The Mage's Devotion: A Sword and Sorcery Novel

The Orzare Chronicles, Book 1

De: Rich OToole

Narrado por: Kyle Snyder

The Northern Alliance and the nations to the south seem to be in a never-ending cycle of war and destruction.

Flynn Matthews, a typical farm boy, unfortunately finds himself at a geographical disadvantage during these war times when he experiences a terrible childhood tragedy which flings him into a world of chaos and magic. After suffering his loss, he is taken in by a local temple to apprentice in the magical arts. When his apprenticeship ends, he is tasked to a secret assignment which is riddled with supernatural complications.

Author's Note: I wrote this series for my love of both fantasy and video games. While this story doesn't exactly fit into the category of a LitRPG, it does include basic gaming foundations such as tanks, healers, and damager dealers. That being said, when I wrote this, I didn't want it to focus too much on stats or being transported to a different world. Instead, I wanted it to be a world all its own, more like an epic fantasy tale. I suppose it can best be described as a gameLit secondary world or progression fantasy. Mostly though, it's just supposed to be magical and fun. I hope you enjoy this as much as I have during its production.

©2021 Richard O'Toole (P)2022 Richard O'Toole

Solid 1st book.

This book really isn't anything super special or something super bad, that said it's a normal book. Everything I expected out of this book I got out of it. So now here's the cons. This book has way to many chapters and way to many povs that said its bearable. Other then that I have no complaints, you could say that the character progression of the book is left lacking.


Now let's do the pros. The elements of this book remind me of a "last Airbender" "Avatar" feel. The Mc isn't overpowered hes unique. The narrator is good. I could say I want more world building but it isn't that bad. The fighting is very detailed which I really like. The Mc isn't hard to like, the side characters aren't hard to like. The conversations aren't basic, each character has there own unique personality. It also adds some Christianity through the story. The story progression isn't bad. If you're looking at this book and expecting an litrpg dungeon type story this not the book for you.

All this being said this book is a steal for the price and I 100 percent recommend for someone who wants a lighthearted listen.

Decent overall with some good ideas.

So where to start? Overall this book was decent. it has Somme good ideas, but...

Some of the characters, ok, many, seem rather flat in their interactions and the way they react to circumstances is very dry and lacking in emotion. this is my biggest gripe with this book. Granted, this could be due to the narrator.

Narrator did an ok job, but seemed new and could have played into the characters more to spice up the dry reactions.

Story was very abrupt and could have used a ton more detail. This is an example of SHOW don't TELL. Book almost seems like a long prologe.

With that said, I do think there are good ideas and I like the magic system. I think it can easily be fleshed out in later books. I'll listen to the next in hopes that it fixes some of the issues in this first chapter.

a well written first entry for a new series

the mage's devotion is a fun fantasy gamelit story that involves the felling of sitting around a table with friends and playing an epic table top campaign.
while it doesn't have stats like a litrpg story that also means it won't fall into the trap of substituting character development and plot progression for making numbers bigger.
only real negative I can say is that was a bit on the short side, and could have been a bit longer.
but if the only real complaint about a book is that want to read it more then the author is doing something right.

Great book

This book has something foe everyone. Wonderfully performed. Lots of interesting characters, twists and turns. Wonderful entertainment.

Nice addition to the genre

Not sure how many books the author has under their belt, but I am very interested to see how they progress as a writer. A few issues with pace and could stand to have a few more hours devoted to detail, but overall a good story and I will finish the series when available.