Mage Stones: Part 1

Mage Stones

By: D.J. Dammeyer

Narrated by: Greg D. Barnett

Length: 12 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

The Guiding Spirits had been silent for centuries, but as a corrupt King rises to power and seizes control of magic itself, they can be quiet no more.

What they need is a champion of change. But instead of choosing a fierce warrior, or a leader, or even someone with significant political influence, they pick a nobody kid from a backwater town with more brains than brawn in a world where might makes right.

In the milling town of Stillwater, Willem Falls had lived a tough life. Dead parents were the least of it. A pariah in his own town, a target for bullies, and forced to be raised by an abusive drunk uncle grieving the loss of his wife, Willem's future is looking bleak. To make matters worse, the whole town believed the only attribute one needed to raise was their Strength, making Willem even more of an outcast with his high Intelligence.

But despite it all, Willem never wavered in his desire to be something more than a mill worker. Whether by fate, luck, or the Guiding Spirits' own hands, tragedy struck his life again, this time giving Willem the opportunity to escape the life that would have eventually seen him snuffed out.

Given a series of quests by the Spirits themselves, Willem finds himself walking a path he had only dreamed of. Can he become the Mage the world needs?

©2022 D.J. Dammeyer (P)2022 Podium Audio

not for me

just didn't like it at all. it's not my kind of book at all. word

I really didn't like this

This story started out okay, an interesting premise about an underdog with the entire world against him and how he uses his wits to win the day. Unfortunately, for me, the story just went downhill from there.

First, my biggest issue; Liz. She's just a terrible character. A career damsel in distress. As someone who self-inserts into fantasy she just felt like a nothingburger of a character that was hoisted on me as a love interest supremely against my will. Their dialogue is so cheesy and forced, as are their interactions in general. I don't think it's a coincidence that my favourite parts of the book are the ones where she's unconscious or just not there.

As for other issues, there are several instances of systems in the book that are just poorly thought out, leaving only glaring plot holes instead of interesting mechanics I wanted to immerse myself in.

From the ridiculously vaguely worded, killer 'blood oaths' that should have had our protagonist suiciding several times over this story on their own, to little things like seeing facial expressions through a mask. It all kind of added up and started to ware at my bad mood created from the issues I've mentioned previously.

Finally, it has my least favourite kind of magic system - quantity over quality. If you're familiar with Final Fantasy 7, the magic system here is basically Materia. You get gems that have effects and you slot them into something to apply said effects. By the end of the story he has so many magic stones that he just goes into every fight spamming all his abilities until he runs out of mana.

I much prefer a simpler system, quality over quantity. Have an incredibly narrow pool of abilities and use them in clever ways. Instead in this story he just runs around like some kind of Magic Juggernaut.

Just not satisfying at all.

I'll not be continuing this series. I was seriously disappointed.