The Other Magic

Passage to Dawn, Book 1

By: Derrick Smythe

Narrated by: Greg Patmore

Length: 20 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner - Pinnacle Book Achievement Award.

Winner - Global Book Award.

Runner-up - Global Ebook Award.

Runner-up - Independent Publisher Book Award.

The men secured the shackles slowly, hesitantly, but Kibure did not resist; he couldn’t. Whatever otherworldly power had come over him in those moments of passion had fled his body the second he realized what he had done....

In a realm where only clerics are permitted to practice magic, Kibure’s inexplicable use of power places him in grave danger. In a twist of fate, the rogue priestess hired to strip him of his power chooses instead to help him escape. Her reasons for doing so are her own, but something worse than death awaits if they are unable to evade the Empire's most potent wielders.

This epic fantasy series will be especially enjoyed by fans of Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan, Michael J. Sullivan, Edward W. Robertson, and Michael Wisehart.

©2019 Derrick Smythe (P)2020 Podium Audio

Good start, where is the rest?

This books does not end. The narration stop due to lack of text to read, but the story does not reach an acceptable stopping point. This whole first book is just character and world building, and that's about it. I hope the rest of the series provides a satisfying ending to the story.

A great if disjointed story

The overall story is good but with a mediocre narrator and far to many perspective shifts its hard to settle into.

Excellent fantasy

After what felt like years of drought in fantasy novels several new authors have emerged combining both talent at world building and writing skill. This is one of those authors. Narration is excellent too. What a treat!

Narrator killed the story

I never got past the narrator's voices to get into the story. I gave it until Chapter 5 and gave up.

could have been good but...

I struggled listening to it. It was extremely slow, a lot of jumping around between events/characters, the narrators voicing of characters made it difficult to keep track of them. I really wanted to like the story and did get good, but only in the last three to four hours of the book, not good for a 20 hour book.

The main character did not do any developmen. In fact, he did not change at all during the story, only a couple of the side characters did. Maybe future volumes will be better since the story has developed to the point where there is one. Not sure if I will continue the series. I cannot recommend this one unless you like slow character growth and story development.

WARNING MMCPOV

what does that mean to most, multiple main characters points of views, so if you believe that a story can/should have only 1 MC, please don't waste your time. Aesthetically the story is really engaging, and each character has distinctive quirks to make them more 3D. First of all let me state that structurally speaking there's nothing wrong with the story either. Some people can't stand the jumps from characters who are engaged in various different activities across the world because they're easily confused, but I don't mind. Personally my only structural issue is that the jumps in time for certain characters are not bringing you back to present before the character signs off and you are unsure of where in time you are for that character when it gets back to their turn. Definitely looking forward to more and a stellar narration

Interesting characters

The book has characters that I cared about but it just didn’t come together for me. I made it to the end but didn’t stay up past my bedtime to hear what happened.

interesting and unique

A well written story that combines a deep word building experience with subtle characters and wonderful potential. I'm looking forward to the next installment.

Good Plot, Good hook, Narrator and loop killed it

I liked the story, but most of the time I listened i just wanted it to end. The narrator had an accent at the end of every word that made him sound like a kid making fun of a teenagers voice. The author has a loop for the chapters and doesn't stray far from this pattern :

Chap 1 Protagonist
Chap 2 Antogonist
Chap 3 Side Charactor

(might have chap 2 and 3 swapped)

so every time you ready a chapter you have to wait two chapters to find out what's next and the worst part for me was SPOILER 📢 ⚠️ 🚨 📢 ⚠️ 🚨 📢 ⚠️ 🚨






The main character spent almost half the damn book in a cage, like 8 hours into the book he finally gets out of the cage. After 20 hrs I barely know the MC. That said, the first 14-16 hours of the book was a rough read, from 16-20 was pretty good and engaging. the last 5 mins of the book makes me want to read the next one but i probably won't because the narrator and chapter loop killed it for me.

All in all I think this is a 3-3.5 star book, not bad but not awesome.

exhilarating and unpredictable

Smythe masterfully conveys the more complex elements of world-building through legends and myths mentioned within The Other Magic. Two seemingly separate storylines, one a homeless slave in Kibure, thought to be a demon and enduring trials as he is transported to be sold to another master. Assuming he can survive the journey. And the other, spoilt Prince Aynward and his tertiary education which allows for a fascinating intellectual exploration of the perceived ties between magic and religion and how this applies when every faith’s followers consider their institution and the deities they observe to be the one true faith. Both combine to provide a stimulating thematic link to Kibure’s trials and the purposefully warped perspective on good and evil displayed by the god-king and Klerol priests.

I loved LOVED this book and the narration of Greg Patmore was perfection! It is an exciting epic fantasy debut with an invigorating, mentally stimulating thematic premise that will delight YA and adult readers alike.