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Arcane Ascension #3
The Torch that Ignites the Stars
After concluding their first year at Lorian Heights, Corin and his friends catch a train from their native Valia to the distant country of Caelford. For most, this would be a simple vacation. Corin has other plans.
-Meet Anabelle Farren, the eccentric owner of Farren Labs, and learn about artificial attunements.
-Seek out Warren Constantine, a previous Arbiter, for training and a potential alliance.
-Find the visage Ferras herself to seek a cure for Sera’s condition.
Of course, Corin is Corin, and there’s absolutely no chance he’s going to be able to stick to a list.
…And even if Corin miraculously developed a sense of focus, he isn’t the only one with plans.
The Blackstone Bandit.
Everyone’s favorite mysterious book entity.
The aforementioned Farren.
A vacationing professor.
The mirror of a figure from Keras’ past.
When their plots intersect, Corin and his friends are, predictably, stuck at the center.
It’s going to be a long vacation.
-Meet Anabelle Farren, the eccentric owner of Farren Labs, and learn about artificial attunements.
-Seek out Warren Constantine, a previous Arbiter, for training and a potential alliance.
-Find the visage Ferras herself to seek a cure for Sera’s condition.
Of course, Corin is Corin, and there’s absolutely no chance he’s going to be able to stick to a list.
…And even if Corin miraculously developed a sense of focus, he isn’t the only one with plans.
The Blackstone Bandit.
Everyone’s favorite mysterious book entity.
The aforementioned Farren.
A vacationing professor.
The mirror of a figure from Keras’ past.
When their plots intersect, Corin and his friends are, predictably, stuck at the center.
It’s going to be a long vacation.
19 pages, Audible Audio
First published December 6, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 341 reviews
July 11, 2021
I am a longtime fan of Andrew Rowe and his books. I loved How to Defeat a Demon King and Sufficiently Advanced Magic was groundbreaking. However, I have some issues with this book. Below are some of those issues, in no particular order, but with some spoilers.
This story felt a little poorly planned and like the author didn't quite know what to do with it at times, like it was a placeholder to set up the next book. In the beginning portion of the book Corin goes over some enchanting projects that are very interesting and have very important immediate and long-term applicability. Then that's basically it. He does some catch up and makes a couple more batteries and that's it; no more projects for this book. Patrick feels more and more like a dog that was adopted, just to be left at home by himself. He feels less and less relevant and is constantly pushed aside and left behind, in addition to not adding much to any conversation.
At one point Researcher, the knowledge elemental summon, demonstrates the ability to remotely copy and reproduce books with a certain range of her. This is an incredibly useful ability that is only relevant for that scene. At one point later on they are about to go to a tower filled with rare and forbidden knowledge and Researcher asks to be summoned there, because it interests her as a knowledge elemental. Once they get there, Corin and Sera stay up and take turns reading these books all night. Researcher is not summoned, despite the fact that she asked to and could have copied literally all of the books for then to read later. Books on magical theory for sorcery and magic from other continents. Important stuff that is incredibly valuable. That was irritating and didn't make sense. Another inconsistency is when Sera states in the beginning of the book that she doesn't remember her Judgement. This is reinforced several times throughout this book and previous ones when it is said that people have those memories erased upon completion. Near the end, Sera regales them all with the tale of her Judgement for a full day. This doesn't make any sense, unless Sera was just taking the opportunity to bask in some attention while she made stuff up?
Lastly, what irritated me the most was that I reached the conclusion that I just really don't like Sera's character. She was alright in previous books, but just feels insufferable now. She has an absurd amount of screentime and has incredibly rare, good things happen to her constantly. Everything that happens to her dramatically increases her power and potential when she was already the most powerful of the students. Even when she supposedly has very little mana, easily the least of any of them and below her levels in the first book, she still has enough to form many, many contracts with extremely powerful monsters and regularly summon them in addition to casting spells. It's ridiculous. With her mana levels and health concerns she should be a huge liability, but she often Carrie's the party be herself. It honestly feels like the author is having a crisis of main characters and wants to focus on Sera instead of Corin, to the point of sabotaging Corin a bit. On that note, Sera is extremely self-serving and constantly uses and abuses those around her. When Corin is actively trying to enchant new items for her to use, for free, using his own money and materials, she still charges him money or favors to lend her mana to charge runes. On an item he is making Her, from his own materials, for free. Later on, when they are debating if Corin should go to the tower, she insists on coming even though it makes the trip longer and more dangerous. Then when they get there and the tower master asks Corin to complete a task for him Sera negotiates what her own reward will be. She wants a personal reward for Corin retrieving something from a testing shrine. Then, once Corin has completed the shrine and asked for the thing he needs for his reward from the shrine, Sera takes advantage of the tower's transportation resources to complete the shrine on her own and get her own rewards, separate from what Corin needed to complete the task. She is constantly free-loading off if Corin and using and abusing him to get more power and stuff while he is using his rewards to progress the main storyline. She us the member of a party that nobody wants to play with because they are too selfish to advance the group instead of themselves. She also constantly sells Corin out to his father. She might say she doesn't want to be the family's heir, but her behavior says otherwise.
On a similar note, Corin seems to get screwed over a lot. Everytime he gets access to some more power, it is a secondary type that isn't very useful. Sera's powerups are always obviously powerful with a phenomenal amount of growth potential while Corin's look like crap and have a laundry list of drawbacks and negatives. It just feels like the author may be trying to prepare us for Corin's death while he makes Sera the MC, even though she is selfish and constantly insulting those around her.
Also, everyone is apparently polysexual now. Everyone. Make of that what you will.
Edit: I am adding this note in because the last line of my review is receiving an inordinate amount of attention. The number of recurring comments and messages I have received is surprising because it was not a significant part of the original review and barely occupied any space in my thoughts when I wrote the greater part of the review, evidenced by how much of the review is specifically not about it. However, since it seems to be the most interesting portion of the review, I will expound on it a little and hopefully satisfy some questions and comments that will no longer need to be asked.
I do not have a problem with non-traditional relationships or sexualities being depicted; it is a work of fiction and anything can happen. I care that it was not done better. The non-traditional sexualities are presented as something so normal that no character remarks upon them, implying that they are a normal and accepted part of society, but those sexualities are only associated with fringe characters.
Book 1:
Corin is a teenager dealing with severe emotional and physical trauma. He has spent several years isolated from his family, friends, and the world at large in an environment where he only interacts with his abuser every day. He receives an attunement that places him on the fringe of his social groups and further ostracizes him from his father. He has no friends aside from long-lost acquaintances and family that adopt him into their existing social group, where he is still an oddity. Corin is originally implied to be asexual, but then expresses that he is open to a same-sex relationship.
Jin is a descendant of the royal line of a conquered kingdom. He is a stranger everywhere he goes, neither accepted by the new rulers of his homeland or the citizens of the neighboring country he goes to school in. Jin expresses interest in Corin, his only friend at the school.
Keras is literally from another world/planet/continent and is hunted by every major authority figure/group until he reaches an uneasy peace with the ones that are relevant to the story. He is as much of an outsider as you can get in that he is not human and not a member of their society or culture in any way. Keras flirts with Derrick, but otherwise does not give away any information about his sexuality.
Derrick is a tower climber that appears to have little interaction with his family, lost his climbing group, and recently got out of a relationship. We don’t see him with any current social relationships outside of his breakup and when he hangs out with the teenagers. He literally lives on the fringes of society in a house at the edge of town by himself. A house that he invites a group of teenagers he has barely met to move into with him. This can be explained a bunch of different ways, but Derrick is still not the model of a healthy and normal adult. Derrick flirts with Keras and is known to have had a long-term girlfriend.
Book 2:
Sheridan is a non-binary individual that attempts to heal Sera. Sheridan is extremely hard to find and can only be reached by referral from one of their friends, choosing to live in secrecy to avoid persecution, presumably because of their abilities. We do not know anything about their sexuality, other than that they identify as non-binary.
