The Weight of Magic

A Progression Fantasy Epic (Restriction Book 1)

By: D.K. Holmberg

Narrated by: John Pirhalla

Length: 13 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

The weight of magic is a burden not all can bear....

Torian Ranth wants nothing more than to master his sahir magic. Having spent years training, he still can’t form even his primary patterns consistently, let alone attempt any higher tiered power. His continued failures mean that his time in school must come to an end.

When the neighboring country attacks his town and the trained sahir are lost, Torian escapes. There he meets a strange man who demonstrates power greater than any of his instructors and who understands an ancient power that has not been seen for centuries.

Somehow, Torian must learn the secret of his magic, which may be the key to stopping a greater war....

Don't miss the start of a new progression fantasy series from best seller D.K. Holmberg. This is coming-of-age magic academy fantasy with a weak-to-strong progression into power, perfect for fans of Mark of the Fool, Cradle, and Bastion.

©2023 Aethon Books (P)2023 Aethon Audio

Average

I'm being kind rating this as book as average, the story was dull, didn't keep my interest or attention. I finished out of courtesy as was given it and hoped it would grow on me, it didnt.
Narrators prosody was interesting, he has a solid range of distinct voices.
I was given this book at my request and am voluntary leaving a review.
Thankyou Aethon audio.

Interesting story but lack of execution

This story had the right elements but this writer simply didn’t execute on what they had. The stakes never felt invested, the urgency wasn’t there and the overall progress never happened. The book ultimately is one long broken training montage that never finished. I’d give this writer another chance but the next book needs to be impressive.

The other reviewers are spot on

Just adding my vote to the consensus, this wasn’t really a progression fantasy, it’s more of a sub-average Hero’s journey Coming of Age fantasy. *Spoilers* It even features the mentor literally falling from a crack in the earth and ‘dying’ in a horrid homage to gandalf.

more like the wait of magic

goodness me, what a drag. story was decent, but I kept waiting for something to happen. . . and waited and waited. . . . and blah. the magic system is meh, not sure what's happening , the characters are ok. and narration is good. but the pacing to this book is terrible. not gonna continue with this series. sorry

Not enough progression

The MC did not have any meaningful progression until over 90 percent of th story. The MC was only ok and too many contrived reasons for MC not overcoming his limitation/blockage... It was just too slow for my liking. The narrator was excellent

Main character a whiner and weakling

I have mixed feelings about this book. The narrator was excellent and there was a possibility of a good story. However, the main character was so whiny and annoying that I almost immediately wished that he would be killed off and replaced by another protagonist. A coming of age story in which the main character is challenged along the way is a staple of storytelling but without some interesting aspects of personal development it is absolutely worthless.

Just bad.

Just bad from start to finish. Far too nonsensical. The story came across as an awkward dream one might have while fevered or otherwise sickly.

The primary book descriptors should be Coming of Age and Young Adult. Calling it A Progression Fantasy made no sense to me and if it will end up as an Epic,.. well maybe if a few more books are written. Sadly though I found the world building and magic system to be so poor(vague, nebulous and all to often of questionable logic/continuity), in this the first book, that I just can not imagine that ever happening.

I am not even going to go into what I thought about the Main or Side Characters and other such things since more than an adequate number of reviews going into that and other issues are already to be found for this,.. sad thing, here on Audible.
All I will say is that the Story was in my opinion, ill conceived and poorly executed. Resulting in me just having suffered through near 13h50m of feeling annoyed and disappointed. Even with three breaks in-between listening I barely managed to stop myself from DNF'ing this and returning it several times. With that said, if returning this and recouping the Credit I spent on it would still allow for leaving a review I would do so in a heartbeat.

Having acquired this based on the renome of D.K. Holmberg, a seemingly well established and successful long-time author in the genre, well I now have to question all prior and future works by said author. It truly is a sad day.

The only thing that was good if still not near perfect about this audiobook was the Narration. So a Thumbs Up to John Pirhalla at least.

Good but slow

Decent payoff at the end, but should have gotten there a bit sooner and then spent more time with the ending. Next book could be better having reached the stage it’s at.

i like dk books but......

i think the narrator was only thing that help this book the main charcter is to negative it seems any chance he could get he putting him self down and it constant

Surprisingly I loved this character driven plot!

Ye gods I loved this character driven plot. As the action takes a backseat roll in the Weight of Magic. I do wish Torian Ranth hadn't been quite such a Negative-Nance as he struggled to master his sahir (magic). Which was something that had been a handicap since the beginning of his training, leaving teachers bemystfied and unable to help him overcome the Weight. It was Something that would have made other students give up, but not Torain who preserved through sheer stubbornness. So yeah, Torian whether he believed or not, was actually ready to deal with a life-threatening crisis when it arose. He still needed help though and it came on four feet, a wolf to guide to safety and to get additional training. So yeah I loved the book. Which kinda surprised me as it's the action that generally makes my heart sing.
So grab the audiobook because John Pirhalla was a great narrator and fun to listen to.