A Crucible of Souls

The Sorcery Ascendant Sequence, Book 1

By: Mitchell Hogan

Narrated by: Oliver Wyman

Length: 18 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's Summary

When Caldan’s parents are brutally slain, he is raised by monks and taught the arcane mysteries of sorcery. Vowing to discover for himself who his parents really were, and what led to their violent end, he is thrust into the unfamiliar chaos of city life. With nothing to his name but a pair of mysterious heirlooms and a handful of coins, he must prove his talent to earn an apprenticeship with a guild of sorcerers.

But he soon learns the world outside the monastery is a darker place than he ever imagined, and his treasured sorcery has disturbing depths.

As a shadowed evil manipulates the unwary and forbidden powers are unleashed, Caldan is plunged into an age-old conflict that brings the world to the edge of destruction.

This is an updated recording from the original 2014 edition, also performed by Oliver Wyman, which matches the current reissue of the print book.

©2013 Mitchell Hogan (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Critic Reviews

• Winner of Best Fantasy Novel, 2013 Aurealis Awards

"For a debut novel this is more than a little impressive. Characters are vividly drawn, multi-layered, and in one or two cases, compelling. Hogan joins with the new wave of fantasy authors in his use of morally ambivalent characters, distinct and tight points of view, believable world building, an intelligible magic system, and some edgy, gritty content." (D.P. Prior, author of The Nameless Dwarf)

Took a chance, hit a home run!

Simply, I'm thrilled to find this. I really like Oliver Wyman as a narrator, listening to his narration of both the Monster Hunter series and Brandon Sanderson's Legion series. So I searched for other books that he narrated and found this gem. The author is not as polished as some, and his theme isn't original, but the book works, and really works well. This is definitely high or epic fantasy, and I'm writing this while book 2 is downloading.

Why you should read this:
The Characters: Character progression in this book is very well done. You care about the ones you are supposed to care about, and are outraged at the ones you are not. There are is a lot of mysteries and secrets about each of them, and you enjoy each morsel of the authors puzzles as he gives them to you.

The Magic System: Borrowed heavily from Patrick Rothfus in my opinion, but it too works, and works very well. The way magic is done in the book is logical, and it's not 'wiggle your fingers and shoot a fireball' magic. What is known in the authors world of magic, is known to the reader, but it's very obvious that a lot about magic was lost during an event he calls 'the shattering'.

The Pace: I dislike reading short books. I want a good long juicy novel, and that's what I got. The pacing is right, and nothing really drags on too long. At 21+ hours of novel, you are getting your credits worth.

The Narrator: Oliver is great. He has some great voices, and I really enjoyed everything I've listened by him. If you haven't listened to the Monster Hunter series (Which is the worst name for a series, but one of my favorites), or Legion, they are worth the credits as well. As a matter of fact, I think Legion is 5 bucks, worth just spending the money instead of using a credit. But I digress.

In short: If you are fans of Patrick Rothfus, Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan, or Tolkien, then this series will fit you like a glove. Do yourself a favor and pick it up.

Bloody Ancestors

If you like naive, emo main characters that need 2 pages of interconflict for every decision...this is your series and Caldan is your man. I survived all 3 books but it was an extremely frustrating ride.

A Rothfus ripoff

Would you try another book from Mitchell Hogan and/or Oliver Wyman?

I would try another book by Mitchell Hogan, but this one was too ponderous and derivative. I kept checking the cover to see if I'd picked up some kind of teen fiction book by mistake.

What three words best describe Oliver Wyman’s performance?

The voice performance was fine. The story... not so much.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointed with the constant spoon feeding of plot via drawn out, ponderous dialogue.

Any additional comments?

This was a poor imitation of Patrick Rothfus's Kingkiller Chronicles. All it did was make me want to go back and listen to those again. The main character is... BORING. I quit with about 4 hours left. Couldn't take the meandering dialogue anymore. It takes 20 minutes just to get the main character to go find a jail key and unlock someone. The whole time you're thinking, "he's really building to something here, otherwise this rather mundane task wouldn't be such a focus." Then, another 10 minutes later... NOPE. It just took that much writing to get him to find a key and turn it. Nothing else happening. Just a run of the mill jail break that he turned into a half hour back and forth:

"Where are you going?"
"to get the key to get you out."
"please don't go."
"but I must"
"but you can't"
"I have to get you out!"
"Promise me you'll come back"
"I promise, it'll only be a moment"

in the end he unlocks her cell without incident. WTF?!?! a taste of that is fine, establishes her apprehension and all of that, but it goes ON AND ON AND ON well past the point of meaningfulness.

