Sufficiently Advanced Magic (Arcane Ascension Book 1)

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

Corin Cadence is a young man with an impossible task: He essentially must bring his brother back from the dead in order to restore his broken family. Sufficiently Advanced Magic by Andrew Rowe tells the tale from Corin’s perspective as he comes of age by passing the test in which his brother vanished half a decade before. Upon passing the test, Corin joins an elite group of citizens with access to mystic powers granted by a goddess and her mysterious towers. As he begins schooling to understand and properly harness this power, he becomes more and more embroiled in the machinations of mortals and immortals alike. I very much enjoyed Sufficiently Advanced Magic and recommend it. The story is well constructed; I thought it rewarding for readers who pay close attention without losing the more casual audience. Rowe does an exceptional job exhibiting the world around Corin while maintaining a good pace for both story and action. For me, the end result was more, “just one more chapter” promises than was probably wise. I’d get that those lost hours of sleep back eventually, right? Rowe’s characters are well developed, though not overly so, falling into that sweet spot between vague and specific that I think best nurtures a sense of sympathy. I particularly liked the well defined magic system. As Corin learned the in’s and out’s, it allowed me to better understand the system and how it might impact the lives of those around it. Contrary to many fantasy magic systems, the basics of magic in Valia are public knowledge. I feel like this allows a different kind of story that is more the exception than the norm. The magic system was well enough defined that it could easily develop into a computer game. That aspect was a bit of a double edged sword for me - one aspect in particular broke me out of the narrative. When a magically attuned character reaches the next “level” of access, they undergo a magical metamorphosis that seemed too much like a game. A certain amount of uncertainty contributes to the trials that our hero's face on a day to day basis. The certainty of the leveling actually made me think, “Oh, it’s a save point.” It was cute - even a shout out to us computer geeks - but seemed out of place in the grander scheme of things. There were two other items that rubbed me the wrong way, as well. First, our 17 year old protagonist is preternaturally calm under pressure. Even when suffering trauma that can be more than fairly described as life threatening, he rarely ever seems to loose his cool. It may be an intentional aspect of his rather quirky personality, but for me it required more suspension of my disbelief than the magic did. The second was that there were a few characters that are introduced with the suggestion that they are important to the social circle in which Corin and his classmates run, but they don’t seem to notably resurface. It felt a little like the gun was still sitting on the mantle. For me, Roland was the gun. It’s likely that he will play a larger role in subsequent books, but for this initial offering, his presence seemed more mistake than mysterious. Minor concerns aside, though, Sufficiently Advanced Magic was a wonderful read that I often could not put down. It plucked the right strings and drew me into a comfortable, enjoyable story.

By about ten percent into Sufficiently Advanced Magic I was wondering why it had taken me so long to pick up this book. By the time I finished, that wonderment had turned into active regret over having missed out for so long. Andrew Rowe has given us a page turner that is part coming-of-age story, part magic school tale, and part epic fantasy. Oh, and monster hunting/tower climbing. It’s magnificent. The setting for Sufficiently Advanced Magic has received a good deal of praise, and deservedly so. It reminds me of something we might normally see in an anime or a jrpg, as opposed to a fantasy novel. But the setting has depth to it. Rowe has given us a world that is believable and feels living and breathing. There is a tremendous amount of worldbuilding. It also includes fascinating magic system that I’m looking forward to learning more about. I particularly like the fact that our main character, Corin Cadence, isn’t overpowered. Quite the opposite, he is perhaps one of the weakest (in terms of raw power) of the protagonists. This is different than much of what we see in fantasy, and I enjoyed the change of pace. The worldbuilding isn’t the only excellent piece of this novel. The characters are also well drawn and relatable. Through much of the novel you aren’t quite sure who to trust and who to be suspicious of, and I think that is a credit to Rowe’s writing. I loved the MC and his sorts of bumbling attempts at relating well to others. It’s all very well done. Then, to top it off Rowe gives us a plot that is deep and intricate. There are twists and turns and while I won’t say I was entirely surprised by all of them, they were certainly well done. They made sense, hung together, maintained consistency, and kept the pages moving at an alarming clip. In the midst of the amazing world building I mentioned earlier there is an unfortunate tendency to info dump. I won’t say that this is a minor issue, as it happens quite often. I’m normally pretty forgiving of info dumps, but there were a lot of them. Particularly frustrating were the few times when several chapters after a lengthy info dump on a topic some of the details would be repeated. I’d prefer the author trust me to remember that information. Similarly, there were several times when I felt like the author was telling me when he could have shown me. Even with these imperfections, Sufficiently Advanced Magic is one of my top reads for 2018 (and I’m still frustrated with myself that I didn’t read it a year and a half ago). Andrew Rowe has given us a gem here. If you, like me, have somehow failed to give Sufficiently Advanced Magic a try—you need to change that immediately. My only regret now is how I’m going to have to blow up my reading list to make room so I can read the sequel soon. 4.5/5 stars. 5 – I loved this, couldn’t put it down, move it to the top of your TBR pile 4 – I really enjoyed this, add it to the TBR pile 3 – I liked it, depending on your preferences it may be worth your time 2 – I didn’t like this book, it has significant flaws and I can’t recommend it 1 – I loathe this book with a most loathsome loathing

