Tech Mage

Magitech Chronicles, Volume 1

By: Chris Fox

Narrated by: Ryan Kennard Burke

Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

Enslaved and Forced to Fight Dragons

Aran awakens in chains with no memory. He’s conscripted into the Confederate Marines as a Tech Mage, given a spellrifle, then hurled into the war with the draconic Krox and their Void Wyrm masters.

Desperate to escape, Aran struggles to master his abilities, while surviving the Krox onslaught. Fighting alongside him are a Major who will do anything to win, a Captain who will stop at nothing to see him dead, and a woman whose past is as blank as his own.

Caught between survival and loyalty Aran must choose. If he flees he will live, but the Krox will burn the galaxy. Stopping them requires a price Aran may be unable to pay:

Learning to trust the very people who enslaved him.

©2017 Chris Fox (P)2017 Chris Fox

it's ok

decent characters slow story progression somehow the heroes always have exactly what they need. could have been better.

Tech Mages vs Space Wyrms

Great book with an exciting combination of science fiction and fantasy elements. Try it out!

I was provided a credit by the author to try out his series and I look forward to buying the second book Void Wyrm when it releases to audible. Overall I liked the variety that this book provided and the characters really have fun personalities. The fight scenes are fun and exciting ranging from epic space battles to heated street combat. The magic system is a unique and fun concept of being primarily linked to their armor/weaponry for the tech mages and the mages gain specific abilities by entering catalysts thoughout the universe.

Definitely try this out and keep up with Chris Fox if you like SciFi, Fantasy, or both!

slow start but gets better

i wasn't in love with the beginning, but as it became less about how they use magic and more about what they do with it, it got better

Just keep listening

A shake start. Disjointed but you need the backstory, Vol.2&3 are over the top! !

Interesting Story.

The fights are awesome. The story reminds me of destiny the game and the ahamkara.

This writer gets better and better with each book.

The story is a solid three stars, it's originality bumps it up to four, almost a five.

Nice Blend of Sci-Fi and Fantasy

Let me just say, "wow!" I wasn't prepared to enjoy Tech Mage as much as I did. I am a fan of Sci-Fi and Fantasy as distinct genres. I usually hate it when the two are lumped together as a single category of literature. They are distinct IMHO.

However, Tech Mage, like the Pern novels and some of Piers Anthony's early works, successfully blends the two genres in a way that feels natural and organic. I love the concept of magic being harnessed by technology.

Aran is a decent protagonist and I especially enjoyed his relationship with Nara (spelling? sorry, in Audio you have to guess these things) as it developed from slave/captor to peers to ... we'll see.

The narrator, Ryan Kennard Burke, does a fine job with the performance. He comes across (to me at least) as a poor man's Luke Daniels. He has a similar sound, range, and expressions. This isn't meant as a slight against Burke. Daniels is audiobook A-List royalty and any comparison to him is high praise.

If you're looking for true Sci-Fi/Fantasy with a touch of military and political intrigue thrown in for good measure, then pick up Tech Mage. I'll probably be checking out the rest of this series as it is released.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Shanghaied Into Service

An interesting take on a future where slavers capture mages, erase their memory and throw them into battle with malevolent magical creatures to act as fodder. In the opening sequence, all but two of the slaves were annihilated as the slavers used their enhanced magical abilities to slay the monsters from a distance and capture the remaining leftover magical booty.

A bit of payback occurs when the slaver ship was captured by the Confederate warship captured the slaver ship, dispatched all but one of the slaver crew, Nara, mind-wiped her and pressed her and a surviving slave, Aran, into service to fight the Krox, a consortium of wyrm-dragons of immense magical abilities, far greater than any human, and who are set to enslave and kill all humans in its quest to gain absolute rule over the galaxy.

What follows is a mostly entertaining story of redemption for the slaver, burgeoning battle mage abilities of Aran, the indomitable spirit of Voria, the commander of the Confederate warship and a series of spectacular battle events on the way to stop the Krox.

It's not without some events that are simply too disbelieving such as an over-the-top sense of gratitude and rewards toward Aran by the other surviving slave and Bord being brought back to life via some magical beer but the story as a whole held up pretty well.

The narrator did a superb job of mimicking to both genders and his recitation was lively and fluid.

cool story...nice concept

Story , back story and overall concept not as cookie cutter as most in this type of book. what I found even more helpful was the website with the details on various races, magic types, history of god wars and so on...really allowed me to immerse myself into the narration. wish all those other multiple book series would do the same.

Better than I expected

It starts also and has a lot of moving parts. Once the worldbuilding was out of the way, it grew on me. For what it is, it's good; it's no sci-fi or fantasy epic, just a solid independent author story. I will probably go for the next book of the series.