Sufficiently Advanced Magic: Arcane Ascension, Book 1

First things first, a warning for those checking the reviews: This story has same-sex relationships and an asexual character front and center in the cast, and the usual "I'm not homophobic but why does it have to be gay, huh?" / "Why doesn't he like sex, this is dumb" suspects have left a number of low-star reviews. Adjust the rating up a few tenths for a more accurate picture of the book's quality.When I first saw the title "Sufficiently Advanced Magic" I warily expected a hard sci-fi-esque magitech world full of system-breaking loopholes for the protagonist to exploit and a Rational^TM protagonist. I was pleasantly surprised to instead find a much gentler application of the inverse of Clarke's Third Law, "sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology". The story simply takes place in a setting where magic is commonplace enough to be just 'how the world works', with a lovingly rendered magic system and economy that simply feels like an organic picture of how things would work with magic as a resource. And while the main character (Corin) is endlessly seeking loopholes and ways to exploit magical interactions, it feels like the excited explorations of an eager and dedicated student rather than Rational^TM munchkinry. At times the examinations of the world and its (very detailed) magic system might drag on for some, but I personally enjoyed the heck out of it. And, well, you're picking up a book titled Sufficiently Advanced Magic. You know exactly what you're getting into.Speaking of Corin though, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing this world through his eyes. Fight scenes are a lot of fun with him, a good mix of analytical and exciting. The story spends time on how he puts in the work to build his skills with magic and combat and none of it feels like wasted time, and it makes the stuff he accomplishes later feel earned. If you don't "get" anxiety some of how he deals with stuff might be frustrating to you, but I found his anxiety very relatable, very well written, and very well handled as he slowly learns to manage it as best he can. I also loved seeing him grow into relationships with his fellow students. It was very satisfying.The relationships in this book (both platonic and romantic) were also one of my favorite parts of the book. Little of it is explosive drama or sweeping romance or deep tragedy. Rather the focus of interpersonal relationships in this book was something subtler, that a lot of books take for granted. It spends its time lingering on the steady building of respect, on fixing mistakes and earning trust, and on learning to open up. The story takes its time establishing the kind of deep committed relationships that last a lifetime and doesn't shy away from spending the time to develop characters who can continue growing with one another as the story progresses. Especially as this series progresses into its second book, the groundwork it takes the time to lay pays off.If I had to pick a theme for the book that mattered to me most as I read it, it would be "constructive". That's the fantasy is delivers on best I think, the idea of putting the work in and becoming better for it, of using magic to *create*, of putting in the work to build martial skills, and of building solid foundations for meaningful lifelong relationships. It's got a "we're going to make something better, together" vibe to it and I like that.Will you like this book? Well, the story has Corin gaining enchanter abilities, rather than a combat oriented magic like his father wants him to be. If you would be disappointed to get the "tinker with and make neat stuff" powers rather than the "kick ass and take names" powers, you might be disappointed with this book. But if that sounds appealing to you, if the idea of being a support artificer who fundamentally needs friends to be effective sounds like your cup of tea, I think you'll like this book.P.S. Corin is constantly saying "I need to research that later" and then not having time to do so, and let me tell you as a graduate student I felt called out. There was no call to come after me like that. Negative 5/5 stars, *too* relatable.

There was more good than bad. I definitely enjoyed several parts of the book. I love the "coming of age" type of series, this has great fantasy, and a well developed world. It did come across as a first novel without a rigorous vetting or editing process, but it was still a nice read. I purchased the kindle and audible versions of this book, and I supremely enjoyed the audiobook's narrator! Great emotion and distinct voices for all of the different characters.The weak points for me were glaringly obvious however. I felt like the author was getting lost in the technicalities of what they were explaining and totally derailed from the main point all the time. I found this style highly distracting and difficult to stay invested and focused on. The other weakness was how wooden the dialog was. It was like an M. Night Shyamalan movie, like he's never heard people speak before. It was really unnatural in parts and again would derail really frequently without adding anything to the story. It just didn't feel real and I was extremely aware that I was reading and struggled to get through these conversations.All that aside, I think my teenaged boys would like this book a lot. We play quite a bit of D&D, Magic, etc and they LOVE the technical stuff that I usually find tedious. Instead I enjoy role playing, being a comedic chaos monkey (CG), and exploration vs of all of the other technicalities that come with building a character and fighting.That being said, I still enjoyed this book enough to buy the second one so please take my criticisms with a grain of salt. If you find you enjoy the technical aspects in books or games, you'll probably love the crap out of this. Cheers!

