Mage Errant: Publisher's Pack

Mage Errant, Book 1-2

By: John Bierce

Narrated by: Ralph Lister

Length: 16 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

Mage Errant: Publisher's Pack contains books one and two of the Mage Errant series.

Into the Labyrinth, book one

Hugh of Emblin is, so far as he's concerned, the worst student that the Academy at Skyhold has ever seen. He can barely cast any spells at all, and those he does cast tend to fail explosively. If that wasn't bad enough, he's also managed to attract the ire of the most promising student of his year - who also happens to be the nephew of a king. Hugh has no friends, no talent, and definitely doesn't expect a mage to choose him as an apprentice at all during the upcoming Choosing.

When a very unusual mage does choose him as apprentice, however, his life starts to take a sharp turn for the better. Now all he has to worry about is the final test for the first years - being sent into the terrifying labyrinth below Skyhold.

Jewel of the Endless Erg, book two

After surviving Skyhold's deadly labyrinth, Hugh and his friends are looking forwards to an uneventful summer. Their teacher, Alustin, has chartered a sandship for a training expedition into the vast sea of sand known as the Endless Erg, aiming for the wealthy and powerful desert city of Theras Tel. Hugh's happier than he's been in a long, long time, and he's quite excited for the fresh air, sunshine, and quiet.

Of course, given Hugh's luck, their summer is going to be anything but quiet. They're about to be plunged into a morass of pirates, monsters, warring cults, flesh-tearing sandstorms, and a conspiracy against Indris Stormbreaker, the dragon queen of Theras Tel herself.

At least Hugh's going to get plenty of fresh air and sunshine.

©2018 John Bierce (P)2019 Podium Publishing

It’s not that kind of YA.

This is an exceptional book. I’m sure it’s being compared to Harry Potter and the Magicians. The good news is that while those comparisons aren’t false, this story is definitely it’s own tale and not really similar to Potter/Magicians plot-wise, despite looking that way from the setup of the story.

The real similarity is that this is one of the few books I’ve come across that has teenage characters and thus teenage problems, but doesn’t make a 41 year-old man cringe and either skip ahead or just return the book.

This is one of those rare books that could be labeled YA while not suffering from all of the pitfalls and problems that most YA books present to more mature readers.

This is a no brainer. Spend the credit.

Potential but not quite there.

I will treat this review as two separate books since this is a publishers double pack.

Book 1 - many people compared this to Harry Potter in their reviews. They are both about kids from humble beginnings learning to do magic, that's about as far as I can say they are similar. Unfortunately I don't think the author develops the characters very well in this book. It could have been twice as long and I don't think it would be a problem. The story has many archetypalle similarities to books like Harry Potter but without drawing them out all the way. Hughe's (main character) origins are barley touched on. The magic system itself isn't really explained in too much detail. The school year goes by too quick and the rivalry with Hughe's nemisis isn't really developed all that much. The labrynth story line is very anticlimactic and unbelievable. It's supposed to be very dangerous for adult Mages on the first and second floor let alone further beneath and yet these school kids don't have much issue getting from the sixth floor back up? Again, the biggest issue is that the storyline itself could have been twice as long and it would have been an improvement but maybe still too short. Probably the hardest part of getting through this story is the main charcater. Hugh is so insecure. He is constantly whining and asking for reassurance. I understand the author tries to explain that at the end of the story but it's too much and a pointless plot line and Hugh just comes off like a baby. My other issue is the narrator not changing his inflection or emotions while reading very well. There's no excitement when something is exciting, there's no fear when something is scary. All that said, the book isn't terrible. Its definitely geared more towards a younger teen audience.

book 2 - The second book was far more enjoyable. the author seems to have found their stride with this one. The dialogue doesn't seem so unnatural, the plot lines are drawn out and exciting and the characters are better developed. I am glad I kept going after the first book because this one was much better. The author does a great job as well setting up future books. Hopefully the next installment continues with the momentum of this one.

Light and delightful

Fun fast easy fantasy novel that literally any age can enjoy. The author has taken the time to world build a little and lay the foundation for a lot of future threads. There is a decent magic system with limits and constructs, but also room for creativity. Magic isn't some hand waving silver bullet, the characters have to work and grow.

I'm looking forward to the next volume!

Hours of exposition with nothing exciting happening

I really wanted to like this book. The premise was great, but the first half of the first book is almost all exposition. I don't just want to read about the world and the magic system. I want the characters to do something. One whole chapter was nothing but the kids telling themselves their own back stories. Very frustrating.

An unoriginal adventure for those who seek more.

I did not enjoy this book. The characters were shallow, there wasn't much depth in the story at all, no real originality or world-building, and hardly any conflict. It felt like a water-downed version of the Magisterium, which in itself was a Waterdown ripoff of harry potter. The kids seem to have huge issues but said issues are solved so easily with just an "Actually do it this way", leaving out what could have been great character building for them all. It's really not interesting to have outcast characters become OP just by telling them one thing and not really showcasing struggles. The only exception to this is the Main Character, but seeing as how he acts more like a background character throughout the series until the end of the 2nd book, I find myself surprised when he even takes a shit correctly.

The 2nd book, from what I could force myself to get through, had even less enjoyment and originality in it, going through long paragraphs of unneeded explanations of simplistic things. People were calling this a YA novel, but I feel it was more aimed towards ten-year-olds rather than a hunger games age 16+.

They also kept reusing words, phrases, and descriptions, which in all honesty is a NO in a book that's only 6ish hours long. It felt like the author's vocab wasn't even big enough to fit a few chapters.

This book also suffers from a small cast, characters that have no real impact, and the author switching povs like a mad man in the 2nd book, all hurting the speed and enjoyment of the story.

