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I'm currently
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, so don't be surprised if the recent reviews are a bit sparse.
Books by John Bierce
Into the Labyrinth
by John Bierce
· published 2018 · read 2020-10-20
★★★☆☆
Magic school fantasy, including a sentient library, actual magic with actual learning, and a misfit band of three friends, standing up to the bullies. It's post-Harry-Potter and it shows, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
The Lost City of Ithos
by John Bierce
· published 2020 · read 2021-01-26
★★☆☆☆
Currently the last part of the Mage Errant series, I was not all that much in love with this book. It's the set-up to drag the whole series out, in that Fantasy spiral of upping the stakes forever. Characters were still okay (though mostly carried by the work of the previous parts), but the plot turned very generic..
A Traitor in Skyhold
by John Bierce
· published 2019 · read 2020-10-23
★★☆☆☆
Isn't it weird how fanfics often are obsessed with presents that characters give one another? It's as if the author yells "birthday o'clock motherfuckers" and has to follow up with a list of presents, and then, of course, also fit all of the presents into the future storyline. I call it Pavlov-Chekhov's Present. It's obnoxious and one of the things that makes the Mage Errant books read like fanfic, and great passages to illustrate how the writing could be so much more.
Jewel of the Endless Erg
by John Bierce
· published 2019 · read 2020-10-22
★★☆☆☆
More Mage Errant: Learning magic and running into catastrophes. Our plucky heroes predictably save the day at scale, and also experience personal growth and friendship and blah blah. The story isn't bad, as YA goes, and the worldbuilding is in many ways cool, but the writing is shoddy.