting this down.

[Richard Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title actually got my attention.
I listened to the audio book.
I love pirate books, so to have a mixture of RPG and Fantasy is Great. Caleb the main character was
developed well. this was a highly engoyable story. On to book 2

[andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pirates!

It has pirates what more do you need to know? Well it also has a pirate paliden unicorn! So yea read it

[Kelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

good book

I enjoyed reading it. At times things got more complicated for no real reason. Warning it has a cliff hanger ending.

[David Hacker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was highly enjoyable, as a sold cross world fantasy with RPG background. Already preordered the second book.

[Roh Bawt · Rating 1 out of 5]

The game mechanics were just too heavy handed and just.. counter to making sense outside of a game.

[Candi Olsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is some violence that is described in detail... I'm not a fan of that. The rest was fun. I would love to let my oldest 2 listen to it but I can't with the graphic violence.

[Tony Hinde · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't remember how far I got into this series, but I remember being put-off quite early in the piece.

[Jon Svenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book I've read by this author.

Caleb was a drug smuggler on Earth. He dies and a pair of deities bring him back to life on a new world. He has three lives to make a difference. The first life doesn't go well. The second life goes better.

The main focus of the story is that the strongest island of the collection of islands that surround him worship a dark god. Caleb is put in chains and tossed in the dungeon his second time around. From there the story gets interesting, although I will mention that the questlines make the story very linear. If the gods who brought him back give him a quest, that's what he does. Then he moves to the next quests. This isn't Elden Ring where a person can go anywhere.

I did give the book five stars because I enjoyed it. Having said that there are problems. The skills Caleb are given directly relate to his escape. I realized this as soon as I saw them. This is true for most of book. Oh, Caleb needs this specific thing to finish the next quest. Here's the skill for it. And so on.

The other problem was mentioned by a reviewer. It seems like the author didn't have his system fully fleshed out when he started writing, so it can get confusing about what exactly Caleb can and can't do. It gets better by the 30% mark, but you might be scratching your head a few times before that.

All in all I had fun reading it, and that's what matters most to me. The story is light but still has some tension, and while the gods do lead Caleb by the nose most of the time, he does go off on his sometimes.

5/5*

[Crissy Moss · Rating 5 out of 5]

An awesome take of a man leading a sailing ship against a corrupt and evil crew that has taken over the sea. Lots of magic, ship to ship combat, and a bit of bluffing. The writer appears to be well versed in sailing as well which makes it all the better.

Huge cliffhanger at the end though. I suggest getting the three first books in the omnibus instead of each book separately.

[James Riley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, horrible ending

I really liked this book. It had everything I wanted in a book, until the ending. It is just there.

It's worth the read, but you might wait until the next book comes out to read this one.