Book 3:
Sera is a bastard daughter that was abused and treated as lesser for her entire life, until she received an impressive attunement and was declared legitimate. Her only known friends are the other servants’ children she grew up with and Mara, whom she meets in book 1. She flirts with one of the twin sisters in the tower and tells Corin she wants a sister-wife or something similar. She may just be messing with Corin, which would not be out of character for her since she may very well be a sociopath.
Mara is a commoner raised in a town where her family was abused and punished for not surrendering Mara, a child, to their local lusty noble. Mara experiences any sort of freedom for the first time when she goes to magic school and makes friends with the other characters. She is pursued by one of the twin sisters in the tower and very quickly develops feelings for the weak, delicate girl.
The summoned sisters were created by the tower based on the real birth of twin sisters a handful of decades ago. The sisters were ostracized by society and kept hidden in their home their entire lives for fear that they would be killed as demons, which is exactly what happened. Both sisters are only alive in the tower for a night, but both express romantic interest in other females.
I may have forgotten one or two more minor characters, but I think I got the main ones. My main point in bringing up these characters is that every character that displays a non-traditional sexuality or gender-identity is an outsider on the edge of society. Acting like it is normal is all well and good, but what the characters are saying and what we are being shown is different. There are no functional members of society, authority figures, or role models that identify this way. Saying something is a normal and accepted part of society when it only applies to the misfits and rejects makes it ring hollow. If you got this far and still want to comment how much you disagree, that’s fine. I would just rather talk about Sera than how sexuality is presented. I hate Sera, she’s a manipulative sociopath; let’s talk about that.
This story felt a little poorly planned and like the author didn't quite know what to do with it at times, like it was a placeholder to set up the next book. In the beginning portion of the book Corin goes over some enchanting projects that are very interesting and have very important immediate and long-term applicability. Then that's basically it. He does some catch up and makes a couple more batteries and that's it; no more projects for this book. Patrick feels more and more like a dog that was adopted, just to be left at home by himself. He feels less and less relevant and is constantly pushed aside and left behind, in addition to not adding much to any conversation.
At one point Researcher, the knowledge elemental summon, demonstrates the ability to remotely copy and reproduce books with a certain range of her. This is an incredibly useful ability that is only relevant for that scene. At one point later on they are about to go to a tower filled with rare and forbidden knowledge and Researcher asks to be summoned there, because it interests her as a knowledge elemental. Once they get there, Corin and Sera stay up and take turns reading these books all night. Researcher is not summoned, despite the fact that she asked to and could have copied literally all of the books for then to read later. Books on magical theory for sorcery and magic from other continents. Important stuff that is incredibly valuable. That was irritating and didn't make sense. Another inconsistency is when Sera states in the beginning of the book that she doesn't remember her Judgement. This is reinforced several times throughout this book and previous ones when it is said that people have those memories erased upon completion. Near the end, Sera regales them all with the tale of her Judgement for a full day. This doesn't make any sense, unless Sera was just taking the opportunity to bask in some attention while she made stuff up?
Lastly, what irritated me the most was that I reached the conclusion that I just really don't like Sera's character. She was alright in previous books, but just feels insufferable now. She has an absurd amount of screentime and has incredibly rare, good things happen to her constantly. Everything that happens to her dramatically increases her power and potential when she was already the most powerful of the students. Even when she supposedly has very little mana, easily the least of any of them and below her levels in the first book, she still has enough to form many, many contracts with extremely powerful monsters and regularly summon them in addition to casting spells. It's ridiculous. With her mana levels and health concerns she should be a huge liability, but she often Carrie's the party be herself. It honestly feels like the author is having a crisis of main characters and wants to focus on Sera instead of Corin, to the point of sabotaging Corin a bit. On that note, Sera is extremely self-serving and constantly uses and abuses those around her. When Corin is actively trying to enchant new items for her to use, for free, using his own money and materials, she still charges him money or favors to lend her mana to charge runes. On an item he is making Her, from his own materials, for free. Later on, when they are debating if Corin should go to the tower, she insists on coming even though it makes the trip longer and more dangerous. Then when they get there and the tower master asks Corin to complete a task for him Sera negotiates what her own reward will be. She wants a personal reward for Corin retrieving something from a testing shrine. Then, once Corin has completed the shrine and asked for the thing he needs for his reward from the shrine, Sera takes advantage of the tower's transportation resources to complete the shrine on her own and get her own rewards, separate from what Corin needed to complete the task. She is constantly free-loading off if Corin and using and abusing him to get more power and stuff while he is using his rewards to progress the main storyline. She us the member of a party that nobody wants to play with because they are too selfish to advance the group instead of themselves. She also constantly sells Corin out to his father. She might say she doesn't want to be the family's heir, but her behavior says otherwise.
On a similar note, Corin seems to get screwed over a lot. Everytime he gets access to some more power, it is a secondary type that isn't very useful. Sera's powerups are always obviously powerful with a phenomenal amount of growth potential while Corin's look like crap and have a laundry list of drawbacks and negatives. It just feels like the author may be trying to prepare us for Corin's death while he makes Sera the MC, even though she is selfish and constantly insulting those around her.
Also, everyone is apparently polysexual now. Everyone. Make of that what you will.
Edit: I am adding this note in because the last line of my review is receiving an inordinate amount of attention. The number of recurring comments and messages I have received is surprising because it was not a significant part of the original review and barely occupied any space in my thoughts when I wrote the greater part of the review, evidenced by how much of the review is specifically not about it. However, since it seems to be the most interesting portion of the review, I will expound on it a little and hopefully satisfy some questions and comments that will no longer need to be asked.
I do not have a problem with non-traditional relationships or sexualities being depicted; it is a work of fiction and anything can happen. I care that it was not done better. The non-traditional sexualities are presented as something so normal that no character remarks upon them, implying that they are a normal and accepted part of society, but those sexualities are only associated with fringe characters.
Book 1:
Corin is a teenager dealing with severe emotional and physical trauma. He has spent several years isolated from his family, friends, and the world at large in an environment where he only interacts with his abuser every day. He receives an attunement that places him on the fringe of his social groups and further ostracizes him from his father. He has no friends aside from long-lost acquaintances and family that adopt him into their existing social group, where he is still an oddity. Corin is originally implied to be asexual, but then expresses that he is open to a same-sex relationship.
Jin is a descendant of the royal line of a conquered kingdom. He is a stranger everywhere he goes, neither accepted by the new rulers of his homeland or the citizens of the neighboring country he goes to school in. Jin expresses interest in Corin, his only friend at the school.
Keras is literally from another world/planet/continent and is hunted by every major authority figure/group until he reaches an uneasy peace with the ones that are relevant to the story. He is as much of an outsider as you can get in that he is not human and not a member of their society or culture in any way. Keras flirts with Derrick, but otherwise does not give away any information about his sexuality.
Derrick is a tower climber that appears to have little interaction with his family, lost his climbing group, and recently got out of a relationship. We don’t see him with any current social relationships outside of his breakup and when he hangs out with the teenagers. He literally lives on the fringes of society in a house at the edge of town by himself. A house that he invites a group of teenagers he has barely met to move into with him. This can be explained a bunch of different ways, but Derrick is still not the model of a healthy and normal adult. Derrick flirts with Keras and is known to have had a long-term girlfriend.
Book 2:
Sheridan is a non-binary individual that attempts to heal Sera. Sheridan is extremely hard to find and can only be reached by referral from one of their friends, choosing to live in secrecy to avoid persecution, presumably because of their abilities. We do not know anything about their sexuality, other than that they identify as non-binary.
