Emmett IV

A great premise and engaging story.

Reviewed: 05-24-25

This one hits close to home, it is contemporary, timely, and very nearly exactly what I already believe to be the “situation” of the world we live in. While the book in no way mentions yoga, the magic system is clearly taken from a yogic fundamental base and extrapolated out into a full on magic system that is believable and even relatable if you’ve spent much time on a spiritual journey that incorporates yoga.
The only critical thing I have to say about it is that it is a first work, and reads as such. That’s not a detractor really, the dedication read by the author at book 7 really made me like him and appreciate him more, but this could have and perhaps should have been 3-4 times longer than it currently is.
Some of the story feels rushed and conclusions feel jumped into, making the story feel somewhat disjointed and jolt-y on the brain. There were moments when I was Like, “ok, that’s not where my brain would have gone with that info… but sure, let’s go with that…” then back into the story you go. Some of the sequencing could have been better and would have improved the story’s timeline, for instance, Jess and David should have gone to the school much earlier on in the story, which would have allowed the author more time to flesh out their experiences, the development of their relationship, and develop the magic system more fully, while developing the characters back at home and their experiences more fully while gaining the readers buy-in more completely. Because, let’s face it, some readers with a particular set of political beliefs and ideas will put this book down in anger and never pick it back up and trash it publicly in protest of the plot line… at least a lot of people in the US would. I personally already felt this way about nearly every aspect of this plot prior to having any clue what these books were about, so I was fine with it and even comforted by the fact that people from other countries clearly see things the same way I do. (An assumption made solely off the fact that the topics addressed in this book are such “hot topics” in today’s world, that they can be immediately polarizing when presented to different people and anyone who writes a book like this more than likely genuinely sees the world very similarly to the events that take place in this series).
I am looking forward to more works from this author, I wish him the best, and I am excited to see him grow as a story teller.

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Mediocre, at best.

Reviewed: 01-26-25

Simon Vance makes this palatable enough that I finished it, but if it had been anyone else reading this I probably would have returned it. The story is a dark fantasy mystery. Dark as in blood/sex magic, spirit possession-type sorcery. It has an element of “life magic” that is alluded to but only comes out at the very end of the book, it remains completely undeveloped… which is a lot of the issue with this story. There are large portions of the plot that lack depth, planning, and cohesion. This lack of cohesion leads to a confusion plot in which the characters make these huge “logic leaps” to move the plot forward that leaves you wondering how the actual f they reached that conclusion. So much so that you remain distracted for the next several minutes wondering how they drew their conclusion based on the limited information they had that you miss the next few minutes of the story and when you realize that they’ve just lost you, you eventually just give up and consciously decide the roll with the random conclusion they drew just so you can be done with the book. The books starts to speak of a balance of “life” with death, referring to the types of magic but leaves the life magic so tragically undeveloped that the author missed a good opportunity to make this book something far greater than just a string of tropes and shock-value sexuality and shock-value horror. I kind of regret listening to this book to its confusing and entirely unfulfilling conclusion. Only stuck with it because I am running out of decent literature to listen to and didn’t have a better alternative and finding a better alternative requires a significant time investment, so I staved off the search for a few more days by allowing this to play out… and now that I have, I realized that it wasn’t worth it. I should have jumped shipped and kept shopping.

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Dark, yet captivating and deeply moving

Reviewed: 12-19-24

Loved this series. Couldn’t turn it off and when I did it left me needing to come back to it. I was impressed at the depth of the psychological and emotional complexity of the characters and wasn’t left feeling dirty, in spite of the dark nature of some of the events in the book and some of the subject matter. This book, without intending to, provides a social commentary that is poignant and relevant. The author did an exceptional job of addressing the nuances of consent, sex, love, privilege, racism, trauma, nature/nurture, and so much more without feeling preachy, “woke,” or condescending. You can connect with these characters on an emotional level and you can feel their pain and their happiness. EXCELLENT series.

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Wonderful, gripping series

Reviewed: 12-17-24

Beautiful, deep, thrilling, and tragic. This series has it all. Fantasy, magic, monsters, and even social commentary. Excellent series with a great story and highly developed and sophisticated plot.

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Excellent epic fantasy

Reviewed: 08-05-24

All of the critical elements present. Good story pace, logical progression, plenty of mystery and suspense, action, angst. Definitely going to download the rest. Hopefully book 5 is out by the time I’m done with book 4.

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1 person found this helpful

Excellent story

Reviewed: 07-06-24

Sometimes it feels like you’re in a video game as you go through this story with the characters, but for a non-gamer, high fantasy fan that is only mildly interested in sci-fi, I still really loved the story and highly recommend this series.

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Excellent series

Reviewed: 07-06-24

Sometimes it feels like you’re in a video game as you go through this story with the characters, but for a non-gamer, high fantasy fan that is only mildly interested in sci-fi, I still really loved the story and highly recommend this series.

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Excellent series

Reviewed: 07-06-24

Sometimes it feels like you’re in a video game as you go through this story with the characters, but for a non-gamer, high fantasy fan that is only mildly interested in sci-fi, I still really loved the story and highly recommend this series.

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Excellent book

Reviewed: 05-06-24

I started with the Lords of Alecia series and liked it so much I started these. This performer is excellent. The story is great, it’s actually easier to get started with than the Lords of Alecia series. Free m what in understand I should have started with these but I honestly don’t think it mattered, the two separate stories stand alone well enough.

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Great series

Reviewed: 04-03-24

Book 1 gets off to a slow start, but from there, the series maintains momentum without being redundant or just another series of problems to overcome. The story flows well, like actual literature and not some litrpg trash.

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