The Dragon's Gambit

Underkeeper, Book 1

De: Hankthemoose

Narrado por: Daniel Thomas May

Every mage wants to be an adventurer . . . if they can afford it.

Bernt might have graduated from the Mage Academy, but not everyone has the money or connections to launch a prestigious career as a mage.

Bernt finds himself working in the city sewers as an Underkeeper among the other rejects of Halfbridge's magery. He may spend more time unclogging pipes than fighting monsters, but hey, it's a stable job, and that's what counts. With the help of his unregistered soul-devouring demonic familiar, he'll save enough to launch his career as an adventurer—just as soon as he can afford some proper gear.

When a dungeon unexpectedly opens beneath Halfbridge, it's the golden opportunity he's been looking for to get ahead. But when a simple dungeon raid goes wrong, Bernt finds himself on the front lines of a battle against an ancient foe. To survive, he'll need to master everything at his disposal, from his pyromancy to the growing bond with his demonic familiar.

For most, waging a war in the sewers is a nightmare.

For Bernt, it's just another workday.

©2024 Hankthemoose (P)2025 Tantor Media

Bernts a moron

This was interesting, the main character is stupid, but the story and side characters carries the story on. interesting world building going on too. Decent story for older young adults I think

fantasy city mechanics

An interesting take on some behind the scenes type city worker. Loved it. Good read. may listen again. can't wait for the next 1.

Great story and premise.

The story is well fleshed out and the plot really kept my attention. I do want to mention that it doesn't end up in any expected direction and that had me pleasantly surprised. Looking forward to listening to what comes next. Excellent narration as always by Daniel Thomas May.

Good story , bad MC

Perhaps this is a coming of age growth story that will take multiple books but in this one the MC is an ignorant dolt and does it on purpose. As other reviewers say the MC willfully ignores things and refuses to learn about his demon or adventuring. His whole goal is to be and adventurer yet he knows seeming nothing about the actual job. From how to fight to what to gain from monsters to make coin..

He is also a run of the mill mage with nothing special about him , his imp is low level and common giving him no advantage and any low level warlock could summon one. His mage is common fire mage and that's it.
He doesn't learn some special spell or anything, he even ignores the one unique scroll he finds , cold fire.
So really it's a book about a story and not the MC growth.
Which personally I found disappointing as I hoped to see the MC become unique and powerful. Not a bottom barrel basic level mage who gets worn out after 2 big spells and is useless after.

Great pacing problematic ending

This story has some good pacing to it. Good storyline, it's just the ending you were left. Questioning, is this a series? I want to keep listening to it wasn't insular. As it should have been, it should have given more. I bought the main character to help get us ready for the next story. That really didn't happen. Everyone else we got something to help with the next chapter. Especially the enemy, but we're not rather getting that west. The main characters.
The ending felt more like it was the metal of a story, not the ending

Great Story

Really enjoyed the story. The MC is not OP and most interactions feel natural. I do wish he went into more details of the background of some of the characters but you can assume most of them. The poverty angle is played really well as is the discrimination between groups.

Really good start to this series.

The narrator is ok. he mixes up voices on occasion and his female voices are not good. What bothered me most was his narrator voice. It is the voice you hear most often and get really annoying especially when he enunciates every sound in a word rather than speaking naturally as he does when he is voicing the characters.

I enjoyed book's unique character choices

This is a progression novel where the MC struggles to improve his class skills due to his orphan beginnings and his refusal to ask or take assistance from just about anyone. His goal is to become a free wizard and to avoid offerings from others since they generally come with strings attached, making him beholding to the boon or help giver.

His job is that of a "Muck Mage" tasked to clean out the sewer drains from backing up from alchemists illegally dumping their failed concoctions down the drain. To assist with that task, he made an illegal pact with a young demon imp who scouted the sewers and protected the MC. That sets the stage for all of the drama and violence that would follow.

The pacing was a bit too slow for my liking and the MC, while likable, had a personality that screamed "bad luck magnet".

Daniel Thomas May's performance was very good.

I'm uncertain if I'll continue the series.

Well-written, well-narrated

Our MC is likeable, but not over-powered or apparently special in any way, other than having befriended a young demon. The story is basically an adventure story, not a progression fantasy, and our protagonist only gets slightly more powerful by the end of the book, although there is a foreshadowing of a more radical path he might take in the future.

Some reviews complain about the ending, but it's not really that odd. Yes, the author could have brought this story to a close a little more smoothly, but I don't think I would have noticed any awkwardness if others hadn't remarked on it. I look forward to the next book.

The Main Character is a Dolt

Despite the main character having a street savvy born of being orphaned at a young age, and having the talent to get scouted by the mage academy, he displays NONE of the intelligence associated with that backstory.

Despite his desire to be an adventurer, he remains willfully ignorant about everything related to the occupation, as well as ignorant to methods for his personal advancement, knowledge of familiar bonds, demons. Even as the book is ending he still acts like he has no idea why people are nervous about his demon, despite all the explanations we’ve been given through the book.

The saving grace of the book is actually the supporting cast of characters. They’re intelligent, noble, gracious, generous, despite the MC lacking any common sense

The worst sin to me is the lack of advancement through this book. For a would be adventurer mage, there’s no excuse for him to have learned not even a single new combat spell