This is a pretty quirky (in a good sense) book in a fantasy subgenre I was previously not familiar with - LitRPG. It's basically a well-written novelization of a new character in a fantasy RPG, but not in a Warhammer or World of Warcraft way. The RPG portion influence of the book plays out in the highly structured magical system of the book as well as how the students in the novel learn and grow more powerful.There are a few basics to the world building that come out as the setup of the RPG-style world pretty quickly. Throughout the nations of our world there are six scattered giant towers, each of which house a visage of the deity (there's some speculation about what the visages actually are, but you can read the book for that). Adolescents or young adults can enter a tower for a Judgment (basically a beginner dungeon crawl). You can die in these Judgments, so they are serious matters, but if you succeed in your Judgment challenge you can earn an attunement from the deity of the tower.Attunements work much like choosing a profession in a game, except the deity is choosing for you. Each tower has eight possible attunements, some focus on physical/melee fighting, some focus on offensive magical spells of different types, summoning monsters, healing, creating magical items, etc. Each of the towers have their own sets of attunements an the skills that come with each one are nuanced although they may have overlapping skills with another tower's attunement of a similar type.Further going along with the RPG style theme, once you gain an attunement you also now have an affinity for two flavors of magic (primary and secondary) that go with your attunement type. Magic can be all kinds of "types" such as life, air, fire, earth, transference, mental, enhancement, etc. Lastly, as you gain more skill in your attunement your mana increases and you move up in ranks that are delineated by gemstone levels (quarts, carnelian, sunstone, citrine, emerald, sapphire).This kind of very systematic world building (similar to the branching and skill management of many RPG games) also makes an appearance in the adventuring in the narrative as during the dungeon crawl sections we see a lot of color-coded portals, etc. We also see the appearance of monsters that are both familiar to RPG players but also creative. There's a moment where a slime monster drops a pickaxe that cracked me up - it was so typical of the random junk loot that low level monsters drop in games!On to the actual story!! Our protagonist is Corin Cadence, the young heir of House Cadence. When Corin's elder brother Tristan went for his Judgment he never came out of the tower and is presumed dead, but it's not certain that he is dead. Locating Tristan is one of Corin's main motivations throughout the book. When Corin goes for his Judgment he receives an attunement he was not expecting (focusing on making magical items) rather than a more straight forward combat skill attunement.When Corin enters the tower for his Judgment, he gets tangled up in a plot that was far beyond what most experience during their Judgment and develops further over the course of the novel. After the initial dungeon crawl we see Corin enter the magic school (Lorian Heights) and get an introduction to other students and professors. The other students include some friends Corin knew from his prior schooling (although his father had pulled him out of school for the last few years and tutored him privately) and, most interestingly, Sera Cadence who was raised to be Corin's retainer, but is all of a sudden a contender with him for heir due to their father's legitimizing Sera.Corin's circle of friends and professors at the school are genuinely interesting characters and help flesh out the world building as they each have different skills and abilities. It's also great having a protagonist that has to be a little more creative in his solutions to things (even if not always successful) since his skill is now for making magical items. In the game sense he's more of a support class than a front line fighter - valuable for how he can help the rest of the party but not fantastic as a solo player.Corin as a character has some interesting issues that are hinted at (social anxiety, aversion to touch, deep fear of mental damage) that are definitely present and somewhat explored, but the history is not laid out for the reader. There are many depths left to explore with this character.The book has a couple of dungeon crawl phases, quite a lot of magic school time, and a lot of preparing for the dungeon time as well as some random other adventurers. It's pretty well-rounded and will be a satisfying read especially for readers who are looking for a very regimented magical system as well as those who like the call backs to prevalent gaming systems.The book had a satisfying plot conclusion but also left quite a lot of room to explore the narrative further in the sequel and I'm looking forward to reading it when it comes out!

