| Author: | Mortimer Langford |
| Genre(s): | ➡️ Fantasy ➡️ Epic Fantasy |
| Series? | ✅ Yes |
| Goodreads Rating: | ⭐ 4.24 (17 ratings; 10 reviews) |
| Personal Rating: | ⭐ 5 / 5 Magic ⭐ 3.5 / 5 Overall |
🛑 Spoiler Warning 🛑
I might be recounting events, characters, and themes so THIS MIGHT BE FULL OF SPOILERS.
If you’d like to read a review with the spoilers hidden, kindly scroll to the bottom to read my spoiler-free review or head to my Goodreads post. You don’t need an account to read it. 🙂
Description
In this modern world, magic is controlled rather than fostered. The glorious War Mages who used to fight for kings have settled with humble lives, especially Damian Spires. The glorious times were way before his birth, so he fully accepted the life of being a freelancing service provider for anything magic-related. Armed with his trusted spellbook Artemis, he tackles magical problems from boring imp infestations to dangerous feral werewolf hunting. However, his normalcy gets shaken when he rescues an elf in an alley that came from another world with no memory. Unbeknownst to them, a powerful being is dead set on finding her and will not stop dropping dead bodies until he does.
🌟 Review (3.5/5)
For the most part, I love this book. The world-building is strong, the protagonist is such a fun and badass character to follow, the characters – even the side ones – are distinct, and the friendship chemistry is a delight. In fact up to about 70% of the book it’s a strong 4.5-star read for me. Upon reaching that mark, however, I started to have problems with how the female elf’s character developed, how the villain’s backstory underwhelmed me, and how the final showdown was more theatrics than action. However, and I can’t stress this enough, the action sequences before the final showdown really hooked me. There’s something about how the author writes action sequences that makes it easy to play them in my head and watch it like a thrilling part of a movie.
World and Character Building
The world-building is excellent. It is easily established that we are in contemporary times but magical creatures are out and about. The story mostly happens in a location where this is normal so this isn’t your typical plot where there’s a huge stress on how to hide certain things from humans. Even so, the rules and hierarchy of the society were laid out so well that the expositions did not feel heavy at all.
As for the characters, they were all written so well. All of them have distinct personalities by the way they act around Damian, the way they talk, and how they fit in this society. No matter how small their presence is in the book, they feel organic. I especially love Damian’s relationship with his friends. It’s always a pleasure to read those rough, playful types of friendships written so well. I remember audibly laughing when Damian and Gerard shouted at someone to f*ck off; how I was cheering for Batholomew to rush to Damian during the final showdown, and how endearing, I thought, it was for him to cover him; and the nervous energy I had when Grognar turned feral and there’s a possibility that his two friends might kill him. I was just invested!
Unfortunately, there are two major character developments that I disliked and were very hard to ignore – the love interest and the villain.
- Love interest – Aziramin: Her character was okay until she started conversing. She had an absolute flip of personality from this cautious, foreign specie on Earth to this sassy, sexual person, and the transition to get there was just not executed well. It was such an escalation from the warm, small sparks in the previous chapters to suddenly enjoying going to a lingerie store and then seducing Damian. And when she finally said out loud she loved him, I just completely hopped off the Aziramin train. It was too intense too soon. The weird thing is that the development of Damian’s attraction to her felt pretty well executed! I think it would have been fun to show that she transitioned to that sassy character by following Damian and eventually emulating his way of treating his friends because he was really carefree and crass. Or maybe when she finally regained her memories and remembered her own personality, it would’ve manifested in increasing amounts rather than this immediate change. However, there’s still hope. By how the epilogue went, it looks like she’ll have more focus on the sequel and I hope she gets her character development there.
- Villain – Rupert Wilson: He was a really interesting and theatrical villain who was entertaining until the final showdown. Aside from his backstory being so anticlimactic (or maybe it was delivered anticlimactic by him?), he suddenly started being a walking contrast. On one hand, he’s an impatient, cold guy and he’s against time to find Aziramin because he has a limited source of power. But then, when he has her, he suddenly gives Damian a chance to rescue her and it doesn’t make sense. They have no deeper connection whatsoever that would make Rupert invested in seeing him suffer. He should just be another person in the way of getting Aziramin and he should’ve eliminated him as quickly as he did with the other characters. This is the point where I felt that plot protection around Damian and Aziramin; which was really a letdown. I would rather have Rupert meet Damian in the middle of abducting Aziramin so that this whole character reveal that these two did would’ve been more spontaneous and more impactful. The hostage situation with Aziramin and the way he just kept spilling exposition just felt out of character.
Despite that, however, I was sold on Damian’s character except for the last part where he did not react in any way to Max’s death. For the most part, he was such a fun person to follow and honestly, he’s just a total badass. I can’t help but be amazed at his action sequences. His character’s reveal at the end was a really cool moment and I was totally absorbed in how he was treating Rupert. He’s just an awesome character.
Final Thoughts
Do I like this book? Absolutely. The plot that glues a book together was well-paced and there’s a promise of an interesting sequel. In fact, with Damian’s character developing so well, I would be happy even if we follow other characters’ journeys onwards. Bartholomew or Gerard, I think, would be excellent candidates for spinoffs. I know they can have as great as Damian’s motivations and with the author’s writing style, they can have just as amazing action sequences as him. I love the concept of magic powers being imbued into modern weapons and yet each mage still has their go-to magical items to fight with. Artemis is an awesome sidekick.
I’d recommend this to fantasy readers who like a lot of action but still want a solid world foundation. I sincerely thank the author, Mr. Mortimer Langford, for providing me a free copy to read this. I’m honored and delighted that this was a great read!
The Stray Reader 
Leave a comment