This one grabbed my attention right from the beginning. The story plops us right at the door to the tower, right as Corin Cadence, minor noble, magic user, and 10/10 little brother is about to enter it to be judged and more or less ‘sorted’ into his specific magical attunement. It’s going to be a tough test. There be monsters inside this tower and he’s armed only with a backpack full of food and supplies. At least he was smart enough to bring some rope. Rope’s always useful. From there we head right into the action, and Corin’s adventure starts. We meet unique people, and we run into unique situations. He picks up magical artifacts, fights magical monsters and runs into all kinds of things, but he does run into a prison in the tower with some dangerous people inside it… so of course he lets them out. Luckily, he comes out unscathed, attuned to his magic and ready to start magical university! We learn about this world’s magic as the students learn it, and that worked for me a lot. It definitely has the feel of a magical school, but it really feels like the world of a video game sometimes too. It doesn’t feel like a LitRPG at all, but I still feel like if there was a video game made of this particular universe, I would play it. Each person has a class. Sometimes more than one. There are levels of power in a class. You can do more spells if you’re a higher level. That sort of thing. It’d make a good game. Rowe’s books tend to have a really awesome layer of wit in them that usually make me laugh. The language used is just modern enough that these witticisms peppered here and there don’t at all seem out of place. The dialogue just flows wonderfully. The narrator, Nick Podehl did a stellar job bringing this book to life for me. Accents and tone were on point, and it turned into a couple of days of more or less putting my headphones on in the morning and then all of a sudden it was time to go home. I love books that immerse me so hard that a work day just flies by, so, I mean…. points just for that, lol. He really made my favorite character (Vanniv, the best snarky AF summoned monster ever) even better. Love love love. Finally, the magic system in this world is so incredibly well thought out and is written in a way that makes it feel a bit like we’re learning it as Corin is learning it, so it’s not just one giant info dump of all the rules and regulations. The magic of this world is really, really quite thoroughly thought out and can be complicated at times, though it is well explained. I’m going to compare it to Sanderson’s Mistborn series in that respect. There’s a *lot* going on, but this is quite a long novel, and all this is spread over it. There are attunements, which are all different. Each person can have more than one of them, and what they can do depends on what their attunement is. Magic takes mana to cast. Each mana is different. Each mana has an opposite, and if those are cast at each other, it’ll (more or less) nullify it. It goes deeper. It’s really interesting. The ending made an already fantastic book even better to me. It twists and turns and things are definitely not all what they seemed. Loved it!

So the world the author has created is quite interesting and has a decent unique magic system. The overall plot is intriguing with some quality twists and turns. Personally, where it fell down for me was in the surrounding parts. The MC being incredibly obtusely asexual felt off, it was like he spent way to much time caring about not caring about sex, a character being asexual isn't an issue inherently, but 90% of the time it felt like the character not bringing up his lack of thoughts would have been more genuine. The homoromantic (I think is probably the best description) plot just kinda feels stapled on, it doesn't really go anywhere it just is and then disappears, perhaps it's to lay some groundwork for later, but here again it just felt miscellaneous. Then we have the magic items, which vary in importantence throughout the book. You have a super secret sword from a literal goddess that just gets passed around, but then a book is held onto like the most precious thing in the world. The book which in theory had the ability to solve a whole host of problems wasn't consulted for reasons... What makes the bloat worse is the lack of information on the MCs parental relationships. Both of those seem to have way more bearing on why he behaves the way he does, but the details there are quite scant. Overall, a solid attempt with some good and some bad. If the world concept intrigues definitely worth a read, but be aware there are some downsides.

Sufficiently Advanced Magic seems to me to strike a vector between traditional fantasy and LitRPG with something more like traditional computer RPGs being the inspiration rather than MMOs. For me, I think what weaknesses the book has come from the video game inspired elements and leaving those out would have left more room to develop the characters, the intrigues, etc. I would easily trade any of the pages of, "Let's plan our strategy" for more insight into the world or the characters. I enjoyed the wit in the dialogue, and the author does a better job than a lot of authors of differentiating the voices of his characters. There are still times when the characters sound more like a room full of business executives exchanging formal correspondence than people having conversations, but the dialogue is generally varied and I appreciated this. The plot is fairly interesting as is the overall world system. Even clearing the tower - the author presented this in the context of the larger world and it became a significant plot device rather than just a main quest. But I felt like the author did not have time to really unfold much of this organically and a lot of it was delivered by way of exposition. A lot of things get explained to you by characters talking as opposed to actually illustrated by events in the story. I think the author is fully capable of doing that, but a significant portion of how the story is told is done through a LitRPG-ish lens, and this is time consuming and boring. Every time a character said, "Let's talk about our strategy," I had to prepare myself for a stretch of logistics and power comparisons that didn't seem to advance the plot very much, to me, and seemed more like a mechanism to -tell me- rather than -show me-. It's also not very interesting to read a group of people sitting around discussing at length how they're going to do something that they, then, proceed to do. But this guy can write. The narrative was varied, the descriptions are good, and I felt like the characters were distinct people even if I would have liked to have seen them unfold more than they did. I especially liked his sense of immediate description. When he talked about a giant serpent, he really made it vivid and you got a sense of the scope of the thing. Through his descriptions, I could visualize a huge serpent in the clouds and the terror this would wreak on the people seeing it. I wish I could give it 3.5 stars, but I'm going to round up to 4. This guy deserves to be read. I just think the book would have been a lot stronger if he had cut out all the LitRPG-ish parts of telling the story and devoted that space toward a more traditional storytelling mechanism where we could have really seen the characters, the plot, and the twists and intrigues come to life.