The maze idea and the monsters, while not the most original, was rather interesting, however, the author makes it up to be this grand dangerous place, yet we never see any actual traps in it? They fall to the 6th floor, something that they claim kills actual mages with ease, yet all they face is a few monsters? Really? You make it out to be this huge thing and you couldn't even spend a few hours of your day thinking of traps for your maze?

I can't wait for book three!

I bought this based on a positive review on Reddit and boy am I glad I did! Book One is an excellent take on the magic school genre. Book Two builds on the story in meaningful ways and continues to grow and develop the characters. Book Three will be an instant buy for me when it comes out as an audio book, and I'll likely pick up any other new books by this author as well.

so so good!

this book is excellent, I'm extremely excited for the next book in the series. If you like Brent Weeks Lightbringer series or Brandon Sanderson, you'll really enjoy this series.

Excellent Series!

As I read the description of the book, and the similarity to Harry Potter, I was hesitant to get the book, but I’m glad I did. Wow!!! What a wonderfully rich world and cast of characters. I hope this gets a TV or film adaptation.

An interesting and fun journey, yet unoriginal

For this review, I think I'm just going to pro/con my thoughts.

Pros:
* Interesting magic system with almost endless possibility for creative use both by the main characters and the author alike
* I like the idea of a magic school set atop a labyrinth.
* Some of the main characters flaws are given, a passable explanation by the end of book 1
* book 2 definitely picked up the pace and seemed like a lot more action was taking place more frequently

Cons:
* I've never encountered a main character that reads and acts like a background character quite as much as Hugh does. Whenever action happens, Hugh is in the background. He always has to be reminded to act. It's like he can't think for himself. In book 2, he learns to control a rock through the air....that's the only offensive tactic he learns and uses the whole book.
* Despite explanations, Hugh's character progression is dreadfully slow even by the end of book 2
* Characters are fairly 2-dimensional. Nobody really undergoes any dramatic changes or overcomes major internal struggles (none are really identified). That's going to get quite old. Hugh is shy. We get it. We thought he was getting over that by the end of book 1, but the author drags this struggle right into book 3.
* These books read like a where's waldo puzzle where Waldo is a stereotypical hero trope and the puzzle has nothing but Waldo's in it - Shy main character with low self-esteem and no friends, noble bully, country bumpkin, lost cause syndrome, wise teacher, etc, etc
* POV shifts happen suddenly and are quite jolting
* Author REPEATEDLY commits the dreaded sin of telling us instead of showing us. At one point in book 2, the author references an upcoming ambush TWICE before the ambush had even taken place. I'm still trying to wrap my brain around that. Even that chapter was titled 'Ambush'. In fact, the chapter titles give away any tension the author tries to build up by spoiling it prematurely.
* The audiobook editing has some odd pauses between sentences that make things really disjointed. I found that setting the playback speed to 1.15, fixes that just fine. The narrator himself is quite good.

Despite all of these things, I rather enjoyed both books.

If Hugh doesn't grow a backbone or get more creative in the next book, however, I'm done with the series. I'm hoping the surrounding characters gain more depth as well.

needed better character development

I enjoyed the story but I felt like the author could have spent a little more time developing the characters. it seemed like the story just went to fast. that being said it was worth the credit.

Pretty good

Review on book 1-4. Its a pretty good coming of age fantasy. Good story, fun magic and creatures. The characters are fine. Its reads as for younger people but there is some more adult material. The book would be better to pick one. It talks about some previous relationships almost more that the actual relationships in details, which is the weirdness i was talking about. It also has a gay/bi element (very little of it) that just doesn't bring anything to the story. Feels like its the author making a statement, which I hate. But all in all, pretty good.

Very disappointing

I understand that a lot of books in this genre are for children, so I expect a certain level of childishness from the characters, but I didn't expect it to sound as if it had been written by a child. Ralph Lister is fantastic as ever but he can't hold up the terrible writing. Terrible grammar, loaded with deus ex machina and essentially unreadable.

A Book for Children

I only managed to stick with this for a few chapters based upon the quality of the performance which rescues the plot

A book for children - similar plot to Harry Potter but poorly written.

Misunderstood child magician without any friends at magic school, makes a few friends, kindly father figure etc...

Some characters sound like David Attenborough

need I say more? seriously, half the characters in the book (most of the adult ones) sound like someone doing an impression of David Attenborough.

for this book which is mostly about learning, that's great. since you know... its like a documentary... a documentary on magic and how to use it. you really feel like

the writing was great the author really crafted an entire system of magic that the reader learns with the students who are the main characters.

the narrator certainly has the right kind of voice for this. the female characters however almost always sound the same. understandable since the narrator is male. but something I noticed since I listened to this audiobook mostly in one sitting. I think Travis Baldree might have skewed my view on this. That man has a 1000 different voices.

Enjoyed very much!

Liked this take on how magic works!

I had never heard of the author or narrator, but throughly enjoyed the content and the narration!

Would recommend

strong

good traditional writing style with the seeds of progression fantasy.

A strongly character driven story.

Love the story

Brilliant story, love the magic system and how it builds, and the character building is great.

The narrator is hard to listen to though. God Rick's accent is painful and the others are very generic. Some odd intonation choices as well.

Nice familiar story line seems teen orientated

I may be old but I enjoyed this book not too fast not too slow can't is not too involved it's silly but enjoyable nonetheless

Very entertaining

This book is really fun, it follows 4 MCs and their master. All characters show amazing progression and their abilities are unique and interesting.

refreshing

didn't expect much , but this turned out to be brilliant, really enjoyable book, well done