• The (Sort of) Dark Mage

  • Waldo Rabbit Series, Book 1
  • By: Nelson Chereta
  • Narrated by: Gary Furlong
  • Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (1,248 ratings)

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The (Sort of) Dark Mage  By  cover art

The (Sort of) Dark Mage

By: Nelson Chereta
Narrated by: Gary Furlong
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Publisher's summary

The (Sort of) Dark Mage is the story of a young man named Waldo who grows up in a world where monsters, the undead, and dark magic are part of everyday life. He is forced to go on a journey to prove himself and soon discovers that his beliefs don't fit into the wider world.

©2013 Nelson Chereta (P)2017 Tantor

Critic reviews

"A fantastic book...Nelson Chereta has a unique talent at writing witty dialogue and engaging characters. He also has that rare gift that manages to successfully infuse humor into the story, without cheapening it." (Fantasy Muse)

What listeners say about The (Sort of) Dark Mage

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Engaging, but has no ending.

This was a fun story that drew me in and kept a smile on my face most of the way through. I would recommend it except for one glaring flaw...

It doesn't end, it just stops.

It feels like someone tore a book in half, let me read it enough to get hooked, and then yanked the rest of the story away from me.

I love long series and story arks. My audible books for the past few months have been the Dragons of Dorcastle series which is a six-book epic sprawl before it feels like the main action has finally resolved, but at the end of each book, the story arc has a resolution. There is an ebb and flow to the narrative that makes it clear, even when the ending is less than satsifying, that our characters have completed a leg of their journey.

This book is more cliffhangery than a chapter from Scott Sigler. And less satisfying than a Season of Lost.

Since I have been sucked in, I'll give the rest a listen to see if the overall story ends up being worth it, but for the rest of you I'm going to leave you with the advice I wish I'd had before I stumbled down the Waldo Rabbit-hole:

Wait until you can get the whole story at once.

I'm not sure how many pieces it's been chopped into, but if you can't get the whole thing, it's a lose-lose situation. Either you hate it and wasted your time, or you love it and feel cheated.

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49 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Listen to this audiobook...

Modern fantasy is unfortunately filled with bumbling, sad-sack dummies who luck their way into succeeding against all odds. They do idiotic things through naïveté, ignorance, or just because the author is lazy and has decided to have the character do something... because reasons.

Not only is this book spot-on with a humorous take on the quest fantasy genre, it is also a compelling and engrossing story in and of itself. All the while it manages to have you rooting for the ignorant dummy instead of rolling your eyes and ultimately trying to get your credit back.

The narration is seamless to the point where you stop noticing that someone else is reading the book to you and it feels like you are absorbing it directly.

I will definitely be looking out for any books read by Gary Furlong going forward.

...I hardly ever give books a whole-heartedly positive review, but this one deserves it. I can’t wait to start the next one in this series.

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34 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Warning: LitRPG + cliffhanger

First, the good.
Plot is quite OK.
Dialog is very nice.
Humor is meh to not bad. Except for the last minute, where it's nauseating.

Now, the bad.
This is not a novel. It's LitRPG. Half the length of the book is wasted on thoroughly explaining the rules of the world and/or making lists of monsters/features/spells et cetera ad nauseam.
That's just bad taste.

Also, it ends on a blatant cliffhanger, without even a pretense of making it a complete story.

I'm going to return it. If ever there is an omnibus on Audible I may spend 1 credit on it. Maybe.

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23 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A funny new book

This is one of the most hilarious books that I have read thus far in 2017. Waldo is a 16-year-old male who has lived at home, in a castle, his entire life. He is an educated dark wizard without a truly evil bone in his body. It is his totally cluelessness of real life, which makes the story so funny. He refers to the sun as the big red ball in the sky.

Waldo was raise in the arts of being a cut throat dark mage, where your family members are your deadliest enemy. Now he is thrust into the world on a dangerous quest without common sense or a desire to take a life. One of the first things that happens is he gets married. While most men think they know how relationships work, Waldo has no clue. In acquiring a familiar he gets a wife. To him a familiar, a monster who is under the control of a wizard, must do what he is told to do by the master. So what could be the difference?

In Waldo’s adventure to prove himself, he incenses villagers against the white mage community, he is physically abused by his “wife/familiar” and his grandfather is out to kill him.

This book ends in a cliff hanger but book two is available for download.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Truly Enjoyable

What did you love best about The (Sort of) Dark Mage?

The book genuinely made me burst out laughing any times

Any additional comments?

I listened to this entire title in one go. I have never felt confident in abridging words to describe a fantastic book. It was a very fun read and more of a comedy than anything else. The world building was good, the comedy fantastic, and the casual graphic violence was very entertaining in its context.

The narrator of this story did a wonderful job and I hope he continues to be a fantastic combination with this author and series.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

awesome

i love this book and this was a good audiobook. I'm looking forward to the next audiobook and can't wait for the third book to come out.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

If nothing else catches your ear...

The premise of this story was great. But the actual story did not live up to it. Many parts were really enjoyable, no laugh out loud humor but a few chuckles and number of smiles. Lilith was a great character. Conflicted, tortured of soul. Ruthless and yet loving and in a way tender with regards to her youngest son, Waldo. We're it not for her environment and some tragic flaws, Lilith would have been a powerful force for good. Perhaps a benevolent ruler in a different land, one who would be lauded and remembered with fondness by her faithful subjects rather than the conniving and murderous head of a treacherous family in an equally treacherous land.
And that's where the major screw up of the author comes in. Yes, Waldo was raised and protected within the confines of his family castle and really had no idea what the outside world was like. But he would have learned cunning and deception by sheer observance of his family. Instead, Waldo is clueless. He boldly proclaims his eeeveeeellness to all within earshot as well as his intent to rob, deceive, murder, steal, etc. etc. but and has no idea of how to really do any of those things. He is like a teenager who read a bunch of books about how to be eeeveeeell written by an Austin Powers arch villain. And Alice overdoes it with the whole Darling thing a few too many times.
Yet the book is nevertheless fairly enjoyable and has its bright moments. Hopefully the 2nd book will be better written.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

similar to kel kades kingdom of darkness

for all of you patiently waiting for your next fix of resken, this book will sate your hunger. fantastic portrayal of the main character, he tries so hard to be bad and evil but some roles are not meant to be. all of the characters are rich and easily likable.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Awesome book all around

I don't do reviews very often, besides rating then by stars. But this was a great book, great narrative , storyline and characters . Can't wait to read the next one .

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Funny as hell

Dont think i have laughed out loud so much from any book ever. Its a simple book that uses the main characters upbringing as a gag and it works great

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4 people found this helpful