Big City Magic

Hex, Book 1

By: Craig Zerf

Narrated by: Chance Hartman

Length: 4 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

A group of badass dark mages are looking to muscle in on New York.... Hex disagrees. And the last thing you want to do is upset a warrior mage in his hometown. Especially one who totes a gun, specializes in destructive magic, and wields snark like a weapon.

“Hi, my name is Sholto Gunn. People call me Hex. This morning, my compadre Vusi and I killed a vampire, sent a demon back to hell, and filled in our tax returns. This afternoon, we’re going to take on a fallen angel.” (Sholto "Hex" Gunn - warrior mage for hire)

©2018 Craig Zerf (P)2019 Craig Zerf

Arrogance Deserved!

Hex is a mage, kind of arrogant, a little vain, (he refers to himself in third person) but all kick ass. And funny, don’t forget funny! Given impossible feats to perform that save countless lives, he can do it, even if he dies (Which he does) trying. So, arrogant and vain, or not, he is a hero. Good work Mr. Zerf!

The narrator Chance Hartman, is incredible, he is absolutely so good, I’ll be finding other works he’s done for sure, because he absolutely brought a good to the next level!


Hex and his partner Vusi are worth the read, stop wasting time, get this book!

A GREAT new series

Sholto Gunn called Hex, is a warrior mage with a bad attitude and gives no apologies. He works for whatever organization is paying. He can be an enforcer working for the dark council – brotherhood, the council of light and the holy church.
He was raised by Father Cooney and his “uncle” is the head of the dark council. He lives in a Tardis like apartment with his manservant Grog. Subtlety is not in his DNA. Hex approaches problems like a bull in the china shop finding solutions on the fly.

He lives in a paranormal world that includes werewolves, vampires, succubus, trolls and other ugly supernatural beings.
He fights dirty and he fights hard. His style has given him street creds. Along with his mage ability carries an FN five-seven semi auto pistol that uses 5.7mm ammo, which is armor-piercing, silver-plated, spelled and contains a little holy water.

He is hired by the brotherhood to find out who is killing their street mages. He is told to make an example of them so it is known the brotherhood rules New York. In his quest he meets a mage named Vusi. He is a muscled hunk over 6 feet with dark coffee skin. He is very good with his magic and sword. He came from African to get his sister’s body and avenge her death.

Since their objectives seem to coincide, Hex and Vusi partner up and raise hell in the city. There quest has a full moon expiration date or literally all hell breaks lose. There are many paranormal fights, smart ass comments and just plane fun. The story is quick paced.

This is a great introduction to an exciting new character. Hex is a kick ass hex swinging mage and don’t you forget it! Enjoy the book.

Great Narration. Fanfiction Grade Characters.

The voice actor did an excellent job. He has a broad range of accents and conveyed the emotions and personality of the characters wonderfully.

Unfortunately it wasn't enough to save the shoddy writing.

The main character can do no wrong and knows it. What's worse is that he's arrogant enough to say so to the audience. He refers to himself by his full name, "Then I remembered I'm Sholto Gunn and I don't take crap from anyone." (paraphrased) He's a Gary Stu ripped straight out of a crossover between Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty.

I'm afraid I'll be returning this title which sucks because the voice actor, Chance Hartman, really deserves to be paid for his work on this.

Horribly arrogant lead character

I could not connect to the characters in this book. Every time the lead character kept arrogantly referring to himself by his full name, Sholto Gunn, I caught myself rolling my eyes. You could turn it into a drinking game how often he said it instead of his nickname, Hex, which was much easier to take. I’m also not sure why the characters had to change their voices so drastically when casting spells. It was a bit off putting for me. I get why some people might like this series, but it wasn’t for me, which is disappointing since I was looking forward to a long series of books to follow up with.