Parts of it were too delicate, too tame, other parts felt forced. The author is trying to bring several separate stories together, ala GRRM, but I found myself simply not caring about any of them, least of all the main protagonist, Caldan, who just doesn't have a whole lot of personality to care much about. Maybe the guy will become interesting at some point down the road, but it wasn't soon enough for my tastes.

Loved It!!!

Any additional comments?

Totally enjoyed this book!

I was engrossed from the beginning wanting to know what would happen next. The narrator is excellent. While the vocabulary was suited to the younger readers there was enough sophistication to be enjoyed by adults.

The story is long.

The foundation set in this first book of the series introduces numerous characters for later books with a variety of subplots.

The closet book similar to this is the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.

If you liked this book I recommend that you will also like

"The Eye of the World"
"Eye of the Moonrat"
"Sabriel"
"Circle of Reign" .
"The Way of Kings"
"The Final Empire"
"Imager"
"Harbinger"
"Jaunten"
"Jhereg"
"Assassin's Apprentice"
"Enchantress"
"Thief's Magic"
"Poison Study"

If you'd like a books that are more for older readers and are gripping/scarier/darker:

"Blood Song"
"The Warded Man"
"The Shadow of the Torturer"
"The Way of Shadows"
"Assassin's Creed"
"Prince of Thorns"
"A Game of Thrones"

Fantastic first book!

As a fantasy author, I'm extremely critical of other fantasy works. Rarely do I find works outside of Sanderson, Rothfuss, Ryan or Martin in this genre that intrigue me on an author's level. The magic system here is well thought out and I look forward to its depth increasing in future books. The main character, Caldan, is very likeable as is Moranda (sp?). I wanted more development of the Protector master, Simmins (sp?) but that's a minor thing.

One thing I give high praise to this story for is the side stories. In truth, I was just as intrigued, if not slightly more so, by several of those. They were expertly weaved into the main plot and I never felt like I wanted to just move on to get back to the main story. Trust me, this is a skill and something author's struggle with. Hogan does it well. I was very captivated by Lady Kaitlyn and Vacille's (sp?) stories especially.

Caldan definitely felt naive at first as a character, but guess what? He was! Others have pointed that out as a negative point, but it didn't bother me as I felt that was intentional. By the end of this first installment, he had grown and grown quickly.

I think there's just enough tying up of loose ends to satisfy any reader of the genre and leaves enough open to make me want to eagerly move on to the next book (which is out, thank goodness). Final note: this book is VERY light on foul language and contains almost no sensuality, only a few references. It is YA safe and something I value in books. Hogan, like some other well-known authors, prove again that you don't have to muck up a book with profanity and sex to be entertaining and captivating.

Truly, for a first book from a debut author, I am impressed. So will you be.

Good, but... Something is missing

This was a really good book. It had likable characters. It was well written with good dialogue and action scenes. It had drama, coming of age, humor, love interests, intrigue, creative and well developed world and magic system. It has so much, it should be great. It even has a good narrator. But somewhere and somehow it didn't quite live up to the greatness that it should have. It actually isn't as good as the sum of its qualities. It lacks... Pizazz yes, it lacks that little spark that takes a really good story and makes it magical.

The real problem with this story is that it is so damned nearly magically great that you actually notice that it's not quite perfect. It needs so very little to push it into greatness, and you expect to find it on the next page.... But you don't the next page steps back away from greatness and forces the story back onto the outlined progression. And every time it does it, you are left feeling like maybe there was a page or two or two hundred left out of the final draft that would have made it it great. It needs something. I think it needs a more memorable character or two. It needs a Handrian and Royce, or the Bloody Nine. Or Sam Gamgee. Or a Vaelin Al Sorna. Or even an Oberon the Wolfhound.

I recommend the story. It's good. It's really good. But it is noticeable just how close it came to being great. And that oddly, is a difficult thing to quantify and explain. I feel bad saying it. But because it is so nearly great, I feel I must say it. Because nearly great is still much better than most people can achieve. So, in that, there is my review. Damn. It was almost perfect.

