Antimage

Ends of Magic, Book 1

By: Alexander Olson

Narrated by: Phil Thron

Length: 23 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

A scientist from another world. A mage seeking deadly knowledge. A power that could topple an empire.

Nathan's life was defined by labs and lectures until an Archmage yanked him into Davrar and made him a tantalizing offer: master magic in exchange for Earth's scientific secrets. Yet, Nathan can't shake off the feeling that darker truths lurk beneath such promises.

The world of Davrar is a dangerous place teeming with dungeons and monsters–ruled by levels, Talents, and a near-infinite progression of power. Nathan will need to rely on himself to survive, forging alliances and taking every advantage he can get against those that seek to control him.

His unique capacity to counteract magic gives him an unprecedented edge, making him a beacon of resistance against those who wield magic as a weapon of control.
Armed with intellect and an emerging power that could dismantle the very foundations of Davrar's society, Nathan emerges not as a mere student of magic, but as its ultimate adversary: the Antimage.

©2023 Alexander Olson (P)2023 Tantor

Fun fantasy Litrpg

A fun LitRPG that doesn't go too deep into the stats. I liked being able to listen without having to listen to minutes of stats. The story is a lot of fun, I think the main character seems very smart and rational.

The narrator does a great job portraying all of the characters and the protagonist's thought process too!

It's one of the better written series in the genre

I really, honestly, n genuinely enjoyed this one.

No graphic sex scenes or anything ...but the MC randomly comments on how good looking guys r here n there. It threw off my immersion a bit ...but I think I'm man enough to admit that that is more a problem with me not being as open-minded as I thought I was, than there being anything wrong with the book.

Overall, this book is every bit as good an opener as HWFWM, or DOTF ....top quality 1st book. I plan to tune in for book 2, and I highly recommend checking this one out

If ur like me though, just be aware there r few gay thoughts sprinkled here n there ...they don't detract from the story at all ...i jus think it's better for you to know ahead of time than to be blind-sided like I was when I read it

a good start, high expectations

It's fun and fast, and the mc is smart and not a douche. the world is interesting, the mechanics are novel. the side character are disting

The mc is a bit too perfect. He has no flaws. He's a genius scientist working on groundbreaking advancements in microbiology while working on his doctorate, who practiced martial arts and various extreme sports, who also had time to schedule dnd games.

While also not being too invested in his friends or family to want to return from being summoned.

Great and satisfying concept

I came from a reddit post describing the story, it sounded like my kind of thing and i’m glad to say it was, definitely worth a read and i’ll be checking in to see when the next books get audio versions.

If I had to criticize one small thing, I would say I found it kind of confusing how Nathan never really questions the culture of hoarding insights, it seems to me like the only real reason for adventurers not to share knowledge like that is greed and wanting to control the power, it’s not been hinted that the skills get weaker if you share them with too many people, the only other risk would be enemies like giant’s rest getting ahold of them much like the concern with guns. If he’s willing to question the dueling culture then why not at least acknowledge that his world shares knowledge like “insights” freely and have a small discussion as to why this world doesn’t rather than just instantly accepting it as how things work here?
As I said it’s a very small gripe that just tickled the back of my mind a little each time trading or selling insights was brought up, overall it was a great listen and i’m glad I came to check it out!

Fantastic premise

I love the idea of merging science and a magic system, especially turning it on its head the way that's been done here, the narrator has an older voice then I would of given the protagonist but I still think he does a wonder job.

Refreshing

There’s so much about this litRPG that make it unique. I loved that the MC’s unique abilities came with real, non-trivial downsides that cannot be bypassed. This is also the first litRPG that I’ve read that went in-depth into using the technologies and science of our world in a magical setting. The sheer amount of real science in this book was wonderful.

Mid-Tier- One Glaringly Bad Writing Habit

The book starts off pretty strong, but drops in writing quality when our MC starts sharing scientific information with others. A good hour or two of the book should have been removed because it’s all overly detailed descriptions of fairly advanced scientific knowledge. It’s basically completely pointless. I’m struggling to understand the rationale behind adding it.

Does it advance the plot? No. Is it interesting? No. Does it make me want to gouge my eardrums out, out of boredom? Yes.

I’d love to have read this book without the science lessons. It would have been a much better product.

“The insight was improved by teaching xyz” There. Done. No gratuitous internal dialogues from our MC of what college level math and science knowledge to drop on the ignorant other worlders. Its a bit meta but, including a character’s internal debate on how to convey, completely pointless to the story, technical information was an extreme example of sloppy storytelling. It’s very cringe and only serves to pad the length of the book. I took a lot of those classes in college it wasn’t fun learning about then and it wasn’t fun revisiting them in a progression fantasy of all things.

I also find the execution flawed. Is electromagnetism and light better described by math? Yes. Can you describe them without mind numbing descriptions of math? Also yes. So why do so in a fantasy book? Why add so much detail? 30% of Americans have a college degree. A small percentage of those have a STEM background enough to understand what the author is even talking about. It’s very puzzling and again very boring!

I liked the author’s writing in general and if they can clean up this particularly bad habit, I’d be very interested in whatever else they publish! Maybe they’ll get some feedback and fix it in the next book.

I really enjoyed the first half of the book. And I love the concept of using science in a fantasy setting but it should have been kept conceptual. This book could have been pretty exceptional if the author would have kept their focus on execution of good storytelling!

homoerotic for first quarter & pronunciating character 'Wee-UM'

The story writing was prepared for the beginning, an enemy and a main character emerge fast out the gates. But, as soon as the first scene is done... so was the writing.

Protagonist blindly trusts the second person they meet in a different world, after being torture, enslaved, threatened, beat and brutally de-limbed by the only person they've met in this new world.......

Writer fails do world building and maintain a plot -- there was no plot remaining, and no significant goal-oriented progress beyond the initial scene. Writing seems to shy from describing women in detail, despite flagrant homosexual commentary in every chapter of the first quarter of the book -- the fact this book doesn't have an LGBT genre tag is misleading. Even non-human male creatures were fetishized.

After giving up on the plot the book just ran on and used random scientific points to run out the clock, and fill up pages. The scientific insights were abundant and tedious in the last half of the book. Tedious, not in that it was hard to follow, just grating to have to get through so much fluff.

This is a new narrator for me, but I was delightfully impressed apart from the pronunciation of "WEEEYUM" and "WeeUM." Still, that's just being picky! This is a new narrator to look out for, make room Nick Podehl, Stephen Fry, Travis Baldtree, and Luke Daniels!

Sorry, but the narrator actually carried this book, and the writer held the overall score down. Reader recommendations? Don't buy this series, the narrator is great and if you're stuck with the book in your library, don't read past Tesol's part.

like the MC

really only complaint I have would be it could have used more funnier moments and the moments that were could have been better but other than that loved it especially the MC he wasn't a panzy spaz like most other MC's in similar stories.

I liked the book

This was an enjoyable book can’t wait until the next one. I normally only listen to finishing or completed series but I’m glad I picked up this one.