Another Stupid Spell

Another Stupid Trilogy, Book 1

By: Bill Ricardi

Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin

Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

Sorch is an orc mage in a world where orcs are cursed with stupidity every time they cast a spell. The only spell he can safely cast is Enhance Intelligence, which boosts his IQ for a fraction of a second before the curse drains it all away again.

Normally casting such a spell would be pointless, but Sorch's tribe has found a way to benefit. Magic that is cast near a mysterious artefact called the ‘Voodoo Engine’ causes invisible hands to appear, and these hands get work done for his tribe. Sorch is a slave to the Voodoo Engine, casting a single spell over and over again to avoid being beaten by the chief’s warrior caste.

While foraging for food on one fateful night, our hero happens upon two human mages who are in big trouble. He saves their lives, and in return they give him an amulet that will make his life easier. Unbeknownst to the humans, their gift grants Sorch the power to break the cycle of intelligence drain and physical abuse. With the help of his friend and mentor, Shaman, Sorch becomes a real mage.

Sorch leaves his swamp and embarks on a series of incredibly exciting and dangerous adventures. During his travels he encounters horrible injury, magical treasures, love, snow, university admissions tests, a plot against the Kingdom, and then of course he saves the world. Or does he?

Be prepared to rethink everything you know about thinking. If your own intelligence was the fuel that your magic ran on, how brightly would you dare to burn?

©2017 Bill Ricardi (P)2018 Podium Publishing

I loved this book it was absolutely fantastic

From the performance to the world its played out in it was amazing it had me on the edge of my seat most of the time I can't wait to start the next one

Orc is a surprisingly woke MC

There are a lot of stuff and things that I liked about this book. The main characters highly variable intelligence is a great mechanic, I love how his reliability as a narrator deteriorates along with his smarts.

His chosen love interest is a great character and they are quite different from the norm in ways that I refuse to spoil. But yeah how he goes about this relationship with blanket support for his partner even if he doesn't like aspects of their life. This makes him a big manly Orc who doesn't bother with the toxic masculine traits that are usually all Orc culture is in books.

1st Person Fantasy with a fun twist

It took a bit to get used to the first person aspect of unenhanced speech, but then it made the novel great. The speech changes with his intelligence, loved it. Made me really feel like I was in his head.

Lgbt romance

Interesting premise interesting characters but decides for no reason and with no warning that it needs to fire off the virtue cannon. *much like star wars*

My last review was deleted for being honest so there is my soft shoe version.

Interesting & Novel

While the story is novel, I’m not sure I’ll be picking up the second book. This one is enjoyable and the MC is interesting, but beyond the limitations the MC must overcome the story is predictable and the characters not terribly engaging.

Smart orc is good orc

I loved the way that the writing degraded when our beloved smart orc had to use spells and his intellect began to degrade, really made it feel as if we are reading a diary of how things happened. it's a dark world with friendly and warm characters that are diverse and enjoyable. there are dark gods and cruel people but they are the minority and the world is filled with people you actually want to like.

anyone who is upset over Smart Orcs cute kitty are silly, you're reading about fantasy shapeshifter races and are upset they don't have sexual dimorphism to your liking. ignore any race that hits upon that part too hard

I couldn't pause this book for long!

This book is a must! The narrator did a good job especially with Sorch Stonebender.

the perfect mix of a realistic problem with fantas

this book shows a realism in understanding neurological problems well being true to a fantasy world it's shows a problem similar to an Alzheimer's patient when it comes to the memory loss while staying true to the fantasy genre it is a shame that the offer didn't go into a litrpg for this book which could have been hanst it even more

honestly, the narrator killed the story for me.

i think it needs better narrator, if you can get past the narration is a good stoty.

Great Narrator, Great Concept, Good Story.

I love James Patrick Cronin- especially his work on the Demon Accords series. He did a great job with this one. The concept of the story was great- almost a coming of age story- with a twist. So I was really excited- and then a bit underwhelmed. Overall worth a credit- and I can see how some would love it and some wouldn't. Give it a listen and decide for yourself.