Five years ago, Corin Cadence’s brother entered the Serpent Spire — a colossal tower with ever-shifting rooms, traps, and monsters. Those who survive the spire’s trials return home with an attunement: a mark granting the bearer magical powers. According to legend, those few who reach the top of the tower will be granted a boon by the spire’s goddess.He never returned.Now, it’s Corin’s turn. He’s … Corin’s turn. He’s headed to the top floor, on a mission to meet the goddess.
If he can survive the trials, Corin will earn an attunement, but that won’t be sufficient to survive the dangers on the upper levels. For that, he’s going to need training, allies, and a lot of ingenuity.
The journey won’t be easy, but Corin won’t stop until he gets his brother back.
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This series has a tendency to get bogged down in it’s own narrative from time to time and the stakes are not always as high as you might want, but Mr. Rowe has thought a great deal about how magic in his world works and the world building is quite good. Plus, once his characters do get out of the classroom and into the real world, the situations the characters get into do get quite tense and pay off well.
It’s so hard to find fantasy that really grabs me these days. It’s either written for too young an audience, or the characters lack depth and insight (at least to someone my age), or I just don’t seem to care what happens to them, despite in many cases what could be considered great world-building.
Thus, I was pleased to find a new series that had so many things I was seeking in a good fantasy: a new and intriguing world, interesting magic, well crafted characters who are as insightful as they are accessible, and a nicely moving plot line with some good twists.
Sufficiently Advanced Magic is easy to follow, though Rowe does go into extreme detail in developing his magic system. But if you like that sort of thing, along with the younger-brother-heading-off-to-save-his-missing-older-sibling coming of age kind of tale, then I highly recommend this one as well as the second in the series. And I hear the third is coming soon.
Sufficiently Advanced Magic is a charming and intricate coming of age adventure story by fantasy author Andrew Rowe. With its own original and complex system of magic, the world Rowe creates is both believable, and intriguing. This first novel of the series follows young Corin Cadence, the black sheep son of a noble house. His family has been devastated by the loss of Corin’s ‘golden child’ brother, Tristian. While Corin’s goals are centered on finding out what happened to his brother, the plot quickly expands to include his witty half-sister, a mysterious foreigner, an old childhood friend, and a rough around the edges talented young woman. Much of the story takes place in a university-like setting, with students learning about their magical abilities, similar to Harry Potter, only less whimsical.
I found all the characters to be endearing, and rather likable, especially Corin, who struggles with social anxiety and human contact in general (we learn more about why in the next book). His underdog dynamic meshes well with the other characters in the story, making for some very entertaining exchanges.
While the plot pacing can be somewhat deliberate at times, with Rowe expounding upon potential magical affects and implications in depth, it never became boring. The action scenes (though few) were well written, suspenseful, and easy to follow.
My only qualm with the book has to do with how it begins. The first few scenes involve a rather complicated venture into a magical tower, where Corin must face a series of challenges, both of the puzzle, and monster variety. There are semi-complex room descriptions, different colored keys, varying doorways, etc. While this wasn’t at all a deterrent to me, I felt that it didn’t give an accurate portrayal of the true emotional depth of this novel. The risk is that it might end up turning some off at first, but I recommend you power through—it’s well worth it!
The thing that stands out most to me about Sufficiently Advanced Magic (and the reason I gave it 5 stars), is the personality shining through on each and every page. Rowe has breathed such life into Corin Cadence, making him a truly unique and resourceful character that I would be happy to know in real life.
If you’re a fan of complex world building, rational magic, and young characters discovering their true potential, then this book is one you will not want to miss!
I’ve been reading a few books in the newish subgenre of science fiction that is LitRPG. These books take the essence of role playing games and turn them into fantasy novels. I’m a long-time fantasy reader, but not a gamer, so I found the beginning of “Sufficiently Advanced Magic” (great title) by Andrew Rowe a bit of a trudge. It begins with a tower quest and puzzle/combat rooms and *whisper it* I was bored. But I am so glad I persevered because the book develops some very interesting aspects of magic, the hero has intriguing quirks and back history, and the relationships between characters is as strong and credible as any fantasy novel I’ve ever read. There is depth to this story. As for the ending … an emotional kapow!
I really enjoyed this book. I’d been putting off reading it for a while because I don’t read (or listen to) a lot of LitRPG, but this has a good blend of epic fantasy and steampunk as well. Plus, there is some good acknowledgement of LGBTQIA within the book, not treated as a plot point, but simply part of the world. One thing which could be a downside or upside, depending on what you want. There is a lot of explanation of the magic, as the main character specifically likes to discover how things work. I’m all for this, as I love learning about the design of magic systems and how the break down, but if it’s not your sort of thing, it could read as having too much analysis.
Overall, very enjoyable, and I’m looking forward to the next one!
This is a wonderful and creative novel and I absolutely love the world-building that Andrew Rowe does in this first entry. The sequel is just as amazing!
This inspired one of my friends to turn it into a GURPS campaign… the book didn’t disappoint. Looking forwards to more in this series!
LitRPG is a branch of SF & Fantasy that isn’t my usual dwelling place but all the positive reviews convinced me to take a chance on this and it was worth it. The main characters are well defined and likeable, and it starts out with a puzzle challenge, so I was immediately drawn in. Down the road it had times of getting caught up in the (over)description and dissection of game playing movements and minutiae, but skimming those parts enabled me to keep the flow of the overall story enjoyable. The quirky title tells you that there is a tongue firmly held in a cheek here and the ‘epic’ ‘saga’ ness never takes itself too seriously nor bogs down in grandiousity. The magic and the rules surrounding its existence and usage are novel and interesting. I immediately ordered the next book!
I love this genre, and this author impressed me. The story line was continuous. Not chopped up and confusing. The characters were likable and hateable! It is a good story and fun to read. It was also “clean” without a lot of extraneous gobbledy goop to fill in the spaces…
This. Was. Fantastic. Right from the start, boom, we’re in the spire. Then the story slowed as we learn, along with Corin, his new skills. Still very entertaining. Then back to the spire. I was screaming at Corin to remember things. That last page gave me chills. I simply loved this book.
Great series! Can’t wait for the next one!
This book is actually really great! It reads like a classic adventure style book despite its gaming sounding synopsis. I actually only gave it 4 stars because the sequel to this 2 part series is a huge disappointment.
While amazing in the beginning, the second book was extremely rushed at the end. It felt like a 3 book series was suddenly shortened to 2 at the last second. Considering the details, character investments, and length of this book, it’s worth knowing how it ends before you begin.
Wasn’t real sure how to rate this one. It was well edited as far as typos and word use. The story was fairly good. I’m not a gamer, but I could see the gaming influence on the story. It had a lot of detail, which contributed to the story being so long, but it was mostly interesting enough to keep me reading. What annoyed me were the number of times that the main character, Corin, mentioned having to research something later. Lets just say, if I had a dollar for every time he thought or said this, I could probably buy a year or more of Kindle Unlimited. Also, just in case it might bother someone, the story has one boy asking another to a dance. It didn’t result in anything as the timeline of the story didn’t allow it to get to the dance, but thought I’d mention it. I did find myself wondering if this was billed as a YA book or not after I saw that.
Just what you want for a fun vacation read.
Truly an AMAZING story. Like so many others, I read this book for one line that featured a character from the House of Blades series by Will Wight. Like so many others, I found a great book in addition to a pretty cool cameo. Definitely a great read, and one I sincerely liked. If it had a drawback, it would be that it read more like a lit-rpg than anything else, but once you get over that, it’s a fairly fantastic read. 4.5/5 (rounded up)