Every. Sentence. Must. Sound. Ominous!

It took me a while to realize that this wasn't a sleepy novel with no plot to speak of, but that it basically is just the first act of a larger story which will be sold as several books. I hate it when authors do that.

Many mysteries are presented in this book and none are answered. There is no rising conflict, just characters dithering about and slowly revealing the questions which the author hopes you will find intriguing. Rather close to the end of the "novel," the author adds an inciting incident from out of nowhere, tossing aside all the foreshadowing that has come before, forcing the little adventuring party to finally assemble and flee. Presumably something will actually happen in the second book, but as for the first, this is one of the most poorly named books I have ever seen. A "crucible of souls" implies character development and testing. nothing like that even vaguely happens.

The narrator destroys any hope the book might have had by insisting on the exact same ominous pacing for every sentence and ALWAYS ending each chapter... with the same ominous..... pause.

Almost worth the credit....

What did you like best about A Crucible of Souls? What did you like least?

The magic system was unique... Only wish the author had settled on a stronger word for his top tier component rather than "trinket".

Least liked the main protagonist. I get that he's new to the city, but seriously he's an idiot! Warned by everyone to mind the docks, he goes anyways: unarmed and with all his coins.

To make up for this lack of wisdom, Hogan wrongly chose to make him a master mage/fighter with a nice physique and lady-charming looks (i.e. all the ingredients for the arrogant, self-centered young man he becomes in Book 2, according to another review)

Would you be willing to try another book from Mitchell Hogan? Why or why not?

No, unless he greatly improved. I'd rather see my credits go towards other authors.

Did Oliver Wyman do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Admirably. But apart from the prologue, I found the pacing slow. Oliver couldn't save it.

TRINKET

THE BAD NEWS, AND ISN'T THERE ALWAYS
The reviewer from Chicago hits the nail on the head. This story has almost no plot and kind of wanders sleepily. It starts out great, with one of the best introductions ever. A gifted solider fighting off 13 men to save his family, a sorceress not quite strong enough, evil shape shifters and a scared little girl. If even half of the drama set in the introduction could have happened this would have been a great novel, but this did not happen. BY THE ANCESTORS, the main character is very likeable, if not a little stupid at times. Hogan knew when he wrote this that it would be the first of a series, so he showed us he had writing skills, but he held back. The series or the trilogy is often the bane of good novels, causing authors to stretch out a story, so they can fit it into three long books.

CABBAGE TOWN
At times this has a YA feel to it. At first I was even reminded of The Rithmatist. All the elements are there, a school full of rich kids, who hate the main character, who is poor. The main character questions the obvious so often, it's almost silly. A teenage boy who is good looking, but is not girl crazy.

Oliver Wyman
He does good voices, has some great inflictions, but his slow pacing even during the few action scenes, can be mind numbing.

Rich characters, exciting and very well written!

Would you listen to A Crucible of Souls again? Why?

Book was very well written, story comes alive in your mind and it was hard to put down. Details are everywhere so enjoyed the second read very much!

What was one of the most memorable moments of A Crucible of Souls?

There are many moments that burn bright in my mind but mostly they revolve around Caldan and his discovery and struggle with his sorcery abilities. But I'm also very intrigued with Amerdan, he is evil with one track mind but I admire his self control and discipline.

Which scene was your favorite?

Caldan experimenting with his sorcery and crafting his first shielding medallion

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

something along the lines of ... the world that is know is not all what it seems, too many secrects have been hidden for too long, threatening to destroy everything

Good book, well performed.

Where does A Crucible of Souls rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It's very good. One of the best.

What does Oliver Wyman bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

Wyman has a simple, no nonsense style that is easy to follow even when you turn the speed up. Sometimes readers affect certain styles that only serve to distract - Wyman does not. He is exactly right.

Any additional comments?

The characterisation was very well done. Also the world building. So much detail and great characters. Sometimes the detail meant that the story moved quite slowly, but it's involving enough that you don't really mind that. Great book.

Another story about Pug

What other book might you compare A Crucible of Souls to, and why?

Similar to the Magician. Orphan meets wizards discovers he is special.

Any additional comments?

Orphan discovers he is special... again. Good enough that I bought book 2.