Book 3:
Sera is a bastard daughter that was abused and treated as lesser for her entire life, until she received an impressive attunement and was declared legitimate. Her only known friends are the other servants’ children she grew up with and Mara, whom she meets in book 1. She flirts with one of the twin sisters in the tower and tells Corin she wants a sister-wife or something similar. She may just be messing with Corin, which would not be out of character for her since she may very well be a sociopath.
Mara is a commoner raised in a town where her family was abused and punished for not surrendering Mara, a child, to their local lusty noble. Mara experiences any sort of freedom for the first time when she goes to magic school and makes friends with the other characters. She is pursued by one of the twin sisters in the tower and very quickly develops feelings for the weak, delicate girl.
The summoned sisters were created by the tower based on the real birth of twin sisters a handful of decades ago. The sisters were ostracized by society and kept hidden in their home their entire lives for fear that they would be killed as demons, which is exactly what happened. Both sisters are only alive in the tower for a night, but both express romantic interest in other females.
I may have forgotten one or two more minor characters, but I think I got the main ones. My main point in bringing up these characters is that every character that displays a non-traditional sexuality or gender-identity is an outsider on the edge of society. Acting like it is normal is all well and good, but what the characters are saying and what we are being shown is different. There are no functional members of society, authority figures, or role models that identify this way. Saying something is a normal and accepted part of society when it only applies to the misfits and rejects makes it ring hollow. If you got this far and still want to comment how much you disagree, that’s fine. I would just rather talk about Sera than how sexuality is presented. I hate Sera, she’s a manipulative sociopath; let’s talk about that.
December 11, 2020
Preface: I have not read any of Andrew Rowe's other series. As with my other reviews, I tend to focus on negatives rather than positives since I believe critical reviews are more useful in determining whether something is worth reading or not. This means that despite primarily focusing on negatives, there were definitely parts of the book I enjoyed; I wouldn't have finished it otherwise.
I think there are a few big problems that are holding the book back. It still has an interesting world and I could see why people might like the characters but my enjoyment of this series is dwindling.
The first issue is all the random tangents throughout the plot and dialogs. Worldbuilding is interesting to an extent but I found myself eventually just skipping paragraphs as characters (particularly Corin) would derail a conversation to talk at length about a topic that no (or little) plot relevance. Because of this, the dialog didn't feel like it had a natural flow to it.
These tangents extended to the plot lines too. The group would be on a mission to do something and then find out they needed to do something else first, but to do that they had to complete yet another pre-requisite and so on. What didn't help is that almost none of these plotlines were resolved, making it feel like nothing was really accomplished this book.
I also didn't like how the group's trust issues continue to drive plot points and force conflict where there were none to be had. I found myself rolling my eyes when they decided not to trust both the woman who teleported them and then also the guy she brought them to that they had been searching for.
I am still not sure I like Sera as a character. She was given a not-so-subtle nerf to try and balance her overpowered attunement and contracts but then it was solved through the power of deus ex at the end of this book. Jin literally just appears in the epilogue and gives them the magic flower that solves her problems. It feels strange to fix her this way when her quest to find a cure was an opportunity for character growth.
I know this is going to be controversial but I would rate this book a 2.5/5. The pacing issues caused by the tangents and some of the tower scenes (did we really need multiple pages of the gang looting the junk room?) had my interest waning at times. The meta plot had advanced in the previous two books however it felt as if little was accomplished in this book. I apologize for being this negative in a review but I quite liked the first couple books in the series and this one didn't live up to the expectations I had for it.
I think there are a few big problems that are holding the book back. It still has an interesting world and I could see why people might like the characters but my enjoyment of this series is dwindling.
The first issue is all the random tangents throughout the plot and dialogs. Worldbuilding is interesting to an extent but I found myself eventually just skipping paragraphs as characters (particularly Corin) would derail a conversation to talk at length about a topic that no (or little) plot relevance. Because of this, the dialog didn't feel like it had a natural flow to it.
These tangents extended to the plot lines too. The group would be on a mission to do something and then find out they needed to do something else first, but to do that they had to complete yet another pre-requisite and so on. What didn't help is that almost none of these plotlines were resolved, making it feel like nothing was really accomplished this book.
I also didn't like how the group's trust issues continue to drive plot points and force conflict where there were none to be had. I found myself rolling my eyes when they decided not to trust both the woman who teleported them and then also the guy she brought them to that they had been searching for.
I am still not sure I like Sera as a character. She was given a not-so-subtle nerf to try and balance her overpowered attunement and contracts but then it was solved through the power of deus ex at the end of this book. Jin literally just appears in the epilogue and gives them the magic flower that solves her problems. It feels strange to fix her this way when her quest to find a cure was an opportunity for character growth.
I know this is going to be controversial but I would rate this book a 2.5/5. The pacing issues caused by the tangents and some of the tower scenes (did we really need multiple pages of the gang looting the junk room?) had my interest waning at times. The meta plot had advanced in the previous two books however it felt as if little was accomplished in this book. I apologize for being this negative in a review but I quite liked the first couple books in the series and this one didn't live up to the expectations I had for it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 8, 2020
Got through 70% of the book and couldn't force my way through more. Basically, it's a book where there's a lot of Maybes, Mights, and Coulds, but where nothing actually gets accomplished.
I am not even sure why the main character is the main character at this point. He's one of the most boring characters I've ever read, If this book was reduced in length by 50% it might be worth reading, but as it stands, I wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy.
I can't believe I wasted my life reading what I could from this book. I expected better from this series as I liked the first two books when I read them.
P.S. The character called Sera is insufferable. I hated every line from her this book.
I am not even sure why the main character is the main character at this point. He's one of the most boring characters I've ever read, If this book was reduced in length by 50% it might be worth reading, but as it stands, I wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy.
I can't believe I wasted my life reading what I could from this book. I expected better from this series as I liked the first two books when I read them.
P.S. The character called Sera is insufferable. I hated every line from her this book.
December 9, 2020
Compared to the previous two books the prose has taken a nosedive, too much modern American colloquialism ruins my suspension of disbelief, add to that the numerous grammatical errors this book suffers from and you have got an amateurishly written book.
Plot-wise it was okay, the worldbuilding was much better with scenario rooms in the Spire climbing section being the most enjoyable part of the book. The overarching plot was lacking with many of the characters refusing to answer basic questions while promising to share their insights at an indefinite time in future, which is a really bad way to hook your readers. My last issue was the constant talk of things or people from other books by Mr Rowe, and although not knowing them doesn't impact the plot, it was still mildly infuriating to be constantly bombarded about never before mentioned thing casually without giving any exposition. I am obviously not a big enough fan of this series to waste my time on those other books so I will never know if I actually missed something.
Overall this was an underwhelming read, and I am not sure if I will read the next book.
Plot-wise it was okay, the worldbuilding was much better with scenario rooms in the Spire climbing section being the most enjoyable part of the book. The overarching plot was lacking with many of the characters refusing to answer basic questions while promising to share their insights at an indefinite time in future, which is a really bad way to hook your readers. My last issue was the constant talk of things or people from other books by Mr Rowe, and although not knowing them doesn't impact the plot, it was still mildly infuriating to be constantly bombarded about never before mentioned thing casually without giving any exposition. I am obviously not a big enough fan of this series to waste my time on those other books so I will never know if I actually missed something.
Overall this was an underwhelming read, and I am not sure if I will read the next book.
October 9, 2021
You know, when it comes right down to knowing what you want and setting all your sights on it, and that little something has to do with magic systems, rules, developing your magic skills -- or just plain breaking the system -- then none of us of that *special* breed can go wrong with LitRPG books like this.
Hey, the tale is all progression, a little mystery, and a lot of learning. I LIKE this kind of thing. Hell, I love it.
And so I am here to say that Andrew Rowe is kicking some major ass again. Tower climbing, tower defense, and massive amounts of RPG under-current designing. :)
Hey, the tale is all progression, a little mystery, and a lot of learning. I LIKE this kind of thing. Hell, I love it.
