Natural Magic

The Last Magus, Book 1

By: DB King

Narrated by: Alex Knox

Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

Mastering magic comes only with the greatest of trials....

Alec began his 18th birthday with the temple monks. By day's end, he discovers he possesses magical abilities.

Except his magic is unique. He doesn't require grimoires and incantations to cast spells. Alec's magic is entirely natural. He can, somehow, absorb the elements from objects and manipulate them according to his will. This power is incredible, but difficult to master. If he's going to learn how to use his natural magic, it'll take the tutelage of Archmage Diamondspear, one of the most adept magic users in the kingdom.

And Alec's training is not without its dangers. His abilities manifest and grow when he is in dire circumstances, and his teachers are not beyond putting Alec in the gravest of situations if it means his powers will increase. He'll battle monsters and creatures from his own world, and even those from other worlds. As he faces unknown dangers, he must learn how to harness natural magic....

©2021 DB King (P)2021 Podium Audio

I really enjoyed this book.

I found this easy to get into and become consumed by. It was relatable to other similar stories at parts, but it also had its own unique display of magic that left me looking forward to what would happen next.

exciting but sometimes dragged out

enjoy3d the story but I feel like certain areas are dragged out. and certain descriptions repeat too often but otherwise enjoyable

short but fun

It was a short but fun book! The story did feel like it jumped around a little bit but it pretty easy to follow along with and not get lost. I didn't find myself struggling to finish this book.

Great story which follows the uncharted paths!

Every once in a while, you come across a rare gem of a story line. This is shaping up to be one of those. It’s an unusual thing for me to leave a rating or written review about a book but this one has prompted me to do so. The prompting came from the last few lines of the story. The good guys seemingly are willing to do dishonorable things to save the world from evil. It’s an ‘the ends justifies the means’ setting which invariably goes wrong both in reality and the world of storytelling. I’m hoping that this story will be that very rare situation where this type of logic works out without the heroes becoming a worse evil than what they are fighting against. Only a further journey down this rabbit hole will show us the end result. Thank you Mr. King for renewing my extreme excitement regarding an unexpected and very unusual fictional read. My Momma instilled a love and passion for reading in all six of her children. I enjoy reading for Spiritual knowledge, for intellectual knowledge, and for just plain old fun. Hopefully, I will have the ability to continue reading all the way to my deathbed. But, to be somewhat redundant, I especially enjoy finding a story that shakes up the status quo and leads the reader into a plot involving the forbidden places which most writers avoid like the plague.

Entertaining

I enjoyed the story, simple and predictable, but well done. I’m looking forward to the next book.

Cool story

I enjoyed this story. The narrator did a great job. The author wrote an interesting and gripping story about a young character coming into his powers that he wasn’t actually expecting.

The book is clean of sexual content and didn’t have many profane words. I don’t actually remember if it has any at all.

Great concept but

The concept of the story was great and I was expecting more but never got it. The storyline was predictable with the characters childish, even the elders had no idea on what to do. MC was all over ...one minute he was understanding then the next he couldn't understand the concept of a girlfriend. The female characters was sad in development. The narration was good but the author needs a lot more seasoning

underdeveloped overall

The story feels like it wasn't written from the beginning with a clear scope of what the author intended. The magic system is what really drives it home, it just feels like the author was making it up on the fly.

The protagonist is also pretty shallow and the characters all tend to speak very similarly, regardless of background.

Serious Problems

In a world of demons, gods, and magic the hardest thing to believe in this book is the love interest falling for the main character. The minor issue is that there's no significant dialogue shown between the two. I might believe they developed a friendship, but romance seems dubious. Especially when adding in the major issue.

This girl is sexually harassed endlessly by her teacher. The first time it happens it's remarked upon, and the person gives a 'You don't think I'd really do anything, do you?' answer... and then proceeds to comment on the girl's body every time they're in the same room, and it's never commented on again. You could say the teachers are odd mentally, and the main character is from an all male monastery, so excuses could be made. They'd be wrong, but they could be made. For the girl though, she'd be enduring this day after day and no one is telling the teacher to stop. The main character might not have been able to stop it, but who could fall in love with someone who stayed silent during their suffering? No single heroic deed would cancel all that out.

The author also does foreshadowing horribly. It's as blatant as 'The main character never would have guessed that he'd be doing [action] in the near future'. Instead of foreshadowing I'd call it signposting.

So... why the three stars? Cause it only made me feel upset, and not angry. It wasn't horribly written (other than the issues) and I made it all the way through. The voice work was... adequate. I was annoyed, and I'm not sure I'd be giving the guy a fair shake if I let my feelings for the author bleed into his work.

Young man

Was there a competition for how many times you can write young man. I actually like this book. The big thing the author needs To work on is individual character vocabulary. Why does every single character call him young man over and over again. The overall story was simple but fun. It was filled with plot holes but I still like it. It as the late Author Robert Jordan puts it A wise wizard comes to town and says Hey you young man let's go save the world.