Sufficiently Advanced Magic (SAM) is currently a finalist in this year's Self Published Fantasy Blog off (SPFBO) and you can find out more about the initiative by clicking here. This is, in fact, the reason I picked it up. It's not my usual cup of tea, but I'm reading all the finalists this year and I'm glad I made the effort.So SAM is the result of taking Kvothe, Hogwarts, Diablo (the video game), and anime (in general) and throwing them all into a blender. OK, not really, but it's not that far off. The main character is very Kvothe-like (though not quite as annoying), the school is very Hogwarts-like (and not just because it's a school that teaches magic), the magic system is very video-game like in its mountainous detail of attunements and tiers and levels, and there's anime influences ALL over the book. Yes, I see you, Itachi and your Sharingan all over that epilogue. None of this is a bad thing, I'm just drawing all the customary comparisons in one paragraph.The story follows young Corin Cadence in a 1st person PoV. Corin is not your usual hero in that he's not the most combat proficient character (except when he is), and he has a habit of over analysing everything instead of the normal hero trait of jumping straight in with both feet and hoping things turn out fine. His analysis of each and every situation occasionally grated on my nerves, but for the most part he was a serviceable hero, though not the most likable of chaps. Truth is, you don't always have to be likable. I detested Jalan (Prince of Fools) for 2 books and still loved them, and Kvothe (Name of the Wind) may be my most hated protagonist in all of fantasy yet I still have read both his books.Corin is determined to either find his missing brother, or ask the goddess to bring him back to life in the case he is dead. His brother was lost in the tower years ago. Towers are magical places of testing where people are pitted against puzzles and monsters and can earn magic and items and money for successfully climbing to higher levels. They're also run by fragments of the goddess who appear to be entirely separate from her. After earning his first magical attunement, Corin then goes to magic school to learn to use said attunement. And from there things go a little sideways as Corin finds himself embroiled deeper and deeper in a spiraling plot that threatens the kingdom, and maybe even... the world!This book was a little more YA (young adult) than I was expecting. I don't tend to touch the genre because I find it frustrating. And at times I certainly found SAM frustrating, but those moments were overshadowed by the "ooooooh" and "aaaaaahh" moments. Even though Corin doesn't like touching people or being touched, there's a fair few periods of him pontificating about his feelings over XY and Z. All in all, a bit more YA than I'm used to, but not enough to put me off.The magic system is intricate. Clearly a lot of time went into designing it, and a lot of time goes into explaining it (it even comes with diagrams in the book). It's complex and obviously inspired by video game mechanics. At times it feels a little overpowered with people teleporting all over the place, but it fits well within the context of the story and allows for a lot of cool moments.I must admit I found the pacing a little off at times. The book slows right down in the middle with lots of exposition as magic systems and political borders and history lessons are all delivered in the form of lectures, both to the characters and to us. It makes for a few dry chapters, but there's usually a monster attack or puzzle test for our characters at the end of those chapters which soon makes you forget about the lecture. Pretty cool monsters all round as well, with a large scope for more as the series progresses. The action scenes themselves often feel a bit slow as well due to Corin's analysis of everything. It sometimes felt like everything was happening in slow motion with plenty of time for him to describe possible outcomes.The writing is excellent. It's my first time experiencing Andrew Rowe's own particular style and I felt it fit the story and world very well and did the job nicely. There were a few times I felt a joke or quip was a bit forced, but they were few and far between.And while I won't go into spoilery details, I will say the finale was blistering and exciting and vivid. There was a goosebumps moment in there so definitely worth the read.I'm giving SAM a solid 4 stars. I really enjoyed it and eagerly look forward to the sequel. If you like video games, anime, or Harry Potter give this one a go right now!