And so I am here to say that Andrew Rowe is kicking some major ass again. Tower climbing, tower defense, and massive amounts of RPG under-current designing. :)
February 1, 2021
I really enjoyed this book in the series, and I'm so glad there's so much more story to come. This is the third book following Corin and his family and friends as they learn about their attunements and the potential they have to create real-world changes. They are a tight-knit group including Mara, Patrick, Sera, Cecily, Keras and Corin, along with many others who pop in along the way. Each of them have their own magic system runes and attunements, and they're all fairly young and still figuring everything out.
What I love about this series is the characters are insecure, different, and more unique than many 'generic' fantasy troupes. Corin has social anxiety and therefore isn't a fan of hugs or contact, but he is learning slowly how to hold friendship close to him still.
There's also a whole lot of asexual and LGBTQ+ rep here, even if not all explicit, through the characters and their fantasies, realities and encounters. I really appreciate seeing this in stories now, and I'm glad it's something this author continues to do with their characters.
The plot of this book follows a winter break holiday to near the Tiger Spire and the adventures that Corin and his friends have there. Along with a mysterious lab which could hold answers to their future careers, there's also the Spire to climb, monsters to battle, deities to encounter, spirits to commune with, challenges and a whole lot more. The puzzles they meet in the Spire were fascinating as always and definitely held the LitRPG tone throughout again, and the quests and directions of the plot often varied from what I expected.
This book and series is a firm favourite for me and one I'm always excited to continue with. I look forward to the next one already. 4*s overall.
What I love about this series is the characters are insecure, different, and more unique than many 'generic' fantasy troupes. Corin has social anxiety and therefore isn't a fan of hugs or contact, but he is learning slowly how to hold friendship close to him still.
There's also a whole lot of asexual and LGBTQ+ rep here, even if not all explicit, through the characters and their fantasies, realities and encounters. I really appreciate seeing this in stories now, and I'm glad it's something this author continues to do with their characters.
The plot of this book follows a winter break holiday to near the Tiger Spire and the adventures that Corin and his friends have there. Along with a mysterious lab which could hold answers to their future careers, there's also the Spire to climb, monsters to battle, deities to encounter, spirits to commune with, challenges and a whole lot more. The puzzles they meet in the Spire were fascinating as always and definitely held the LitRPG tone throughout again, and the quests and directions of the plot often varied from what I expected.
This book and series is a firm favourite for me and one I'm always excited to continue with. I look forward to the next one already. 4*s overall.
December 8, 2020
_________________________________________________________
I loved the book. More world-building and expansion on the magic System. I enjoyed Corin's fight scene a lot and hope to see more of his combat capability next book (considering the epilogue, I think we will see a lot more action next book). And finally, Sera is getting a break she deserves, hopefully, (thanks Jin). Cannot wait for the next book.
June 16, 2021
Executive Summary: A bit of a slow start and some VERY clunky prose, But overall another fun entry in the series. 3.5 stars, rounded up.
Audiobook: I really like Nick Podehl and he once again does a great job here. He uses a variety of voices that makes each character distinct. There are parts of this book through no fault of his own that are a bit painful to listen to as "unabridged" audio, but not too many. Overall I really enjoy audio and will continue to do this series that way.
Full Review
I struggled with the start of this book to get back into things. It didn't help that it felt like the author was frequently advertising his other related books. The characters are often telling other characters stories or commenting how a character might tell them a story later.
All that was missing was the author's footnote saying "available now where all books are sold". I tried Six Sacred Swords which is one of those series and generally struggled with it.
I enjoy this series and its characters, so now I feel like I'm missing out on important backstory by not reading the other series. Especially when the author continued to bring it up as part of this story. All this is to say that it really put me off on the wrong foot with this book from the beginning.
However as things went along, I remember why I enjoy this series so much. The prose has not always been the best, but the world building and the towers are just a lot of fun.
I just generally enjoy the characters as well. I also particularly like the main character. That can help when the dialogue is clunky too.
Overall, I found this a fun read, but it still suffers from polish issues. I'm looking forward to the next book, but I hope there is less talk about how events will be taking place in one of other connected series.
Audiobook: I really like Nick Podehl and he once again does a great job here. He uses a variety of voices that makes each character distinct. There are parts of this book through no fault of his own that are a bit painful to listen to as "unabridged" audio, but not too many. Overall I really enjoy audio and will continue to do this series that way.
Full Review
I struggled with the start of this book to get back into things. It didn't help that it felt like the author was frequently advertising his other related books. The characters are often telling other characters stories or commenting how a character might tell them a story later.
All that was missing was the author's footnote saying "available now where all books are sold". I tried Six Sacred Swords which is one of those series and generally struggled with it.
I enjoy this series and its characters, so now I feel like I'm missing out on important backstory by not reading the other series. Especially when the author continued to bring it up as part of this story. All this is to say that it really put me off on the wrong foot with this book from the beginning.
However as things went along, I remember why I enjoy this series so much. The prose has not always been the best, but the world building and the towers are just a lot of fun.
I just generally enjoy the characters as well. I also particularly like the main character. That can help when the dialogue is clunky too.
Overall, I found this a fun read, but it still suffers from polish issues. I'm looking forward to the next book, but I hope there is less talk about how events will be taking place in one of other connected series.
August 6, 2023
3.5 Stars
I loved this series but I honestly could have skipped this volume. Set during summer break, this read like a filler episode of an anime. It was enjoyable to spend time with the characters but it barely advanced the plot.
I loved this series but I honestly could have skipped this volume. Set during summer break, this read like a filler episode of an anime. It was enjoyable to spend time with the characters but it barely advanced the plot.
March 8, 2021
Reading this book gives me the rather odd feeling of oscillating between “this book is awesome” and “I should really just find this tedious, but I’m actually loving it.”
Let me explain. The Arcane Ascension series (of which this is #3, though there are some outrigger books that kind of complicate things) is LitRPG, so it’s got not only a story but lots of video game/role playing game elements packed into it. These need to be evaluated on their own merits, if I’m going to be fair.
The story is great fun. It’s got mysteries, adventures, challenges, and great characters. I particularly like that the protagonist and secondary protagonists, Corin and Sera, are brother and sister - they have a wonderful relationship, and it’s a nice change of pace to have zero sexual tension between the male and female leads. Throw in the fact that Corin is asexual (though not aromantic) and it’s just a nice read. I’m generally a big fan of romance plotlines, but having a book with that being a much toned-down element (it’s not gone completely) is very enjoyable.
The plot is nicely mysterious, and those mysteries are getting spun out at a good clip. The worldbuilding is a bit thin, mostly (I think) because Rowe wanted a world where he can do whatever RPG stuff he wants. It works. Lots to like here, in other words.
And the action is frequently interrupted for A) Corin to get super interested in the very fine technical points of how magic works, and B) literal dungeon crawls. As in “hey, let’s go through this dungeon and collect some loot and XP.” Though this book Rowe branches out a bit and has Corin doing tower defense as well. (note to Andrew, if you’re reading this: much as I appreciate Corin’s repeated use of the “pile of couches” item, he really should have had access to a Pea-shooter or a Wall-nut or Melon-pult or something.) I kept thinking these segments SHOULD be incredibly tedious, but they just … weren’t. It reminded me of nothing so much as the time I’ve spent over the years reading RPG books (by which I mean stuff like the Player’s Guide and Monster Manual) and the little inset booklets that used to come with video games and, to really date myself, things like the guidebooks they would publish that let you find all the hidden things in old school Final Fantasy games.
So … yeah. I firmly put this book, and series, in the “much more fun than they should be” column. Or maybe I’m just more like Corin than I’d like to admit.
Let me explain. The Arcane Ascension series (of which this is #3, though there are some outrigger books that kind of complicate things) is LitRPG, so it’s got not only a story but lots of video game/role playing game elements packed into it. These need to be evaluated on their own merits, if I’m going to be fair.
