Dragon Mage

This was fun! It has been a while since I have read such a pure epic fantasy novel so this was very refreshing. Ok, so the ideas may lean heavily into existing tropes but the execution here is on point. The basic concept is that the world has been split in two by some ancient cataclysm into the World Above and the World Below, with the void in between inhabited by monsters. The conflict that created this divergence is still very much ongoing. Into this our two main protagonists are thrown, a sorcerer called Aram and Markus - someone completely immune to magic. They form a friendship in their village but there world is turned upside down when a parasitic order of magicians takes notice of them.

There is definitely a black and white, good vs evil vibe running strongly through the story, very Tolkeinesque in its view. There is strong coming of age element typical to many epic fantasies, a definite chosen one narrative as well. The world building is done extremely well, with the two sides of the world definitely feeling distinctive.

All in all I loved this - devouring the story super fast for what is very chonky book. The prose was engaging, well written. The characters had you rooting for them. The scope felt suitably vast and epic. My only minor criticism is on the main evil character Sergan, who was a little bit one note, but he served his role well. I cannot wait to see where this goes - the book provided a satisfying conclusion to its main arc but there is a very obvious wider story that can be seen to grow from here. This type of plotting is to be applauded as well - it is nice to get some satisfying closure in the first book!

Highly recommended