This is going to be a random and probably "He's just all over the place isn't he?" review, as I'm just not sure what to say. It started a bit oddly for me, or just different, but as I progressed I liked it more and more with each chapter. I'd highly recommend this to any anime or JRPG fans. I don't even know where to start with this—I feel like this would be a great discussion book. The characters are greatly imagined, no two are alike and each one brings something to the table, no wasted characters here. The main protagonist, Corin Cadence, also comes with some internal and moral issues that you get to witness as he constantly tried to figure out just what he wants or needs in his life…it's pretty strong and echoes what so many young people deal with on the daily that most bystanders aren't aware of. The gist of the story is Corin (a young teen), is going into a Spire for a Judgment. There are Spires (towers with ever-changing levels that include puzzles and monsters and the all sorts of challenges) all over the world, and at a certain age people go into these Spires to attain an attunement (or magical ability) from their goddess. There are several types of attunements, each laying the foundation for its bearer's profession/life (think of it as Classes in RPGs). Once people have an attunement they go to school to learn how to use them (and other things, of course). There's a lot of school time in this story, but I loved all of it—some people complain these moments are slow but I saw them as informative and they build upon one another as characters grow and events progress (people who are complaining clearly only want an action tale). Corin's brother went into a Spire and was never seen or heard from again, so Corin's main goal is to become strong enough to climb the Spire's levels in search of his brother or news of what happened to his brother. And, well, things start to go crazy for him after his very first visit to the Spire. I don't really want to say too much in fear of giving things away, but there's SO much to discuss here (think I said that earlier), which is actually great, if an author can get readers wanting to talk/discuss/dissect their work then I think they've made a pretty strong impact. ::::: This one has made the rounds with the LitRPG crowd, but to be clear, it's not a LitRPG book. There are definitely (and admitted) influences from anime and JRPGs that work splendidly, but it's not a story where someone goes into a game world like I was expecting after seeing the fanbase for this book. And you know what, I was really, really glad it wasn't. Rowe has created something that hits home with the anime and RPG lovers but something different than the norm of the LitRPG books that are gaining in volume by the week. ::::: Cover: - Art: Daniel Kamarudin did a good job capturing the imposing force of the Spires, and showcases the main character and his sister (who steadily becomes just as important a character as her brother). - Design: Kind of hard to read when scaled down but has a clean and legible look…so that's good. I'd change the color of it though so it's more legible at different sizes (for online or mobile browsing readers).

I quite enjoyed this book; I found it on a whim on Amazon, read the preview, and found myself hooked. I bought it and read it quickly, and having just finished it, I am very, very pleased. I more than got my $3.99s worth! The book is written well, and the writer clearly has a grasp on characters, arcs, tension, all that stuff, but the majority of the book is tabletop RPG style magic rules explanations. Probably half the book. Another quarter I would say is people planning their next move. And yet it's fascinating; I can't quite explain why. Rowe has definitely done his homework, and all of the magic makes sense, and it's delightful to read interesting scientific lessons on how runes work, and then to get to the latter half of the book where you see characters using that knowledge to their best possible advantage. It's really cool, really! It's a very scientific approach to magic, and I like that; Rowe has crafted a complicated magic system and then filled his world with characters smart enough to use it for power, justice, and even cash. I really can't explain the delight of watching the protagonist try to theorize the most profitable use for enchanting. Moving to some down sides, however, this being the first book in a series, Rowe opens up a lot of plot elements and starts a lot of ideas rolling that really don't go anywhere. It's obvious they're not dead plot lines, and will appear later, but unfortunately the author doesn't leave us with tantalizing cliffhangers so much as random disconnections: for example, in the middle of a small arc, a single paragraph introduced what seemed to be a major plot point and resolved the subsequent encounter, having the character go right back to what he was doing as if nothing had happened. That plot point is only mentioned once more, in one line, ever again. It was a truly weird moment! In addition, the chapters themselves are often more episodic in the middle of the book than linear, meaning a chapter about crafting is followed by some learning about the lore, followed by a chapter about a social encounter, Maki the middle feel like the tension and tempo really slow down. Really, the beginning of the book and the end of the book seem the most connected as a through lined plot, with the middle sort of losing its way a bit. Again, it's still a great read in the middle, but it feels like the book needs to explain a lot of things to you so you can understand why all the characters do what they do; something I as a reader quite loved, but might not be everyone else's cup of tea! I'm rambling, but the bottom line is, I really liked this book. I'm very excited for the sequal, and interested to see where it goes, and I'll be buying the sequel as soon as it's out!