The story is great fun. It’s got mysteries, adventures, challenges, and great characters. I particularly like that the protagonist and secondary protagonists, Corin and Sera, are brother and sister - they have a wonderful relationship, and it’s a nice change of pace to have zero sexual tension between the male and female leads. Throw in the fact that Corin is asexual (though not aromantic) and it’s just a nice read. I’m generally a big fan of romance plotlines, but having a book with that being a much toned-down element (it’s not gone completely) is very enjoyable.
The plot is nicely mysterious, and those mysteries are getting spun out at a good clip. The worldbuilding is a bit thin, mostly (I think) because Rowe wanted a world where he can do whatever RPG stuff he wants. It works. Lots to like here, in other words.
And the action is frequently interrupted for A) Corin to get super interested in the very fine technical points of how magic works, and B) literal dungeon crawls. As in “hey, let’s go through this dungeon and collect some loot and XP.” Though this book Rowe branches out a bit and has Corin doing tower defense as well. (note to Andrew, if you’re reading this: much as I appreciate Corin’s repeated use of the “pile of couches” item, he really should have had access to a Pea-shooter or a Wall-nut or Melon-pult or something.) I kept thinking these segments SHOULD be incredibly tedious, but they just … weren’t. It reminded me of nothing so much as the time I’ve spent over the years reading RPG books (by which I mean stuff like the Player’s Guide and Monster Manual) and the little inset booklets that used to come with video games and, to really date myself, things like the guidebooks they would publish that let you find all the hidden things in old school Final Fantasy games.
So … yeah. I firmly put this book, and series, in the “much more fun than they should be” column. Or maybe I’m just more like Corin than I’d like to admit.
December 10, 2020
I don’t really understand what happened with this book. I loved the first two. And I loved weapons and wielders. However suddenly everything seemed so inconsequential with the way things were going with this book. Many of the characters suddenly became extremely obnoxious. Sera, who I once thought was maybe one of the most interesting characters, now was almost completely unbearable in almost every scene she’s in. While Corrin... I mean, his personality seems to change from one thing to another every chapter. There seemed to be way too much exposition and not enough “rising action”. I felt almost nothing gets accomplished. Definitely not enough “ascension”.
I truly hope that what comes next is better because I loved the other books.
I truly hope that what comes next is better because I loved the other books.
April 3, 2024
Rowe does a wonderful job of world-building and it is a joy to read one of his books. This adventure explores part of the continent not visited before in the series and our intrepid travelers manage to visit another tower and discover another facet of the goddess.
A lot happens in the book but it doesn't always seem that things advanced much. Corin didn't get much done on his to do list. He met people but his objectives weren't really met. Some progress was made but it just seems like there should have been more. That being said, it was fun to read and I look forward to the next book in the series. The foundation for some interesting things have been laid and it will be interesting to see what happens.
A lot happens in the book but it doesn't always seem that things advanced much. Corin didn't get much done on his to do list. He met people but his objectives weren't really met. Some progress was made but it just seems like there should have been more. That being said, it was fun to read and I look forward to the next book in the series. The foundation for some interesting things have been laid and it will be interesting to see what happens.
December 24, 2020
The author's time spent in video games becomes apparent, as the story is full of extended side quests that take place for no apparent reason, and dialogue that reads like it was picked from a dropdown box, all wrapped up in cover art far more exciting than anything you'll find inside (checklists! extended monologues on made-up details of magical systems that will be discarded when they're inconvenient! surprise ethical concerns!)
Why is it that authors think human beings say "Point."? I've heard "Good point", but never once have a heard someone say, as a complete utterance, "Point."
Why is it that authors think human beings say "Point."? I've heard "Good point", but never once have a heard someone say, as a complete utterance, "Point."
December 11, 2020
Waste of time reading this. This is probably the last book I'm reading from this series.
January 7, 2021
Rating 3.0 stars
My enjoyment really decreased with this book. I guess the main reason is that I really couldn't understand the goals in this one. In the first book Cadence wants to get an attunement and find out what happened to his brother. The second book was more of the same. Get stronger and find out what happened to his brother. The was a pretty good balance between the action, the practical learning and the theoretical magical learning. This book deals with the time immediately after book 2 ends and the group is going to a different country for a vacation. What do they do on this vacation? They go to a lab and study/do some research. They go to a different spire to get more experience and get stronger. Cadence has vague goals like helping his brother, but since he doesn't know if he agrees with what his brother is doing, there is no concrete plan. Cadence tries to learn everything about everything. Almost all of it was theoretical and very little was practical learning. Nothing really happened for the first 35% of the story. When Cadence and the group did go to the spire, the rest of the team did most of the work. Some of the floors and scenarios where just weird and not very interesting. I don't like the relationship that Cadence has with his sister. They weren't very close for most of their lives but now they are together all the time. I feels this is his story but she keeps calling him an idiot and telling him not to do anything until he passes it by her. I am getting really tired of reading about how Cadence doesn't like to be touched and how he doesn't like being around people. And what is up with the fluid sexuality deal? Is Cadence gay or not? Is Sara? What about Mara? What is going on? How is that adding anything to the story? By the end, nothing was really different. Nothing of great import happened. I am not sure I want to continue the series if this is what it's going to be like moving forward.
My enjoyment really decreased with this book. I guess the main reason is that I really couldn't understand the goals in this one. In the first book Cadence wants to get an attunement and find out what happened to his brother. The second book was more of the same. Get stronger and find out what happened to his brother. The was a pretty good balance between the action, the practical learning and the theoretical magical learning. This book deals with the time immediately after book 2 ends and the group is going to a different country for a vacation. What do they do on this vacation? They go to a lab and study/do some research. They go to a different spire to get more experience and get stronger. Cadence has vague goals like helping his brother, but since he doesn't know if he agrees with what his brother is doing, there is no concrete plan. Cadence tries to learn everything about everything. Almost all of it was theoretical and very little was practical learning. Nothing really happened for the first 35% of the story. When Cadence and the group did go to the spire, the rest of the team did most of the work. Some of the floors and scenarios where just weird and not very interesting. I don't like the relationship that Cadence has with his sister. They weren't very close for most of their lives but now they are together all the time. I feels this is his story but she keeps calling him an idiot and telling him not to do anything until he passes it by her. I am getting really tired of reading about how Cadence doesn't like to be touched and how he doesn't like being around people. And what is up with the fluid sexuality deal? Is Cadence gay or not? Is Sara? What about Mara? What is going on? How is that adding anything to the story? By the end, nothing was really different. Nothing of great import happened. I am not sure I want to continue the series if this is what it's going to be like moving forward.
May 21, 2021
TLDR: HAAAAAAAARD meh.
This book is pretty much just filler. It doesn't really seem to serve any purpose within the greater narrative of the series. Most of it is things we've already seen before, and is pretty underwhelming as this is the third time through without much of a change up. The things that the book tries to do differently from the previous two don't really work, because it falls into the same trap that Star Trek did with its holodeck episodes. People are watching Star Trek to see Star Trek characters doing Star Trek things. They are NOT watching Star Trek to see Star Trek characters acting out 1920s detective stories, Sherlock Holmes, Jane Austin, Klingon Westerns etc etc etc. People are not reading their coming of age magic school RPG fantasy book to read about the Titanic, cliche haunted houses, or socialite murder mysteries. And then it spends WAY. TOO. LONG. on characters building their own dungeons to little point or purpose. All in all, the book is pretty boring and pointless, and really seems to have no aspirations toward anything greater for the future of the series.
The book is also full of writing that is of questionable quality at best, and just flat out bad at worst. For the love of god man, buy yourself a thesaurus!!! Or, you know, just do a read through of your book before publication and look for instances of the same word being used to describe something within the same paragraph, or even the same sentence sometimes, and change one of them to a synonym. There are few things that scream amateur writing at me louder than using the same noun, verb, adjective, etc more than once per paragraph.
