Sufficiently Advanced Magic

DNF - PG ... not sure. Somewhere around 15, I think.

Why?

I've heard it said that people don't skim read dialogue. I know from personal experience that this is true for me. My eyes tend to glaze over during heavy descriptions, but I stick through dense conversations. (Usually, to be fair.)

This book finally has its first real conversation start on page 34. For me and my average reading speed, that would take me roughly half an hour to reach. I have not the desire, patience or inclination to read through so many pages front loaded with descriptions of nothing but puzzle rooms.

Books need a hook to capture my attention. Either the first few pages - first chapter at the most - has to be catchy, or there has to be something in the synopsis that I desire to push through to reach. This book has neither.

Conceivably, at a later date, I could be interested enough to want to keep reading - but the fact is, if I want a dense, description heavy, wordy fantasy (which I seldom do) I have rereads more deserving of my time than this book seems to be.

Edit: Likely won't ever come back to it, as a quick check of book two indicates more of the same problems I had with this one and - while book three appears to at least start off better - I haven't the patience to force my way through two books for that slim chance.

This book was a real whirlwind. Getting into the story was hard, mainly because the worldbuilding was extensive but not at all explained. All the characters, even the one narration consistently knew more about the world than the reader did, which I really disliked. It made everything seem unimportant and boring. 

The events also seemed to be strung together totally randomly. Nothing seemed to happen for any reason but because the writer wanted it to. Lots of mysteries were introduced, none of which were explained. This book was already super long and yet it didn't come to a conclusion on any part and only left more questions. It was too focussed on being a book in a series than on telling an engaging story. 

The characters were also really not likeable. I couldn't relate to them at all. Especially the teachers who ends up betraying them didn't really come out of nowhere because we didn't really learn anything about who she was. It was like the whole story was devoid of emotional significance in the characters. It didn't leave much for my mind to engage with. 

8/10

El final fue muy fuerte

Well that was a slog. If you want a detailed magic system which still does not make sense then you have come to the right place. I guess its quite necessary for Andrew to have these many action sequences as otherwise there is no way someone would finish the book. I mean I kept reading to the end hoping to make sense of it. But this hooked me enough for me to venture into Book 2 so that in itself deserves high praise. I thought the Six Secret swords was much better and that really set some different expectations for me.

זה ספר ארוך, חפרני לעתים, ובעיקר מאוד חינני.

קורין מחפש את אחיו, שנעלם בתוך מגדל קסום בן אינספור קומות המלאות במפלצות, מלכודות, רעלים, בריכות לבה ושאר דברים משובבי לב. מי שמצליח לצאת לטיול במגדל ולשרוד לספר על כך, זוכה גם ביכולות כישוף ובכרטיס כיוון אחד לבית הספר לקוסמים. רק שאחיו של קורין מעולם לא חזר, ועכשיו קורין בעצמו נשלח אל תוך המגדל. הוא רוצה להשיג לעצמו כוח קסום, במטרה מתישהו, ביום מן הימים, להצליח להעפיל לקומות העליונות של המגדל ולהחזיר את אחיו האובד לחיים.

אם זה נשמע קצת כמו משחק מחשב, זה משום שזה ספר שנקרא בדיוק כך. לדמויות יש מקצועות, יכולות, כישורים שונים ואפילו דרגה. הן אשכרה יודעות מתי הן עולות בדרגה! הן יכולות לבדוק כמה מאנה יש להן, ואיפה! יש חפצים קסומים, ושיקויים, והסברים מורכבים על כישופים, ובעיקר מערכת קסם כה מפורטת שתגרום אפילו לברנדון סנדרסון לנוד בראשו בבלבול. זה די מגניב וניכר שהושקעה בכך מחשבה רבה, אבל זה גם מביא למצבים שבהם לפתע נחשפת מול קורין עובדה בסיסית על העולם שפשוט אין סיכוי שהוא לא ידע קודם, אלא אם הוא חי מתחת לאבן (הוא לא). ובעיקר זה מביא לחפרנות מתישה לעתים - המון עובדות, המון פרטים, וקורין, נשמה סקרנית וחקרנית שכמותו, מגיב להכל כאילו זה הדבר הכי חשוב שהוא אי פעם שמע, אז הכל נראה חשוב גם אם מדובר בפרטים שלא קשורים לעלילה בשום צורה שהיא. אם רק הייתי מקבלת שקל על כל פרויקט מחקר שקורין מסמן לעצמו עקב אינפודאמפ רנדומלי, כבר היה לי מספיק כסף למשלוח האוכל ההודי מוולט שהתקמצנתי עליו אתמול ואני עדיין מרירה בקשר לכך.

אבל מה שמציל את הספר מטרחנות מבלתי נלאית זה פשוט כמה שהוא מקסים. יש בו מן ההארי פוטריות, ואולי עזר שהקשבתי לו תוך כדי ניקוי כלים אחרי משלוחי וולט שלא התקמצנתי עליהם ושטיפת הבית. יש לו קצב רגוע, לא ממהר לשום מקום. קורין הולך לשיעורים, לומד דברים, חוקר חפצים קסומים, מסתחבק עם מוכרים בחנות, מתקשקש עם חבריו בחדר האוכל. נחמד פשוט להתלוות אליו מבלי לצפות שמשהו גדול או מסעיר יקרה.

ומעבר לזה - הדמויות. הן פשוט חינניות. קורין הפציפיסט עם המוח ההיפראקטיבי והדדי-אישיוז, והכתיבה שלו כדמות א-מינית שהיתה פשוט יפה וטבעית. חצי האחות שלו סרה, מלאת ביטחון ומגניבה. ג'ין, איש המיסתורין העטוף באניגמה. מריסה, ופטריק, והפרופסורים המוצלחים והפורפסורים הנכלוליים, והחביב עליי, דרק הדושבאג השחצן (or is he?). אני לא יכולה לחשוב על דמות אחת שלא חיבבתי, ואולי זה היה בעוכריו של הספר, כי הדמויות נשארו lovable גם כשהן עשו מעשים שהם.. הרבה פחות. אבל עדיין, רציתי ללוות אותן ולראות מה קורה איתן, אפילו כשזה היה כרוך בללוות אותן להרצאה של חצי שעה על סוגי מאנה שונים. וחמישה פרויקטים שונים של קורין שלא רלוונטיים לשום דבר. כי זה פשוט עדיין היה כה, כה חינני.

בקיצור, ספר מושלם לעבודות הבית, ואני ללא ספק אקרא את ההמשך ברגע שתהיה לי מספיק מאנה לחפירות.

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.

Surprise surprise, I will be controversial again. This book is bad. I'm about 2/3 in and it's just not worth this time I wasted on it already.

Here we have our people who get magical powers from a goddess if they complete puzzles in a tower. Corin's brother went in, never came out, so... yeah. Corin wants to go in and find him. He goes in, gets entry level power, goes to magic uni to level up to go back in to find him.

This thing is fucking LONG, man. Not even justified long, because it can be that way without feeling like a bogged down crawl though molasses. Here it just looks like no editor was ever found, which sucks, one could have probably broken out the red pen of doom and carved out huge chunks of unneeded stuff. Now what are these unneded things?
Corin is a magical version of some sort of an engineer, okay? He makes magical items. He also narrates the book, so it means we have to read him thinking about shit. Not interesting stuff. Like how to make basic level items that he doesn't really know how to, so it means endless brainstorms of shit that he will probably not make.
What is worse, every time he finds a goal... it just gets disovered he will need to do 75 other shit before he gets to it. Not kidding. To get to his brother he needs to get to the tower, get little power, get to uni, build items, build items for his buddies, but for that he needs mana, but he has very little, he needs crystals, but those cost cash, so he needs to learn to make crystals to make times, to sell, to get cash, to get more supplies, to make the better items for team, to get to exams, to get points, to get into elite dorm, to get better supplies, to get more points, to get to elite military, to get to tower, to get to brother... (spoiler, he is only been to school in less than aa semester, we are nowhere near)
Why the fuck am I doing this to myself, people? Kill me. Just take me out and kill me.
The nonsensical story structure and world building doesn't end here. The power levels have like aa gaillion rating systems. Like depending on what class he is, where on his body his mark is, then mana levels, then rated in gemstone names, all gemstone levels also rated by letters. Fucking why? Oh, also, classes can kinda do the same things with different technique, so more mumdo-jumbo.

By now you probably get why this is slow. So much useless information you have to exactly learn or you won't get shit. By the way, people can work above their level, as I said classes kinda merge in some ways, so it all means. Thanks.
I sound salty becuse I am.

