The Ethersmith

De: Matias Kallio

Narrado por: Marissa Parness, Alex Perone

The world moved on from runesmiths. Vivi didn’t.

A curse from birth has doomed Vivi to die when she turns eighteen. She’s a masterful runesmith, and if she could just convince arrogant ether hunters that her family has solved runeswords’ fatal flaw, she might earn enough ether to save herself.

When a rebellious spirit defies his handler to bond with Vivi, she becomes a fugitive, escaping capture only to land in an inescapable demonic prison.

The bright side? She’s an ether hunter now—with an endless supply of monsters from which to harvest ether, hone her spirit’s power, and finally test her runeswords.

But first, she must learn how to wield one.

Dive into an epic adventure following a hard-working, ruthless MC who pursues both crafting and combat while ignoring warnings about things being "impossible" or "forbidden."

©2026 Matias Kallio (P)2026 Royal Guard Publishing LLC

Mostly the progression.

As you can see from my STARZ, the overall story performance were good. I gave him fours but nitpicking I suppose I would’ve liked more from the Smithing aspect.. I understand this is the first book, but I would just have liked more from it. A lot of it felt like even after the 15 years plus in the case of her grandfather that they’ve been working on the carving inside blades method I feel like there should’ve been more that she should’ve known or at least experimented with because there were several mentions about finding a scientist and looking into certain aspects ofwhy the wisps have all these runes inside. And maybe I missed it from listening, but there was no real clear explanation on the elevation of a core every time it was talked about it was always mentioned that the maximum was still only 5000 so even if you elevated your core over to a second or third you still only had 5000 maximum and that wasn’t making sense When a lot of other hunters were mentioned to have 7000 8000 and the one really powerful lady said to have like 1 million or something like that or a quarter million something like that.

so that was just an inconsistency again. I may have missed it because of the listening part and I wasn’t always paying complete attention. . And as far as character development and interactions, they were all good so I don’t really have anything to say on that. And I’m sure it was hinted at, but it was hinted at. It’s not sure it was hinted at is that the fact that there’s a possibility later in the series that either she or her grandfather will find a way of creating a greater rune. Which would’ve been the actual merger of I’m assuming three or more together into one. And then there was a mention of possibly creating artificial skills so I’m hoping that is true. That would add much more to her as a character and a Smith and make something truly her own aside from what her grandfather came up with.

Promising but Odd Crafting

it's an interesting premise with neat characters and a alright power system. What's so odd to me is the crafting especially since it's a big part of who the Mc is. Do people in this world not know about casting? making molds? Internal carved pathways is a huge part of why the MC's rune blades are so good but I don't know how no one tried to cast the pathways in a metal that wouldn't melt when after shaping, polishing and sanding it you put it in a sword blank and casted a sword around it. we got a few experiments that others tried but casting wasn't one of them and then there's the "Warhammer" author my friend warhammers are not the size of your head it's more like a closed fist. Maybe it's just because of some in world reason they never made good warhammers. I'm not sure but a book where the MC is a blacksmith you have to explain why their smithing isn't like they are in our world.

Action-Packed With Excellent Crafting

I picked this book up on a whim, and I enjoyed it quite a bit! It has an interesting setting, an intriguing plot, and really good descriptions of crafting. I really enjoyed this and would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of progression fantasy. Its not quite on par with something like mark of the fool, but it is a really solid story. I cant wait to see how things continue in the next book!!!

Super annoying MC

I feel like a misogynist cuz the MC is a little girl, but gender has nothing to do with it.
She's as dumb as a box of rocks.
Then every interaction she has with other ppl is cartoonish. The author is laying it on thick ...everybody hates the MC for no good reason. If there cud have been any kind of logic behind the bad attitudes that'd be one thing, but the author was either too lazy or too inexperienced to flesh it out...regardless, it makes the story painful to read/listen to at times. It feels lazy tho. Contrived. Manufactured drama. Like they cud have taken the time to make the drama feel real ...like there was some justification for everyone being so aggresively anti ....but instead there's no justification given ...or the justification is weak sauce. The unjustified poor treatment is a tool the author uses to add some drama to the scene ...that's why i say it's manufactured. N there is no excuse for that ...it's just laziness
Give a reason ...make it make sense.

There's a lot of stuff to like in the book as well. There's potential all over the place ...but it feels like the execution of the story-telling is falling short. I like the book ..but I feel like it very easily cud have been a lot better

Found a gem

Just the right balance of combat and crafting and with a purpose. Love finding books like this on here. it was a binge all the way through and i will be back for the next one.