This book is pretty much just filler. It doesn't really seem to serve any purpose within the greater narrative of the series. Most of it is things we've already seen before, and is pretty underwhelming as this is the third time through without much of a change up. The things that the book tries to do differently from the previous two don't really work, because it falls into the same trap that Star Trek did with its holodeck episodes. People are watching Star Trek to see Star Trek characters doing Star Trek things. They are NOT watching Star Trek to see Star Trek characters acting out 1920s detective stories, Sherlock Holmes, Jane Austin, Klingon Westerns etc etc etc. People are not reading their coming of age magic school RPG fantasy book to read about the Titanic, cliche haunted houses, or socialite murder mysteries. And then it spends WAY. TOO. LONG. on characters building their own dungeons to little point or purpose. All in all, the book is pretty boring and pointless, and really seems to have no aspirations toward anything greater for the future of the series.
The book is also full of writing that is of questionable quality at best, and just flat out bad at worst. For the love of god man, buy yourself a thesaurus!!! Or, you know, just do a read through of your book before publication and look for instances of the same word being used to describe something within the same paragraph, or even the same sentence sometimes, and change one of them to a synonym. There are few things that scream amateur writing at me louder than using the same noun, verb, adjective, etc more than once per paragraph.
August 30, 2021
Aug 2021 Update: Listened to the audiobook this time around! Same feelings as before. Lots of fun, but not quite up to the previous books story wise.
The Torch that Ignites the Stars was a fun read, but it suffers from a pretty heavy case of middle book syndrome.
To start on a positive note, as I mentioned this book was a lot of fun. The challenges were a blast to read about and almost always played out differently than I expected, and it was great to spend time with the characters that I've come to love so much. Corin and Sera spend a lot of time together in this book, and seeing their bond as sibling continue to develop was lovely. We also get some expansion on the world, the magic mechanics etc. in this book that will definitely come into play later, although I do feel like maybe the information could have been delivered in a more satisfying way. It felt a little to easy, almost. .
One of the major issues with this book, though, is there's almost no progress made regarding the main plot of the book. I also never really got a sense of tension or high stakes. The fact that this book only takes place over a couple weeks, whereas the other take place over ~half a year severally limits the progress. Also, while the RPG influence was clear in the last two books but they still felt like full stories, this book really just felt like reading a D&D campaign were we jump from one quest to another. We spend a lot of time with the characters levelling up and learning some new things, and going on tangent quests. The characters as well, feel like they're levelling up far to easily in this novel, whereas the previous books felt much more natural. There's a lot of extremely overpowered characters in this series and that's not necessarily something that bothers me, and it's clear our main characters are going to end up in that camp eventually, but it feels like it's happening far to conveniently and quickly. I'm hoping in future books we get some serious hinderances to their power.
Also, if you haven't read Rowe's other books in the same world, I think there might be some confusion in this book. There's a lot of references to other characters/magics/etc. from other books, and while these have been alluded to in Arcane Ascension, I still think it's pretty dependent on having read the other books. There's also a multiple instances in this book where Rowe is clearly setting up for another companion book, which I get but it also takes a way from this series feeling self-contained.
Finally, we needed way, way more Patrick.
I get the sense from the author that he's aware this book is pretty different from the past two, and I'm hoping that means future entries will be back on par.
TL;DR: This isn't a bad book by any means, but it almost feels like it should have been shortened a bit and made into a companion novella tbh - like as entry 2.5, or something, rather than the third book in the series. Go into this expecting a fun D&D campaign like romp, rather than progression of the main plot.
The Torch that Ignites the Stars was a fun read, but it suffers from a pretty heavy case of middle book syndrome.
To start on a positive note, as I mentioned this book was a lot of fun. The challenges were a blast to read about and almost always played out differently than I expected, and it was great to spend time with the characters that I've come to love so much. Corin and Sera spend a lot of time together in this book, and seeing their bond as sibling continue to develop was lovely. We also get some expansion on the world, the magic mechanics etc. in this book that will definitely come into play later, although I do feel like maybe the information could have been delivered in a more satisfying way. It felt a little to easy, almost. .
One of the major issues with this book, though, is there's almost no progress made regarding the main plot of the book. I also never really got a sense of tension or high stakes. The fact that this book only takes place over a couple weeks, whereas the other take place over ~half a year severally limits the progress. Also, while the RPG influence was clear in the last two books but they still felt like full stories, this book really just felt like reading a D&D campaign were we jump from one quest to another. We spend a lot of time with the characters levelling up and learning some new things, and going on tangent quests. The characters as well, feel like they're levelling up far to easily in this novel, whereas the previous books felt much more natural. There's a lot of extremely overpowered characters in this series and that's not necessarily something that bothers me, and it's clear our main characters are going to end up in that camp eventually, but it feels like it's happening far to conveniently and quickly. I'm hoping in future books we get some serious hinderances to their power.
Also, if you haven't read Rowe's other books in the same world, I think there might be some confusion in this book. There's a lot of references to other characters/magics/etc. from other books, and while these have been alluded to in Arcane Ascension, I still think it's pretty dependent on having read the other books. There's also a multiple instances in this book where Rowe is clearly setting up for another companion book, which I get but it also takes a way from this series feeling self-contained.
Finally, we needed way, way more Patrick.
I get the sense from the author that he's aware this book is pretty different from the past two, and I'm hoping that means future entries will be back on par.
TL;DR: This isn't a bad book by any means, but it almost feels like it should have been shortened a bit and made into a companion novella tbh - like as entry 2.5, or something, rather than the third book in the series. Go into this expecting a fun D&D campaign like romp, rather than progression of the main plot.
December 29, 2020
Rowe has possibly the cringiest dialogue and characters I've ever read. Don't know why I bothered with this after reading the first book of his Keras series and how it had the same awful interactions. The rest is proficient enough but Rowe writes like he has never interacted with another human being outside of watching anime and talking to 'quirky' people on Twitter. Everyone pokes each other, "eeps", his dialogue with his sister is her trying to constantly sound witty and badass when it's just groan inducing, the "relationship talk" stuff is just bad.
Speaking of his sister, why does every male author nowadays feel the need to include some female narcissist who is sarcastic every single time she speaks? Can you not think of another way to create a strong female character without making her into an obnoxious egotist? You wouldn't write a Gary Stu male character who only jokingly insults other people and talks about how amazing they are constantly because it would be exceptionally annoying, but if you make it a girl I'm supposed to find this to be an appealing character? The worst example is when someone says a 'monster will eat her face' and she proudly talks about how she has a 'delicious face.'
Luke Chmilenko and Bryce O'Connor had the same exact issue in their Iron Prince with the best friend to the MC being the exact same character type. At least they understood to focus more on the battles and magic systems and not so much time on things that are not their strong suit, whereas this book is a whole lot of dialogue and not much happening.
The worldbuilding is okay, as is the overall magic system, but when anyone has to say or do anything I honestly look away and sigh a little bit. And I've read xianxia webnovels. If you aren't going to write good or compelling characters, then at least make them invisible among the decent parts of the story.
Speaking of his sister, why does every male author nowadays feel the need to include some female narcissist who is sarcastic every single time she speaks? Can you not think of another way to create a strong female character without making her into an obnoxious egotist? You wouldn't write a Gary Stu male character who only jokingly insults other people and talks about how amazing they are constantly because it would be exceptionally annoying, but if you make it a girl I'm supposed to find this to be an appealing character? The worst example is when someone says a 'monster will eat her face' and she proudly talks about how she has a 'delicious face.'
Luke Chmilenko and Bryce O'Connor had the same exact issue in their Iron Prince with the best friend to the MC being the exact same character type. At least they understood to focus more on the battles and magic systems and not so much time on things that are not their strong suit, whereas this book is a whole lot of dialogue and not much happening.
