Sufficiently Advanced Magic

Executive Summary: I'm a sucker for the magic school trope, and this version seemed to hit everything just right for me. I only have a few minor complaints or this might have been a 5 star read. 4.5 stars.

Audiobook: Nick Podehl is great as always. He does a variety of voices that really makes this a must listen. The second book is out in ebook, but not audio yet. I'll be waiting for the audio even though I really wanted to continue right into the second book.

Full Review
You'd think there would be no way to write the magic school trope without it feeling like a rehash of the countless other books/series that have done it before, but somehow I keep finding and enjoying new variations on the idea.

Mr. Rowe's take is no different. In particular I really enjoyed the magic system he created to server as the foundation of his school. Learning magic is part escape room, part D&D (or well I guess maybe all D&D).

There is also a good mystery element to this book that drives the main plot beyond our protagonist attending magic school and learning how to harness his newfound magic powers. The school wasn't the focus here so much as the setting. There looks to be a lot of interesting aspects to the world beyond its walls.

I thought the characters were all pretty good. Their is a decent variety of both male and female characters and all of them get their chance to shine, not just the protagonist. I appreciate a lot of the quirks/social anxiety of Corin. I'm not as bad as he is, but I can understand where he's coming from.

I'm terrible at names, so I can't remember anyone else whose name isn't included in the blurb. Corin's friends are made up of a summoner, and elementalist (I think?), a guardian and someone who refuses to divulge their attunement, but runs around with guns. I thought they all had something interesting to add to the story beyond being just a means of flushing out the magic system.

My only real complaint is the writing is a bit clunky at times. I'm not someone who thinks too much about the prose of books I read, so long as I'm being entertained. This book was very entertaining, but there were a few times when the dialogue or repetition of words pulled me out of the story, albeit very briefly.

Overall I found this book a lot of fun and plan to continue just as soon as the second book comes out in audio. As this is indie published, that's always a crap shoot. It does appear the author got word it was being recorded earlier this month, so hopefully that means it will be out sometime soon. I'll be eagerly awaiting its release.