And now let me talk about Corin, this cardboard idiot. Imagine a character who is probably a shitty robot, masquerading as a person, but is failing. That's right. It's him.
His personality is awkward. I am convinced the author is trying to write a protagonist with autism (engineer type with autism, so original), but this was just uncomfortable. Corin is absolutely oblivious to everything in life. In their society they have nobility and peasants and it took him 17 years to realise it means.... read carefully now, I will go deep... that they are not all treated equal. LE GASP? He also benevolently concedes that it's WRONG. I'm baffled.
Oh, also, Corin, our resident genius is even worse. Beatin C3PO in the robotic department our dude excells. He never cares about dating nobody. Doesn't even really cares. Then a dude asks him out and in the span of 2 seconds he realises he is gay. A dude he didn't even think about or care about at all. He didn't even really properly LOOKED at him. BTW, other dude is also a pseudo-Asian foreigner royalty from an enemy country for maximum angst-possibility points.
Why are you fucking useless, Corin? Why? What comes next?

Other than it being a retarded way of making a character behave, how far can we go from subtlety? Yes, the dad dislikes how Corin is not in the family battlemage business, but he himself likes this. We got the message of being yourself and not worrying about others' expectations. We don't have to literally check all the “different” boxes that exist. I “can't wait” for him confronting his dad about “yes, I am a family disgrace, who is autistic, besties with peasants, gay, literally fucking someone from a country that will inevitably attak us”. No cheese, please. (I am 100% sure his bro is alive btw, wonder what he can be hiding after THIS. He's probably a weed-smoking communist furry, none of which dad would like, prolly. I hope he has nipple piercings and a soul patch.)

Everyone loves this, but to me it was misery. Impractical choices, “how are you even alive?” characters, a worldbuilding that reads like I'm trying to learn the wikia of some RPG by heart, slooooooooow.
I don't recommend it, I won't continue, I probably won't try another series by the author. Just leave me alone now.

Good night and let me leave this tower of terror!

I absolutely loved this book! It was amazing!

This story follows Corin Cadence. He is getting ready to go into The Tower for his Judgment. The Judgement is a magical test to get into a school of magic. Hopefully he will earn a great Attunement during his test. The type of Attunement he receives will determine what type of magic he will use. It's not just about school for Corin though. He needs to excel and be as powerful as he can. His brother went into the Tower and never came out. Corin believes he is still alive and he will do whatever it takes to find him.

I loved the characters, the magic system, and everything else about this book. It ended on a major cliffhanger, so I have to have the next book!!

★★★☆☆ 3,5 stars for this magical litRPG story

Prior to Sufficiently Advanced Magic I did not know a genre called litRPG existed and I didn't really have an idea as to what that genre is, so I'll explain it real quick. LitRPG is a fantasy genre where the main characters are faced with game-like quests and challenges. In this case there is a tower level-crawling challenges. Furthermore are the characters often aware that they are playing a ‘game'. Here's also a short wiki article about the genre.

Rating this book was difficult for me. It has flaws that really bothered me to the point were in took away some of the enjoyment. I was unsure whether to give three or four stars, but I ulitmately decided on three because the flaws just bothered me too much.

The story is about Corin Cadence who is going to his judgement. It's the first test in the Tower, in this case the Serpent Spire. Passing the test and the way you do it is vital for the type of attunement you will get. An attunement determines the type of Mana you can use.

While trying to beat the tests, Corin comes across something unusual and gets entangeled into something he really can't handle at his current level. He'd really rather not be invovled in all that, thank you very much, the only thing he cares about is reaching the top of the tower so he can ask the Goddess to give him his brother back who never returned from his judgement.

I found the idea of the litRPG part really interesting as well as the magic system. Your Mana is really measured in Mana Points so it really feels like a game and I loved playing things like Golden Sun. It took a bit getting used to because as I said, I didn't know litRPG or even that something like it exists so I was a bit confused when the book started to appear so game-like.

The writing had quite a flaws, the first and most bothersome thing was the repetition of phrases. It got to the point where I really wanted to throttle the characters. Believe me, you'll hate the word “interesting” and the phrase “I'd have to research that later”.

I didn't really have any emotional connection to any of the characters because, despite the book having 600 pages, you learn awfully little about the other characters, instead the author drags you throw long passages where stuff gets explained or analytical parts. I don't mind those usually but I'd rather have learned a bit more about the other main characters or Corin himself.

The pacing also sometimes took the urgency out of some situations or the overall story.

My favourite character wasn't even any of the main chara's but one of the summoned monsters, the karvensi Vanniv, I love his sassy ass. I'd sign up for a story about him right away.



All in all it was an interesting read with twists I reall wasn't expecting and even though I gave it 3,5 stars I really did enjoy it and look forward to the next book that should come out in 2018 according to the author.

Some plot holes, but still my favorite Game-Lit book. (Although, it's not Game-Lit in the strictest sense.)

