Yesterday’s Spacemage

Spacemage Chronicle Series, Book 1

By: Timothy Ellis

Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins

Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

Pirates and slavers beware. The Spacemage is coming for you!

All Thorn wanted was to be a Battle Mage. He had the talent, and his whole future was before him. On the day of Choosing, he finds things don't always go as planned. Suddenly Thorn's life is thrown into fast forward, and he finds himself in a world not of his own choosing.

In a world of spaceships and blasters, instead of horses and swords, Thorn needs to adapt and survive, make new allies, and rediscover that although nothing is familiar, he's still a Mage, and pirates and slavers beware.

Yesterday is history, and today he's become Yesterday's Spacemage.

©2018 Timothy Ellis (P)2018 Tantor

Solid 3 part story, end bit of a let down

Alright, this was a tough one for me. First of all, I had this suggested as one of my this feels like LIRPG, so is it close enough to be LIT? I’ll get to that at the end, but the truth is this is a book that was broken into sections. I had a lot of trouble with how it ended, and several other things.

First, the odd stuff. The book’s premise is that there is a young man, Thorn, who is raised in a society in which you can detail what job you want during a coming of age ceremony. This is your life job. I’m guessing that once you take it you are stuck. No takebacksies or something along those lines. Anyway, it turns out he wants to be a battlemage, the toughest job to get, and the high lord emperor decides that the young mage will either work under him, where he will be stymied because his power is a threat to the Emp, or he will die. The boy decides that he is going to Nope out of the situation by teleporting away as he is attacked, and he wakes up in the far future with no magic. After a bit of time he manages to regain his abilities, and is then kidnapped by an alien race. After he kills his abductors he goes on a spree of attacking slavers with a few people he rescues.

What’s so odd you ask? Well, you are literally given no information about who his people were, where they were from, where he ends up in the future, who the aliens are that kidnap him, or even who the military is that he fights against. There is really no reason for this, nothing is kept from the reader for any reason, there is just no information given. It is bizaare.

Secondly, each part of the book feels like a story unto itself, with the beginning being the most interesting. Each deals with the MC sort of finding his way and where he belongs. The third section is about him coming to grips with being a spacemage with him making a final decision that is beyond strange. I don’t want to give anything away, but everything that he decides to do at the end was very out of character and did not fit the rest of the story. He’s a guy who wanted to be a battle mage, and when that opportunity is transformed in to becoming a Space mage he turns away. It felt forced an was not organic at all.

Kevin T. Collins narration is a standout. He is probably not someone that you would know since he is not a part of the LIT community, but he handles the story well, and peppers it with emotion and really hands out defined personalities to each character. He does do voices for each character as well, and I liked listening to him. He has a unique cadence to his story telling, sort of like listening to someone speak in iambic pentameter. He stands out and I appreciated all the fine work that he did.

So, now the question becomes is this close to LITRPG? I have to say no. There are certain criteria that must be met to qualify, and in no way does it come close. The main character does not level up, he is pretty much as powerful at the end as he is in the beginning, he just streamlines how he uses his powers. There are no stats, no correlation to stats or attributes, nothing along those lines. I think the closest we come is with him using a portal. When he time jumps he does enter into a new world, technically. Still, it is his old world and he never gets near a game or game type world.

The story is good, and the character interesting. I enjoyed the book, but the ending really let me down. I wanted a lot more. So, I am going to give this 7.5 stars. A decent read, but in no way does it come close to being LITRPG.

Bit to much preaching, and rushed ending...

Well it's the conclusion to the trilogy first two were better.
Anti-gun rant was a bit surprising till you realize the author is an Aussy! Seemed to be a direct slam at the US without actual knowledge of why the 2nd amendment is there in the first place. Typical anti gun stance and rant.
Reader Kevin T. Collins is awesome one of my new favorites.
Characters are ok, but lightly developed. No real aliens to speak of in the series. Thorn is omniscient and apparently gets whatever capability required as needed. Bit over the top. Great opportunity i.e. the plot but a bit of a miss in the details, character development, action, and romance departments.

Beautiful

Provided an amazing tale and struggle with the most beautiful of endings. It isn't often that I find myself satisfied with a story that holds as many unanswered questions as this; in a way they add even more to the tale.

Good book

Good book, but there is lot of other dungeon book out there and the author is trying to do something now

Wow. What a great series!

These books are extremely well written, thought out and just fun. Loved the twists on magic, space and time travel.

The book isn't bad but the ending feels rushed

The book is good right up to the ending. It feels like the author got board and decided to rush the ending with existential nonsense that doesn't really link with the rest of the book and is not explained at all.

a great story

it was so fantastic just the beginning of a great story I can't wait to see what else goes on further down the saga

Good stuff

This book was a little different for me, but I'm glad I picked it up.

meh

to be honest the mc is dumb and the pace of the book with the errors in it are abundant and the charcter development is poor

wonky

Interesting blend of magic and tech. the main character seemed overpowered sometimes. but the author does a good job explaining about his power draw.