Compelling, addictive, wonderful character development

This was an easy listen. I have been having a hard time finding something thats enjoyable and as descriptive as to what i am used to.

The magic was a steady development and the more he developed the more interesting the concept of magic became and some of the mysteries it entailed.

Really like the development of the character and would recommend if you are waiting for books such Patrick Rothfusses or sandersons this is a good book that will keep you passionate about fantasy.

Its a story that has enough to make you look forward to what may happen next.

I obviously have high standards from reading and listening to the way of kinds and the name of the wind game of thrones etc but honesty feel this is a great start to a fantasy in which i look forward to jumping into and exploring.

Why not give it a go and see for yourself

Epic!

Loved this book! Cannot wait to get the next installment!
Oliver does a great job of narrating.

A good start to an interesting story

Would you try another book written by Mitchell Hogan or narrated by Oliver Wyman?

I already have listened to the next book. so Yes :-)

Would you be willing to try another book from Mitchell Hogan? Why or why not?

same as above

What does Oliver Wyman bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

Oliver Wyman has a great voice and can really get you feeling the mood and story much better than many other narrators

Did A Crucible of Souls inspire you to do anything?

Listen to the next book. this is an odd question

Any additional comments?

This is the first book in the series and is a good first effort. basically its a young lad with magic powers cast out in to the world to find his way on life. facing all the issues such who is he, how can he get better at magic and who killed his parents. while I enjoyed this story to a level the main character is going from one crisis to the next, this is all very well and good but because he is so Super duper amazing he hardly seems to try to get out of them. also he lacks depths no whit or anger only much remorse and shame, this detracts and his character is too plain no quirks or flaws to draw you in. he acts to dully there are very few twists or turns in this book. As a frame work this story could of been better but hey its ok.

A Very Satisfying Start

It has struck me recently just how incredibly well-served fans of epic fantasy really are. As well as the established authors there seems to be a steady stream of newer writers bringing quality new series to print. Mitchell Hogan is another one and with “A Crucible of Souls” he has made his own very credible entry into the genre. It’s certainly good enough that I intend to complete the series and there are some things that I think really stand out about it.

The magic system is intriguing and the attempt to introduce a small level of “science” to it with the details about “crafting” works very well for me. The description of how runes, materials and the magical forces interact is never over done but offers a real substance to the way that magic is done in this world. It’s also of course a good story, maybe not the fastest moving but it felt like it developed at a reasonable pace with a decent balance of plot, character and world-building.

The narration by Oliver Wyman is of genuine quality and he is very pleasant to listen to with a good range of character voices. If I was to criticise I’d say it’s that for all his talents things do often seem to come a bit too quickly to our hero Caldan and he does at times seem to be a bit of a wet lettuce. Possibly this is where Wyman’s matter of fact narration doesn’t help as much as it could do.

Overall though a quality start to a series which draws you in from the excellent prologue into a pleasing story which I expect to follow to its conclusion.

An excellent approach and cracking characters

Would you listen to A Crucible of Souls again? Why?

The plot and character development are intertwined and intricate enough to to allow a retread.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The protagonist with his humble nature unaware of the power and potential within.

Which scene did you most enjoy?

Chaldeans first test duel with the protector master and discovering respect through performance.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

if only there were enough hours to listen in a day.

Any additional comments?

It was an entertaining read throughout.

Started OK

This book started out OK, The narration by Oliver Wyman was, as usual, excellent. However as the story progressed, there started to get too many holes and unfinished side stories and the whole thing started to get frustrating. I really hate it when your central character is portrayed as really skilled, yet does not act with any sort of sense.

Ambitious but not always successful

This feels like both the author and narrator are aiming high, but fall short at times. For example, 'girls' voices are innately done and irritating. Whilst the story seems to leap forward at times, by the end of the book I felt I hadn't experienced the satisfaction of a story arc. The author takes time to develop ideas but these are often not followed through, and leave a feeling of aborted ideas.
That I enjoyed the story, and these ideas, and the narrator's enthusiasm was commendable, is why I felt underwhelmed with the overall effect.

I long tale of many parts...

I eventually came to enjoy the story but some chapters made me listen to more than a few times as the story jumped frequently from one character to another which never really helped in the character development.

The final several chapters saw a marked improvement but as the story ends its obvious this was always to be a 2 part story, this could of easily been reduced to 4 books at half the length.