The worldbuilding is okay, as is the overall magic system, but when anyone has to say or do anything I honestly look away and sigh a little bit. And I've read xianxia webnovels. If you aren't going to write good or compelling characters, then at least make them invisible among the decent parts of the story.
April 4, 2021
What a massive waste of almost 600 pages
Honestly I had high hopes for this book. I really enjoyed the first two so I was excited when this finally came out. Unfortunately I am now on the fence about the whole series as this book was almost 600 pages of nothing much happening.
The entire driving plot of this book was the main character learning about artificial attunements, but the entire part of the book where that happens is at best boring and at worst a complete waste of words. And the dudes sister, sorry I can't even remember the characters names they're so forgettable, just whines about being hurt and unable to really do anything throughout the entire book. Creating a secondary storyline of them trying to heal her, which at this point I'm not even sure is worth it. She's a character with almost no real development and we know next to knothing about her ascended attunement after, what, 800 pages of her having it?
There has been next to know information learned about what attuned can really do with their powers as if it's some big mystery and everyone has to learn for themselves as they go along. And if that's the case, why is there a school for them to go to? The ascended and foreign attunements are treated like nobody knows a damn thing about them at all after how many years of them being around? Like, nobody in this universe is a scholar and has written any books about this shit?
The entire book could have been cut down by at least half and used as a "minibook 2.5" for the series for people who care to read more about the stuff that happens in-between the things that matter, but alas, that is not the case so we get an entire almost 600 page book that is boring and feels completely unimportant as a whole.
Honestly I had high hopes for this book. I really enjoyed the first two so I was excited when this finally came out. Unfortunately I am now on the fence about the whole series as this book was almost 600 pages of nothing much happening.
The entire driving plot of this book was the main character learning about artificial attunements, but the entire part of the book where that happens is at best boring and at worst a complete waste of words. And the dudes sister, sorry I can't even remember the characters names they're so forgettable, just whines about being hurt and unable to really do anything throughout the entire book. Creating a secondary storyline of them trying to heal her, which at this point I'm not even sure is worth it. She's a character with almost no real development and we know next to knothing about her ascended attunement after, what, 800 pages of her having it?
There has been next to know information learned about what attuned can really do with their powers as if it's some big mystery and everyone has to learn for themselves as they go along. And if that's the case, why is there a school for them to go to? The ascended and foreign attunements are treated like nobody knows a damn thing about them at all after how many years of them being around? Like, nobody in this universe is a scholar and has written any books about this shit?
The entire book could have been cut down by at least half and used as a "minibook 2.5" for the series for people who care to read more about the stuff that happens in-between the things that matter, but alas, that is not the case so we get an entire almost 600 page book that is boring and feels completely unimportant as a whole.
July 4, 2021
I loved the first book. The second book was flawed, but decent. This book takes all of the flaws, and leaves any of the good behind. Literally nothing of import happens.
Sera is insufferable. I don't care that Corin doesn't want to touch people. Why are they so distrustful of the very person they were searching for for the entire book? The hamfisted ethical dilemas are grating, as are the hamfisted gender references (which didn't occur until the second book). I don't care what your characters identify as, but when it negatively impacts writing, you've got an issue. At least this book didn't have the editing issues in the second book, which made it obvious that Sheridan was changed from male to whatever he is now in the middle of writing that book.
Seriously, I've read the first book more than once. I even purchased a physical copy. I loved it. This series has been tanked by by BAD anime / rpg tropes, and the author's hamfisted attempts to moralize on gender and sexuality. If you want to raise perceived social issues, then you need to be a more competent author.
Seriously, read LeGuin. She raises similar issues without moralizing, or talking down to her audience. She understood how to both raise an issue, and how to let the reader make up their own mind on that issue. This guy understands neither.
Sera is insufferable. I don't care that Corin doesn't want to touch people. Why are they so distrustful of the very person they were searching for for the entire book? The hamfisted ethical dilemas are grating, as are the hamfisted gender references (which didn't occur until the second book). I don't care what your characters identify as, but when it negatively impacts writing, you've got an issue. At least this book didn't have the editing issues in the second book, which made it obvious that Sheridan was changed from male to whatever he is now in the middle of writing that book.
Seriously, I've read the first book more than once. I even purchased a physical copy. I loved it. This series has been tanked by by BAD anime / rpg tropes, and the author's hamfisted attempts to moralize on gender and sexuality. If you want to raise perceived social issues, then you need to be a more competent author.
Seriously, read LeGuin. She raises similar issues without moralizing, or talking down to her audience. She understood how to both raise an issue, and how to let the reader make up their own mind on that issue. This guy understands neither.
May 1, 2023
This was an audio book reread and I have to say this is by far the worst book of the series despite the progress that the protagonists make. It's so stuffed with fake moralizing that it is to the detriment of the story. After a reread I find that nothing really works for me in this book but I would still rate it 2 stars for the progression side of the story. Thankfully the next book builds well upon the story of this book and makes everything worth it.
December 14, 2020
Do not recommend
Did not like it... most of the book is just fluff, you can literally skip a bunch of pages at a time and not miss anything
Did not like it... most of the book is just fluff, you can literally skip a bunch of pages at a time and not miss anything
April 25, 2022
I enjoyed this a bit less than the second book.
The characters are still great, and I adore spending my time with them!
The pure stats and enchanting got a bit too much at times though. While it was perfectly balanced for me in book two, here I found myself wanting the story to move on every so often. Not necessarily because it was too much of stats and explaining, but because it wasn't nestled I to the story as much. There's one long piece where we just read what things he wants to make, and it's a lot of stuff. Before it was usually bundled with the reason *why* he wants exactly that thing, not a list of all the things.
Aside from that I really loved it again. More adventure, more "dungeons", more dynamics, new mysteries, new and old characters, more magic...
Still a favourite series for me! Can't wait for the next book...
The characters are still great, and I adore spending my time with them!
The pure stats and enchanting got a bit too much at times though. While it was perfectly balanced for me in book two, here I found myself wanting the story to move on every so often. Not necessarily because it was too much of stats and explaining, but because it wasn't nestled I to the story as much. There's one long piece where we just read what things he wants to make, and it's a lot of stuff. Before it was usually bundled with the reason *why* he wants exactly that thing, not a list of all the things.
Aside from that I really loved it again. More adventure, more "dungeons", more dynamics, new mysteries, new and old characters, more magic...
Still a favourite series for me! Can't wait for the next book...
December 7, 2020
Excellent book 3
I've continued to love all of the series that Andrew Rowe writes, each one having a unique style and feeling even though they are set in the same world. However, the Arcane Ascension series has always been my favourite.
If you are reading a review for book three, you've probably already read the other two. If you have, this is more of the same, but better. Go buy.
If for some reason you've not read the other two, then my reviews on them would be better, but the series as a whole has excellent world building; detailed, interesting and flawed characters who are immensely realistic; amazing plot, and lastly a great sense of humour.
This certainly in my top 5 of all sci fi series, and it gets higher with each book.
I've continued to love all of the series that Andrew Rowe writes, each one having a unique style and feeling even though they are set in the same world. However, the Arcane Ascension series has always been my favourite.
If you are reading a review for book three, you've probably already read the other two. If you have, this is more of the same, but better. Go buy.
If for some reason you've not read the other two, then my reviews on them would be better, but the series as a whole has excellent world building; detailed, interesting and flawed characters who are immensely realistic; amazing plot, and lastly a great sense of humour.
This certainly in my top 5 of all sci fi series, and it gets higher with each book.
December 7, 2020
Long awaited - greatly enjoyed
I really enjoy these books. The series focuses on a character who has to work twice as hard with his attunement / magical abilities related to enchanting things to be a combat duelist. He has in many ways started to reach his peak at that - having used so many devices to compensate for magical abilities that are far from being intended to work in combat.
