Awakening Horde

Shieldwall Academy, Book 1

By: M Zaugg

Narrated by: J.S. Arquin

Length: 20 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

Against all odds, a defiant street rat takes on a ruthless empire.

Pax, a cunning street rat without a class, navigates life in a city constantly threatened by monstrous beast waves. He's dedicated to keeping his crew safe and fed, especially after his family vanished without a trace. But when his best friend is captured, Pax risks it all—even his freedom—on the eve of the Awakening.

Caught and thrust into the Astan Empire's war machine, Pax must adapt to survive the perils of the empire's elite mage academy. While struggling to harness the forbidden magic surging within him, he must avoid the attention of corrupt leaders determined to snuff out any hint of rebellion and maintain their iron grip on power.

With ancient secrets, and long-lost spells at stake, can Pax triumph against his foes, defeat fearsome monsters, and secure a future for himself and his crew?

©2023 Misty Zaugg (P)2023 Misty Zaugg

alright book.

decent story, the main character is a little annoying but the story's alright. worlds interesting but the magic restrictions feel off.

Loved the story

Once the story got to our main character I loved it. I want to know how Pax is going to make it through the school year

Slice of life meets Grimdark

The world building in this book is off to a great start. No OP MC He starts off as a street urchin in a bleak and messed up world willing to sacrifice its children for possible magical power. The nobility suck and will make you think of poisoning them for fun. The progression of events in book one takes place in the span of two weeks so it should be a slow power creep. The MC has a unique illegal magic type that will lead him down a concealed path of intrigue and deceit. The book was fun and entertaining with good immersion (despite my desire to joffery that noble kid). It is mixed well with school and intermittent combat for a fast paced thrill ride that will leave you ready for the next book.

Grim-dark Harry Potter?

Not quite. The world building is well done and the world is a dark place. Most of the students at the school are essentially indentured servants to the government. There are huge amounts of nepotism thrown about at every turn. The MC and his friends are interesting. The MC has a unique skill set that will leave him OP in the end. The story was entertaining with monster fights and surviving school. There is even a house cup variant in the school. Overall the books was a lot of fun. The narration was very well done.

Pax

This was a very solid book. Loved the progression and pace. It's interesting to see that whole magic and makes, but society only lets people use one type of magic. There was no mixing and very stuck in tradition. Ren did explain that the males of old that didn't experiment and stay alive are the ones running society now. Doing so, they are very cautious and hold themselves and next generation back.
Pax goes through his trouble like a normal teenager would with him being a low born (aka Street Rat) but then also with fact he had light magic. He has to hide it from the start. Not only does he have light magic, but he can control all forms of magic. Luckily, he has two loyal friends he can confide in. I would love love to have a tamed animal.

Extremely well done LitRPG Can't wait for more!

All in all, This is probably the best first installment of a LitRPG I've seen yet. Perspectives were written well with each character having a unique psychology, and knowledge based on their background. Combat was engaging and intense without being too dense. Most of all, l can't express how well the descriptive writing was done. Arquin delivered as wonderful a performance as his other works, with most characters being identifiable while speaking even before the name was read, albeit with a little less emotional inflection in some moments than expected from his stellar work on The Path of Ascention, by C. Mantis.

A good start!

The story is fairly basic. Street kids has unknown magic and all the problems that come from being in a crumbling corrupt society. The performance was done very well and had a nice verity of voices. The only problem I had was the time jump at the start of the book. It kept distracting me from the rest of the story while I tried fitting the future character with the 16 year old version. I will be interested in seeing where the story goes.

Street rats go to magic school

In a world with four-element magic, street rat Pax awakens a forgotten fifth element in the government enforced RPG Class draft. He's shipped off to magic school, where any deviation from the norm is Very Bad News, and has to disguise his magic to keep from getting caught. His closest allies are a himbo fire mage and cautious water mage.

If you've been craving a magic school story that actually focuses on how magic works and what happens in classes, this is a great choice. Pax quickly learns to hide system notifications until he pulls them up, so the LitRPG elements don't interrupt scenes.

Students are sorted by their elements as well as combat and support based on their power levels. There's also a wide social/wealth range, so there are some scenes of bullying but not as much as many school based stories. Pax makes more friends than enemies.

There is some monster fighting throughout and the awesome cover art does eventually pay off.

The narration is nothing exciting but it does the job. The two best friend characters have distinct voices, along with a few other characters. Some voices are reused for similar characters but it only got confusing for two "floaty noble girl" characters. I'm pretty sure they were two different characters, at least.

A few gripes: The prologue chapters are heavy combat without context, which I found off-putting. Most character descriptions include what mix of human-elf-dwarf they appear to be, but this never really matters in this book. Some repetitive word/phrases. I look forward to reading future books in this series and from this author.

Odd choices

The author made some of the characters so unlikeable and I don't understand why. It wouldn't change the story to make them reasonable but instead the other characters are fine with a char that hates everyone.

Not bad for a mage academy

I enjoyed this, one. I was confused by some of the choices the author had the MC take..ie I have a class that will get me burned out if I am caught, so let me tame this beast, which is prohibited and move it to my room..kid is supposedly a street rat, that knows better than to attract attention, and then does nothing but attract it...
that being said I enjoyed it