Another boy wonder goes to wizard school kind of book. I did not like Harry Potter, The Magicians and many others of this ilk.

But its not only the vast amount of wasted time describing the daily life of a college student, sprinkled with some fantasy elements just for color, that I find unbearable. The story and characters overall are weak, but it was the cliches that hit me the most. In particular, I stopped reading the moment one of the male students was asked by a teacher to challenge another student for combat class. He could pick anyone he wanted. He picked a small girl that looked very defenseless. She beated the crap out of him.

read 4:32 / 21:58 21%

Are you tired of fantasy wizards waving their hands mysteriously to accomplish whatever the plot requires? Do you like the defined magic systems in Brandon Sanderson's or Brent Weeks' books? There's a good chance that this is the book for you.

Sufficiently Advanced Magic marks the launch of Andrew Rowe's new Arcane Ascension series. It's his third published book and (in my opinion) his strongest work yet.

This book is set in the same universe as Rowe's War of Broken Mirrors series but takes place many years later, similar to Legend of Korra or Alloy of Law. There are a few easter eggs for those who've read his other series, but no prior knowledge is needed.

Rowe's magic system is incredibly detailed and thought out, taking inspiration from series like Mother of Learning and Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. In the world of Sufficiently Advanced Magic, anyone can become an “attuned” by proving themselves worthy in one of the seven enormous towers spread across the continent. All you have to is not die, which is kind of hard when there are mysteriously deadly puzzles and hordes of monsters waiting for you in the towers. Once you are attuned, you have access to different kinds of mana, which in turn allow you to perform different types of magic. There is a wide variety of magic types, so just because the system is “defined” doesn't mean it's overly limited. Also, as you get more powerful you get to level up through the colors of the rainbow!

There's an interesting mix of different technologies. You can ride a train through the deadly wildlands between nations and even buy an automobile if you are rich enough, but knives and swords are still pretty common weapons. Guns exist, but so do magical dueling canes that can shoot, well, magic. There's also a Goddess, multiple god-beasts, secret societies, a brewing war, and more.

Most of the story takes place in the magical academy of Lorian Heights, where the main character tries to figure out how to improve his magical abilities, occasionally trying to “game” the system to come out ahead. It felt a little bit like Hogwarts, but where you feel like you as the reader could practically be taking notes in each class scene. Again, Rowe really knows his stuff with magic systems.

We experience the story in first-person narration through the eyes of Corin Cadence. He's a young noble who is willing to brave the dangers of the tower to earn an attunement and discover what happened to his brother, who went missing five years earlier. Finding his brother is one of his driving motivations throughout the book. Corin is smart and logical and generally a fun, well-developed character.

Corin forms a core group of friends as the story progresses, similar to a party in a role-playing game (after all, this book borrows a lot from the litRPG genre). These characters are less developed than Corin, as is to be expected in a first person book, but most of them are engaging. You get to meet snarky professors, loyal friends, teenagers who like to be mysterious, and more.

The overarching plot of the novel is Corin's quest to find his brother. In the first few pages, Corin enters the tower and begins a deadly test to earn an attunement and discover why his brother disappeared.

Don't be fooled, though. The first 10% or so had me convinced the entire book would be a dungeon crawl. It's not. This is definitely a magic school book at its core. Corin realizes that he is too weak to find his brother without growing stronger and gaining allies.

Of course, things get more complicated than that. Corin finds himself entangled in politics beyond his understanding. A conflict is brewing between various nations, monsters, and beings of godlike power, and Corin finds himself at the heart of it.

I thought the book did a good job of balancing over the top fight sequences with learning magic in a school environment. Both types of scenes are done well and you typically switch between them before one starts to get tiring.

The prose is pretty straightforward and doesn't take itself too seriously. Corin cracks jokes and in general is a pretty entertaining POV. The style of writing leans pretty heavily on the analytical side. Expect lots of internal thought processes as Corin thinks his way through various decisions. This can be a little much at times, but it's also a refreshing change of pace from wanting to smack characters for not seeing the obvious possibility right in front of them.

You should read this if you like very detailed magic systems and a logical main character. Expect a lot of rationally thinking through different options and experimenting with magical abilities.

On the other hand, if heavily analytical writing and a major focus on the mechanics of the magic system don't sound interesting, this might not be for you.

You should read this if you like cool fight scenes, dungeon crawls, and deadly puzzles. A good 20% or so of the book takes place in a setting similar to a DnD dungeon and the rest is in a magic school.