Seeing how far he has come is One of my favorite parts of this book. I look forward to a book 4, though imagine it to be a Ways away. Recommend this book highly.
I really enjoy these books. The series focuses on a character who has to work twice as hard with his attunement / magical abilities related to enchanting things to be a combat duelist. He has in many ways started to reach his peak at that - having used so many devices to compensate for magical abilities that are far from being intended to work in combat.
Seeing how far he has come is One of my favorite parts of this book. I look forward to a book 4, though imagine it to be a Ways away. Recommend this book highly.
December 18, 2020
Arcane Ascension always had the benefit of having better prose combined with a unique setting which made it the perfect entry and a staple for people enjoying the power-progression fantasy.
The third book however unfortunately did not live to my high expectations set by its predecessors. The frame of the story (i.e three different factions plotting to change how the powers are distributed in the world in the way they want) is fantastic, but got thrown so far into the back, that even though the story technically progressed forward, nothing felt really that important.
The characters are just doing stuff out of self-interest in progressing in their magic and sometimes stop to throw in some ethical and magi-socio-political debates, while not really caring about the actual plot. They became so self-absorbed, that they don't really play nice with being thrown into a conflict where they had not had enough time to find their stake in.
As a consequence the story is extremely unbalanced. The beginning is the most interesting, but basically a huge info-dump in disguise. The second part was very fillery but introduced nice world-building. The third part was also fillery but had some nice character moments.
All in all this felt more like three short-stories competently melded together, which unfortunately was not enough to make this novel work as well as the books before.
And once you notice the undercooked parts, you pay more attention the the prose and the systems.
The dialogue is a bit too DnDish.
The side-quests are a bit too gamey.
The progressions is a bit too.. too... constant? No setback, no fails, not paying opportunity costs made this feel a bit too linear? easy? (I might post-rationale being unsatisfied here)
Corin needs a superior to play off though. Or to fail once.
For specifics, in spoilers:
With all of that said, the book is still very fun to read.
And just because nothing felt important, does not mean it is. When the next book uses the foundations laid out here and surprises me, this definitely has the chance to retro-actively change how much you appreciate this book.
The third book however unfortunately did not live to my high expectations set by its predecessors. The frame of the story (i.e three different factions plotting to change how the powers are distributed in the world in the way they want) is fantastic, but got thrown so far into the back, that even though the story technically progressed forward, nothing felt really that important.
The characters are just doing stuff out of self-interest in progressing in their magic and sometimes stop to throw in some ethical and magi-socio-political debates, while not really caring about the actual plot. They became so self-absorbed, that they don't really play nice with being thrown into a conflict where they had not had enough time to find their stake in.
As a consequence the story is extremely unbalanced. The beginning is the most interesting, but basically a huge info-dump in disguise. The second part was very fillery but introduced nice world-building. The third part was also fillery but had some nice character moments.
All in all this felt more like three short-stories competently melded together, which unfortunately was not enough to make this novel work as well as the books before.
And once you notice the undercooked parts, you pay more attention the the prose and the systems.
The dialogue is a bit too DnDish.
The side-quests are a bit too gamey.
The progressions is a bit too.. too... constant? No setback, no fails, not paying opportunity costs made this feel a bit too linear? easy? (I might post-rationale being unsatisfied here)
Corin needs a superior to play off though. Or to fail once.
For specifics, in spoilers:
With all of that said, the book is still very fun to read.
And just because nothing felt important, does not mean it is. When the next book uses the foundations laid out here and surprises me, this definitely has the chance to retro-actively change how much you appreciate this book.
July 24, 2021
Notes:
I definitely like the tower sequences more than anything else that happened in the book. Happy to have gotten caught up on this series, but not sure if I'll continue to follow the books because I did not enjoy some of the other books written for the world.
I definitely like the tower sequences more than anything else that happened in the book. Happy to have gotten caught up on this series, but not sure if I'll continue to follow the books because I did not enjoy some of the other books written for the world.
January 2, 2021
Slow and pointless plot that is a waist of time to read!
The entire plot of this book is the main characters on a vacation and they get really lucky and become over powered. There was no progression for the main plot of this series.
Also, there was so much time spent explaining minute details of the magic system that I skipped probably at least one hundred pages. This coupled with the authors ability to right fights with no stakes (training, simulations, etc) fills up at least half the book. The characters are getting absurdly over powered so quickly that either everyone else in the world is an idiot for not doing the same thing, or...I can't think of an or.
Speaking of characters, I hate how the main characters always feel the need to solve every slight Injustice in the world, making them too moral to possibly he conceived as real characters, especially when you remember they are 17. Doesn't matter they are still in college, they still need to find a way for a potential monster kingdom and humans tolive in peace just because someone has the desire to maybe one day make a monster kingdom-main plot/problems be darn.
Finally, the author has made weird choices in that every main character is apparently not straight, polygamy is acceptable, and it is not weird to fall in love with an AI. Apparently, anything smarter than a plant should be treated as sacred life. Using this logic the author would find it acceptable for a person to fall in love with an NPC from a video game. I think this says more about the author for him to come up with this value system than anything else.
Doubt I'll continue this series unless the author dramatically improves/stops forcing his moral values into the plot. Keep in mind, I really enjoyed every other book he has written so far from all of his series.
The entire plot of this book is the main characters on a vacation and they get really lucky and become over powered. There was no progression for the main plot of this series.
Also, there was so much time spent explaining minute details of the magic system that I skipped probably at least one hundred pages. This coupled with the authors ability to right fights with no stakes (training, simulations, etc) fills up at least half the book. The characters are getting absurdly over powered so quickly that either everyone else in the world is an idiot for not doing the same thing, or...I can't think of an or.
Speaking of characters, I hate how the main characters always feel the need to solve every slight Injustice in the world, making them too moral to possibly he conceived as real characters, especially when you remember they are 17. Doesn't matter they are still in college, they still need to find a way for a potential monster kingdom and humans tolive in peace just because someone has the desire to maybe one day make a monster kingdom-main plot/problems be darn.
Finally, the author has made weird choices in that every main character is apparently not straight, polygamy is acceptable, and it is not weird to fall in love with an AI. Apparently, anything smarter than a plant should be treated as sacred life. Using this logic the author would find it acceptable for a person to fall in love with an NPC from a video game. I think this says more about the author for him to come up with this value system than anything else.
Doubt I'll continue this series unless the author dramatically improves/stops forcing his moral values into the plot. Keep in mind, I really enjoyed every other book he has written so far from all of his series.
June 22, 2021
It's fun. I read it fast. Some of the characters have funny lines. But it feels like empty calories. The plot doesn't seem to be going anywhere and Rowe's writing style/environments feel computer generated. Not sure this needed to be a whole novel to cover what amounts to a few weeks.
Rowe still struggles with properly setting up stakes in his world. Either his main characters survive ridiculous encounters that they should have no chance in. Or they go up against the simplest odds and they will obviously make it through. I think I'll keep reading because the books are fun but I would like to see more development from Rowe as a writer/plotter.
Side note, the romance is written in an extremely cringey manner and receives way too much focus for how tacked on it feels. Also stop writing advertising for your other books into your prose.
Rowe still struggles with properly setting up stakes in his world. Either his main characters survive ridiculous encounters that they should have no chance in. Or they go up against the simplest odds and they will obviously make it through. I think I'll keep reading because the books are fun but I would like to see more development from Rowe as a writer/plotter.
Side note, the romance is written in an extremely cringey manner and receives way too much focus for how tacked on it feels. Also stop writing advertising for your other books into your prose.
December 7, 2020
A solid continuation of the series if not as good as the first 2 books, a lot of mysteries get solved and some new ones get introduced. It also seemed as this book had the classical middle book syndrome where the cast didn't have enough power to influence all the events that are happening so it served as a setup for the next 1 or 2 books.
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