This is my first time trying a LitRPG book and I actually quite enjoyed it. While I've played quite a few RPG games, I'm not a huge gamer and haven't played table top games really since I was a kid so I didn't think this was going to be for me, so it was a pleasant surprise when I got really into this. Our main protagonist and only POV is Corin Cadence, the heir to a minor noble house after his older brother went missing and is presumed dead. The brother went missing climbing a Tower, where people go to fight monsters and solve puzzles that if you succeed you gain a magical attunement and get to go to magic school. Most of the book is about Corin's time in the school and trying to figure out what really happened to him when he went to the Tower to get his attunement.So from the description above it really is like reading about a real life RPG game. Characters kill monsters who leave mana crystals and sometimes items of interest. There's lots of talk of increasing your mana points and leveling up. There is lots and lots of talk of forging magical items. This shouldn't work but it does somehow. OK I did find myself skimming some of the more detailed descriptions of the 'magic system' but the story was interesting enough that I didn't mind the numerous info dumps. The world itself is pretty unique, I was expecting the usual pseudo medieval world with all the talk of monsters but this is really a secondary world urban fantasy with trains, cars guns etc in addition to the monsters, magic swords, gods and god beasts. There is a light heartedness to this book that was pretty refreshing and the snark and banter on show is up there with the MCU.Corin is a likeable protag, full of quips yes but with an interesting backstory that really hasn't been explored in enough detail yet, and a degree of ticks that is believable from what we know of him. The other characters are interesting but at a fairly superficial level, since we only have Corin's POV and he is fairly introverted, it is somewhat understandable but also frustrating, I would have liked a bit more.As an introduction to the subgenre this has been a bit of a blast and though the book does get bogged down sometimes in too much detail, I think that is the nature of the beast here. There is a good conclusion with plenty of thrills and reveals but it is definitely set up for a sequel as there are probably more questions now unanswered than at the start.

This novel is anime meets D&D meets another anime (specifically Log Horizon). Set in a world where people have to fight and figure their way up towers to get special powers the game aspects of it are immediately apparent. Ascending the tower isn't the whole book though and a lot of the novel is set at university, finding out how the different powers work and exploring the wider world.But what I liked most, and the reason it got compared directly to Log Horizon, is that the main character works hard at figuring stuff out! He spends a lot of time looking at the deeper abilities of his powers, what he can do with them and in general how everything works. In a world like this it's a positive joy. He also appears to be asexual and there's sadly few enough of those in literature that it's noteworthy.There's a lot of cool fights that are properly build up and some interesting characters. The politics of the world are well explained and the plot twists nicely set up. Literally my only complaint about this novel is that it's got two characters called Seras and Veras and I kept getting confused between them.Frankly I'm stuck between recommending this book to my friends and stealing the rooms inside the towers for one of my own D&D campaigns. But if you're reading this then you're unlikely to ever play them so you should absolutely buy this book.

Very enjoyable read! It feels like a mystery novel in a world with magic or in this case mana. You're left questioning motives for each character and learning about the side characters through very natural feeling dialogue. I found that the main character was snarky but not mean, and there was some clear character growth, in the main character, as the relationships between the main character and side characters were explored. The side characters are very likeable and we have equal time with each of them.It's very much a magic school story, with dungeon crawling mixed in. I find myself wanting to unravel more lore.

I debated between giving this book three or four stars, and have decided to give four as I did like the book and there are several things the book does well.First of all, the book tells a coherent story, with some good plot twists I did not see coming, and a nice mix between school and dungeon crawl settings. The prose is functional and straightforward and gets the story told. You can also tell he has put a lot of thought into the world he has created, and I am interested to see how the story opens up in future volumes.However, the best part of the book, by far, is the magic system. You can tell that a massive amount of thought has gone into this, and it seems incredibly balanced, with realistic strengths and limitations for each area. However, this also then leads into one of the biggest flaws of the book, and why I nearly gave it three stars - it is very much tell, rather than show. There is a huge amount of exposition in the first 80% of the book - he is clearly proud of the magic system and wants to explain EVERYTHING. Then, just when you've got past one round of exposition, another one will pop up. If this sort of thing annoys and frustrates you, you should probably take at least one star off this review.The author also writes from the first person, and sometimes goes into too much detail about what the main character does on a particular day while at school. While interesting, it is also very tempting to skim, as there is some repetition here, and I feel it could perhaps have been more judiciously edited to move the book along.So, if you dislike a large amount of exposition and a lot of detail, you will want to remove a star (or possibly two) and this book may not be for you. All that being said, I did enjoy the book, and I would be interested in purchasing the sequel when it comes out, as the story was strong enough to keep me interested throughout, and I was entertained. The magic system is excellent, and there are some interesting characters. Recommended, with the above caveats.