Misfit Mage

Fledgling God, Book 1

By: Michael Taggart

Narrated by: Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey

Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

He went searching for a fresh start. He didn’t expect to find unusual friends, fierce enemies, and primal powers.

Jason thought that it was the end of his life after being hunted and attacked by a band of ruthless thugs. Instead, he tapped into the source of creation and emerged from his death experience with magical powers.

As a new mage, Jason finds himself part of a wonderful - and dangerous - new supernatural world. He also finds himself in the middle of a mage war as he becomes part of an unlikely group of protectors who are defending a mystical mansion from those who want to destroy it.

Jason has little power, and the band of misfits are on the losing side, until he discovers he can see and manipulate magic at a remarkable level. What he detects begins his journey into discovering how his new powers really work, and just might be the edge that they need to survive.

If you like witty dialogue, diverse characters, magic that feels real, and intense action, then you will love this LGBTQ urban fantasy. Buy Misfit Mage today and step into a new enchanted world.

©2019 Michael Taggart (P)2020 Michael Taggart

Really wanted to like this one more

Theoretically I should have really liked Misfit Mage; for one thing, it's a real urban fantasy novel and not just a collection of erotic scenes wrapped in a thin layer of plot, so that right there puts it above the vast majority of the gay fiction available on Audible. For another, the writing is really very good—smart and witty. The narrator is pretty good, too.

So why, then, did I start liking the book less and less as I listened until finally, frustrated, I hit the "stop" button? I'm not even really sure myself, to be honest. I could say rightly that I didn't particularly know much about the main character; we first meet him as he's running for his life, and from there it's just one crisis after another and we really don't get a chance to know him very well, at least not before the point I stopped listening. If I don't get a chance to know the protagonist at rest, I don't really care much about him when he's in danger.

Magic, too, isn't very fun in this world, and I know this because the book expounds a good deal of time and energy explaining it to me. And by "explaining," I literally mean the characters sit around talking about it for a long time, right after we meet them. I should say, it sounds like it COULD be fun, but it's constrained by so many rules that we are informed of, rapid-fire, that it doesn't even seem worth the trouble, especially after what happens when Jason tries his magic out for the first time after his awakening, which is a scene that drags out for so long I became bored and frustrated and that's when I stopped listening.

There's sort of a flailing about for a tone in the beginning of the novel, as well. It begins on a light note; even though the narrator is being pursued, there are definitely some funny asides and the overall effect is sort of comical. Very abruptly, however, there is a shift and we are subjected to a rather horrifically violent scene that seems very out of sync with what has come before. I'm not averse to dramatic shifts in tone, but it is rather jarring, and the unexpectedly graphic violence at the very beginning of the novel is, I suspect, what's behind some of the one star reviews which the book definitely does NOT deserve.

I don't know, the truth is I was sad putting this down, because it has a lot of potential. I don't usually review books I don't finish unless I know for a fact I won't listen to them again, and in this case I don't know that. The writing is good, and it's so nice to read gay fiction that isn't, like, 80% porn, and I could easily give it another shot.

Ruined by author love of torture

There are multiple scenes that go on WAY too long describing being tortured to death

im really struggling to finish this

let me start with i enjoy the premise. and a lot of the plot points. HOWEVER,

it has a lot of ups and downs. i will say that opening went from cute and funny to grotesque real quick.

Most of this book seems to be spent trying to explain the magic. It doesnt feel real, as stated, it just feels visualized. Overly visualized in many places. It comes across as u edited and repetitive in a loot of places.

this MC spend most of the book recovering from aome prettt horrible attacks. I like some graphic aspects in my book but there is a limit. And hearing the constantly talk about his wimpering from pain gets old. first it was shocking then it was boring and annoying.

There is the possibility for a decent book, it just isn't there yet. I'm going to try and finish. I only have like 3 hours left and it's rough. at least the narrator is good. But you can tell he struggles with a few of the lines because they aren't terribly well written.

ehh ok

story was ok, I really wonder if maybe I should have read it instead of listened to it if it would have been better, the narrator made me think I was listening to a children's story most of the time, it was kinda creepy AND odd all at the same time, inflections on certain words and stressing certain points...……..it just all came across as if you were listening to a story of someone who had got hit a little to hard on the head to many times, like if the special Olympics had mages!!!!

Some really excellent elements

Okay, it is GREAT that this is a story about a regular gay guy (well, regular gay wizard) that's not all about sex and the dodging hunt for love. This is just too main-character-centered wish-fulfillment for my taste. Even though there's lots of pain and harshness of life, and I enjoyed that there is that balance, I notice the "everything I discover about my new life is mystically wonderful" feel too much.

good story but too much gay sex

if you are gay or don't care about 2 dude having sex you will love this book I think the story is good I try to disregard the sex but it was too much for me, I read book where the MC is gay or bisexual and I enjoyed those books because the talk wasn't that graphic, also I believe that the MC give bad name to gay people, because the people who rescue him at the beginning of book, they are a couple, male and female, soon after being rescue the MC want to have sex with the boyfriend.

boring

not interesting at all worst purchase I've made wish I could recover from the memory

Okayish

As you can tell by the title it was okay imho. I appreciated the unconventional world created and the way magic is described and utilized. I personally am not the biggest fan of 1st person narratives. It left a sour taste in my mouth to have a “To be continued” ending where there were so many things left unresolved. I don’t know if I would recommend it to many unless I knew this type of book was in their interest range.

Awesome Story!

I love this story, and I can't wait to read the next book in the series! I first read this book on Kindle, then was so glad to find it here. The narrator does a great job finding voices for the characters. This has everything I look for in a fantastic book. Highly recommended.

underwhelming

Story: tons of unnecessary dialogue or redundancy between the narration and dialogue. It also commits one of my pet peeves in writing where the character says that they're telling people a plan but doesn't actually tell US what the plan is until much later.

boring character. Jason knows next to nothing about traditional magic but somehow creates master class magic items, completely revamps and improves an established magic ritual in less than a day, and achieves major advancements in his own magic power despite spending 70% of the book just laying in bed because he can't manage to avoid getting hurt for 5 minutes.

Narrator: the narration needed a lot of work. the tonal inflection randomly makes Jason sound like he's whining or on the verge of tears despite it being a happy or joking line in the narration. pacing was erratic and had odd gaps.

Good but the focus was off

Warning, in the first few chapters there’s an intense and explicit torture scene.
The book had fun and amazing characters, however, it also felt like that the book had two plot lines, plot A (the main one) and plot B. Plot A felt to technical and exhausting to listen to, especially in a point of the book where you had to listen through a 3 hours of cellular regrowth. I wished that plot B was the more the main focus rather than plot A.
This book is very technical, with lots of fantasy meets science in a way. I enjoyed plot B very much, I just wish it was the focus of the book.

An engaging magical real life world with an LGBT main character

I have to admit at one point in the second chapter I considered putting the book down, it was a little too violent, but understood the reason for this, which was later confirmed, after this I found the book highly engaging, fun and silly in places, yet magical and racing to the next in the series! I have questions I want answering and to find out / what next?

hmm

gave up because the 2 hour narration of cellular repair got boring. good story though, fun characters and great sense of humour. starting it with a full chapter of torture was a bit too much, and without warning.

such a cocktail of fun

has such s great mix of magic, love, and hilarity. it goes into the detail you would want from a sci-fi book about magic and this world's makeup of magic and how it works while exploring character growth, while having some fun in-between, friendships and starting a new life you fall in love with the characters. would recommend to all sci-fi lovers

Enjoyable Story

The story premise is good and the characters are likeable. The narration was good too.