Mark of the Fool

A Progression Fantasy Epic

By: J.M. Clarke

Narrated by: Travis Baldree

The gods chose him. He said no.

After his parents died, Alex Roth had one desire: become a wizard. Through hard work, he was accepted into the University of Generasi, the world’s greatest academy of wizardry....

Fate, however, had another plan.

On his 18th birthday, he is Marked by prophecy as one of his kingdom’s five Heroes, chosen to fight the Ravener, his land’s great enemy. But his brand is "The Fool". Worst of the marks.

Rather than die or serve other Heroes like past Fools, he takes a stand, rejects divine decree...and leaves. With his little sister, his childhood friend, and her cerberus, Alex flees for the university, hoping to research the mystery of the Ravener. He’ll make lifelong friends, learn magic from mad wizards, practice alchemy, fight mana vampires, and try to pay tuition.

There’s one small problem. The Mark insists on preventing the Fool from learning and casting spells, while enhancing skills outside of divinity, combat, and spellcraft...that is, unless he learns to exploit the hell out of it.

Explore a coming-of-age magic academy fantasy with a weak-to-strong progression into power, a setting inspired by D&D, detailed world building, and magical science, action, comedy, slice-of-life, and GameLit elements.

With nearly 10 million views on Royal Road, this popular web serial has been completely revised and relaunched into this definitive version now coming to Audible, narrated by Travis Baldree!

©2022 Aethon Books (P)2022 Aethon Audio

A good start

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. It popped up on my recommended a few times and the description wasn't exactly ah inspiring. After a couple of weeks of needing a new book I figured I could always return it if I didn't enjoy it. I'm glad I took the chance. Its not Patrick Rothfuss level of writing but it is well paced and enjoyable to listen too. I wish it had deeper descriptions of the different locations. I'm not looking for Tolkien depth but maybe a little closer to Robert Jordan. The main characters are interesting and developing a pace that is interesting without them feeling like they are so powerful no challenges are in surmountable. I do wish the book caused the main character to struggle more in difficult situation. That said their reasoning for actions taken comes across a sound and engaging. Perhaps we will see greater struggles as the series develops but for now its nice to see the character development as a focus. I recommend people pick it up and give it a try. Worst case you return it. Best case you enjoy the start to a new fantasy story.

fun and enjoyable, but definitely some issues

The use of sound effects in the writing made me giggle and roll my eyes, it just doesn't translate that well in audiobook format, to use sound effects.

The author repeats words or general concepts a bit too often, and not that much happens in the story, I got a "slice of life" vibe from it. But, it was missing some oomph.

With all that said though, the book was enjoyable. Baldree is a great narrator and the overall idea of the story is interesting. Maybe book two will really start to bring the story together some more? that happens sometimes, where you need the next book to appreciate what happened in this one.

Definitely still going to listen to book two.

Great characters!

Enjoying the tale, the characters, and the narrative. I’m eager to hear what happens next.

Absolutely Delightful

This book checked all the boxes for me. An MC that wasn’t a dunderhead or massively OP but was resourceful and smart. He had friends and aspirations. He felt like a real person. I can’t wait for the next book!

Strong Series Intro

A fantastic story I couldn’t put down! Baldree is an amazing narrator and has done an incredible performance here. Clarke has started a long story detailing the young wizard Alex’s growth, marked by a god to supposedly be unable to do anything divine, spell or combat related- he uses his wits and the gift of awesome Skill growth instead to make his dreams come true.
There’s a lot of world building, great side/background characters, and danger around every corner. I love the fact that Alex, the MC has common sense- something so few MC’s have. He’s not perfect, but he is very self aware and works diligently to improve himself.
Of course, defying an entire country’s religious order and supposed mandate? Can lead to problems. And it’s very easy to make enemies of easily insulted wizards is more dangerous than anything else Alex may ever face.