Warmage

An amazing story, written in a frustrating format

**First off, and to make no misunderstandings, I want to say that I enjoyed this story as a great continuation of the first book. Incoming gripes aside it was still fun and kept me listening, even if at a few points I wanted to grind my teeth in annoyance.**

Ok now with that said let the rant commence.......the format that this book was written in is just damn awful. The story is split between two threads that keep swapping back and forth as both move forward. Where the first book had the occasional flashback to Min's youth to fill in bits about his story and give us something more, the two threads in this book are only about 6 months apart. Maybe this could have worked out if somehow the writer had made it less straight up and open about what happened in the opening parts of the book, and giving him the credit of the doubt perhaps he was trying to keep the political parts of this book interesting by splitting up those sections with battles from later. That is not at all how it ends up working though. If the book had just been a single continuous thread going through and picking up right after the end of the last book there would at least be some suspense or worry about things going on in the political parts. There are chapters of that thread that literally end in lines like "When the cencorate gets here he is literally going to want my head." That in and of itself would be something to worry about....if we didn't already know not a damn thing was going to come of it because he's still alive and fighting a battle in just the last chapter which is some odd months in the future. Is he going to get the courts support? Is he going to get an army to fight back the goblins? What's going to happen if they turn him down? None of these questions have any sway when the other plot thread basically just tells you all you need to know aside from "are they going to win the war". It is so damn frustrating, especially when the story is decently written and has all the right parts just in the wrong places.

So long story short, there is a great story in here, and even as I wanted to pull out my hair I did like seeing where things went in the book. But for the love of all that is holy it just feels like someone took a well planned and finished book, cut it in half then just staggered the chapters for some stupid reason that for the life of me I just don't freaking understand. If and when they roll out the third book, if its written like this again I don't think I will be following on past that though. Personally I'm just praying this was some kind of artistic experimentation that didn't pan out and gets discarded in the series.

70 of 80 people found this review helpful

Another great one!

Enjoyed this one. Well performed and the writing keeps it interesting and moving along well. I don't think that I can wait for the next audible version and might need to just purchased the hardcopy!

20 of 24 people found this review helpful

I needed more!

I wish each of these books were hundreds of pages longer. I also wish i could give the narrator a higher rating than 5.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

I think the author needs to talk to women more.

Compared to book 1, this book was significantly better. The story is actually highly engaging and the battles and politics are well gathered. The issue I have is that the main character seems to attract every female in the world and every female seems to use her "womanly woes" with him. It's actually quite irritating and would love to cut out every sex written scene in this book and I'd give it 5. Let's also not forget the copious amounts of cheating by the main character because that's totally cool. The narrator is also lacking. He often changed voices or seems to forget the characters voice and his staccato tone leaves the story feeling bland and all the jokes landing flat. His woman voices are also all the same so that just adds to my gripe with the lack of depth the author gives to the women in this book. I honestly believe he needs to talk to women more because it's heavily drowned in Male fantasy.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Great story...confusing way to write it.

What made the experience of listening to Warmage the most enjoyable?

I liked the story and love the characters. Excellent sequel from book 1.

Any additional comments?

The way the story was written with 3 months separating the events all in 1st person was confusing and hard to follow. It would have flowed much better chronologically. Great story, don't get me wrong, but I think the author was trying too hard to be clever with the writing style and it did not serve this excellent story justice.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Over done

Just way to much explanations. Get to the point. Other than that, is was good but needs a bunch of 30sec jumps

15 of 20 people found this review helpful

Spellmonger had so much potential, but i'm done

Liked the first book, had its pitfalls and tropes (Min is very sexist, boastful, reader is told how to feel, and there were a lot of anachronisms) but it also had its good points (start of a good magic system, interesting story structure, and a strong villain)

This book fell SO FLAT.

All the bad with none of the good.
- Min is still whoring it up while somehow claiming to be dedicated to his fiancee, fine, not cool, but whatever. But the curses drove me crazy. "Ishes's [adjective][feminine body part]" were gratuitous and make no sense. Its like someone say "Virgin May's Sweet @ss" or "Buddha's swinging ballsack"... just seem like an excuse to talk about boobs.
- On top of that the amount of times its recited how dangerous imperial trained war mages are and how elite the training is borderline monotonous.
- Author still tells you how to feel rather than getting you to feel it through descriptions and dialogue, which is the same as before.
- The anachronisms like the word "tool" or wizards knowing advanced anatomy or cell structures while living in a time without electricity or indoor plumbing is insane.

But all that was prevalent in the first book too, but I still liked it a lot. What lost me is:
- The magic system degrades from a loose system you are slowly taught about to "people are doing a bunch of cool things cause they have the witch stones" (again monotony about how powerful they are)
- The author continued the alternating timelines by chapter, which I liked before because it was telling his back story, but this time it is describing the same story arc but 4 months apart. It becomes a lot of the same characters talking about the same topics with a slight shift in perspective due to a minimal time difference and it is MASSIVELY confusing. The only purpose I could see it serving is breaking up the monotony of all political negotiations and social affairs, but it doesn't really accomplish that.
- This also diminishes the main villain and really is the same story as last book, the spellmonger has to raise an army and beat a large goblin horde. No escalation, no finality either way, just the same thing different location

And there are a ton of other little annoyances too, but at the end of the day, this wasn't the fun story the last one was, it was the fantasy of having a super warrior, mage, intellect, ladies man, with godly power, respect, and well hung (yeah, it says it several times), while being the everyday guy, but this time all he does is talk, negotiate, and get told how great he is.

Passing on book 3.

61 of 85 people found this review helpful

Thought I'd like it, wanted to like it; didn't

Tedious, meandering detail of magical combat leader, that goes on forever. Listened for hours hoping I'd would pick up or improve, but finally had to stop.
Solid narrator, and subject matter I typically enjoy, but... nope. not for me.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Good story and characters...

Good story and characters, sometimes the switching of timelines on the story was over done.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Pretty damn good my dudes

The structure was a little hard to follow at times, jumping back and forth between the present and several months ago without much of an indication or pattern, but overall I really enjoyed it. Both timelines are compelling in their own way, and the characterization was well developed.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful