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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
I can't give this a true rating since I DNFed it at 37%. The opening chapters were great, full of action and promise. Then, I just got bored. I'm sure epic fantasy lovers would have a better chance with this book.
I received a free copy from the author in return for an honest review (although TBH I love practically everything she writes so it's a pleasure).
A follow on from the Swords and Salt collection. Yanko fails his warrior mage entrance exam and is metaphorically licking his wounds back at the family salt mine when it is attacked. Soon Yanko is catapulted into the middle of a rebellion against the Great Chief (although TBH he doesn't really know what is happening.
Yanko and Lakeo flee to his family's village only to find it empty - shortly thereafter Yanko's brother rides into the village injured and bearing a message from Prince Zirabo to Yanko.
I can't explain the plot more without spoilering. Suffice to say there is a brawl in a tavern, a one-eyed mysterious spy (or is he?), a jail break, a kraken, a parrot, precocious twins and a library.
Yanko is a self-effacing hero with (very) loud internal critical voices and "friends" who place little reliance on his magical gifts - oh, did I forget the pirates and the magic dress?
It's a classic tale of rebellions, undervalued younger sons, treasure hunts and foreign cultures - I loved it.
Be aware - this ends on a cliffhanger ...
A follow on from the Swords and Salt collection. Yanko fails his warrior mage entrance exam and is metaphorically licking his wounds back at the family salt mine when it is attacked. Soon Yanko is catapulted into the middle of a rebellion against the Great Chief (although TBH he doesn't really know what is happening.
Yanko and Lakeo flee to his family's village only to find it empty - shortly thereafter Yanko's brother rides into the village injured and bearing a message from Prince Zirabo to Yanko.
I can't explain the plot more without spoilering. Suffice to say there is a brawl in a tavern, a one-eyed mysterious spy (or is he?), a jail break, a kraken, a parrot, precocious twins and a library.
Yanko is a self-effacing hero with (very) loud internal critical voices and "friends" who place little reliance on his magical gifts - oh, did I forget the pirates and the magic dress?
It's a classic tale of rebellions, undervalued younger sons, treasure hunts and foreign cultures - I loved it.
Be aware - this ends on a cliffhanger ...
I'm not sure why I had a hard time with this book, but I think it was because I kept having to put it down and then pick it up later.
I received a free copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.
I really enjoy most of this author’s work but my absolute favourite is her Emperors Edges series so it was with much joy that I returned to that world (if a different continent). Warrior Mage is a full length novel following on from the Swords and Salt collection (3 short stories featuring our hero Yanko). While WM can be read as a stand alone novel I highly recommend that you read the prequel collection as gives great insight into Yanko’s character and features his meeting with two very important characters – his travelling companions Dak and Laeko.
Lindsey writes great adventure stories with interesting and likeable characters and WM is no exception. I particularly like Yanko’s moral compass and how he is concerned with doing the honourable thing even when it may not be particularly convenient. He is polite, kind and decent not because he should be but because that is who he is. He also lacks confidence in himself and is quite naieve which is understandable given the pressure and lack of approval he has laboured under his whole life and I am looking forward to seeing him grow in confidence and hopefully stand up for himself a little more (especially with Laeko) as he continues on his adventure.
And as a fan of EE I LOVED the visit to the Komptis family plantation, the blood thirsty delight of Tikya & Rias’ daughter and Akstyr as an indifferent student guide and linguistic ‘ladies man’.
I am very curious about his mother and why she made the choice she did and I hope we get to see more of Dak as well.
I really enjoy most of this author’s work but my absolute favourite is her Emperors Edges series so it was with much joy that I returned to that world (if a different continent). Warrior Mage is a full length novel following on from the Swords and Salt collection (3 short stories featuring our hero Yanko). While WM can be read as a stand alone novel I highly recommend that you read the prequel collection as gives great insight into Yanko’s character and features his meeting with two very important characters – his travelling companions Dak and Laeko.
Lindsey writes great adventure stories with interesting and likeable characters and WM is no exception. I particularly like Yanko’s moral compass and how he is concerned with doing the honourable thing even when it may not be particularly convenient. He is polite, kind and decent not because he should be but because that is who he is. He also lacks confidence in himself and is quite naieve which is understandable given the pressure and lack of approval he has laboured under his whole life and I am looking forward to seeing him grow in confidence and hopefully stand up for himself a little more (especially with Laeko) as he continues on his adventure.
And as a fan of EE I LOVED the visit to the Komptis family plantation, the blood thirsty delight of Tikya & Rias’ daughter and Akstyr as an indifferent student guide and linguistic ‘ladies man’.
I am very curious about his mother and why she made the choice she did and I hope we get to see more of Dak as well.
I was given a review copy for my honest opinion.
I'm a huge fan of Lindsay Buroker's and the first installment of her new series, Chains of Honor, did not disappoint! The new series returns her devoted fans to the much-loved Emperor's Edge world, but it is not required (although very much recommended) reading to enjoy this new series.
I was so excited that Lindsay did what she does best in Warrior Mage. We have a group of misfits thrown together with a somewhat common goal to reach. Humor, mayhem, and friendships ensue. Almost non-stop action leads Yanko and friends into this exciting start of their treasure-seeking adventure!
I'm a huge fan of Lindsay Buroker's and the first installment of her new series, Chains of Honor, did not disappoint! The new series returns her devoted fans to the much-loved Emperor's Edge world, but it is not required (although very much recommended) reading to enjoy this new series.
I was so excited that Lindsay did what she does best in Warrior Mage. We have a group of misfits thrown together with a somewhat common goal to reach. Humor, mayhem, and friendships ensue. Almost non-stop action leads Yanko and friends into this exciting start of their treasure-seeking adventure!
Received in exchange for an honest review.
Warrior Mage - the upcoming release from Emperor's Edge Author, Lindsay Buroker, marks a welcome return to the 'Edgeiverse.'
You don't need to read Buroker's other works before diving in to Warrior Mage, but I would thoroughly recommend checking out the Swords and Salt Trilogy, as they do provide further information on Warrior Mage's MC, Yanko, and how he came to meet Lakeo, Prince Zaribo, and Dak (the latter two you may recognise from Forged in Blood II and Republic respectively)
Warrior Mage begins about a month after the final installment of Swords and Salt, with Yanko taking his entrance exams for the prestigious Stargrind Warrior Mage Training School, which he doesn't particularly want to go to. I've always felt a bit sorry for Yanko - he's a bit like Sespian, in that he's being forced in to a destiny that he doesn't quite have the aptitude for, when he'd rather be doing something else - following his own path, instead of the one placed before him that others expect him to tread. It's only after he and the ever sarcastic Lakeo narrowly escape death at the hands of some Nurian Rebels, that Yanko is granted the opportunity to forge his own destiny - but not without great cost and loss of life.
During the course of his journey, Yanko learns to harness and understand his own magic better, even in the face of danger, and with other practiotioners breathing down his neck. He also catches up with a couple of old friends and is introduced to Akstyr (yay!) now studying the Mental Sciences on the Kyatt Islands. Dear lord, he's hilarious. His grasp of the language is like that of the guy in your local Chinese Restaraunt who offers you 'Flied Lice' instead of Fried Rice, and, as expected, he's still getting himself in to trouble.
Like the EE series, Warrior Mage isn't lacking in adventure. In spite of being a brand new series, it dives straight in, and sweeps you along from beginning to end. I'm very much looking forward to the next leg of Yanko's travels.
A well deserved 4.5 out of 5!
Warrior Mage - the upcoming release from Emperor's Edge Author, Lindsay Buroker, marks a welcome return to the 'Edgeiverse.'
You don't need to read Buroker's other works before diving in to Warrior Mage, but I would thoroughly recommend checking out the Swords and Salt Trilogy, as they do provide further information on Warrior Mage's MC, Yanko, and how he came to meet Lakeo, Prince Zaribo, and Dak (the latter two you may recognise from Forged in Blood II and Republic respectively)
Warrior Mage begins about a month after the final installment of Swords and Salt, with Yanko taking his entrance exams for the prestigious Stargrind Warrior Mage Training School, which he doesn't particularly want to go to. I've always felt a bit sorry for Yanko - he's a bit like Sespian, in that he's being forced in to a destiny that he doesn't quite have the aptitude for, when he'd rather be doing something else - following his own path, instead of the one placed before him that others expect him to tread. It's only after he and the ever sarcastic Lakeo narrowly escape death at the hands of some Nurian Rebels, that Yanko is granted the opportunity to forge his own destiny - but not without great cost and loss of life.
During the course of his journey, Yanko learns to harness and understand his own magic better, even in the face of danger, and with other practiotioners breathing down his neck. He also catches up with a couple of old friends and is introduced to Akstyr (yay!) now studying the Mental Sciences on the Kyatt Islands. Dear lord, he's hilarious. His grasp of the language is like that of the guy in your local Chinese Restaraunt who offers you 'Flied Lice' instead of Fried Rice, and, as expected, he's still getting himself in to trouble.
Like the EE series, Warrior Mage isn't lacking in adventure. In spite of being a brand new series, it dives straight in, and sweeps you along from beginning to end. I'm very much looking forward to the next leg of Yanko's travels.
A well deserved 4.5 out of 5!
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
And as a result of that, I'm so glad I can legitimately give it five stars! Not that I expected any less of a Lindsay Buroker product, but fantasy is actually my least favorite genre of the ones I spend any time in so I can be a very hard sell. Buroker consistently meets the targets of things that make me want to invest my time in a book.
Warrior Mage is technically a first in a series; there are three short stories known as the Swords & Salt collection that precede it. It is also a universe tie-in with many of her other works, and is set in the wider universe that the Emperor's Edge series and its spinoffs are part of. (A hat tip to Ms. Buroker for not giving the world itself a proper in-character name, because that honestly tends to damage my suspension of disbelief - if a world doesn't have heavy space travel or much awareness of other worlds, they don't really have a need to name planets, do they? And people in reality do not frequently talk in many contexts about being "from Earth.") However, I didn't find that having read the Emperor's Edge series was a requirement to appreciate this book, though one of the major players has a major role in Republic and there are a few callbacks that will bring utter delight to readers of the EE and Encrypted series. You can still pick up Warrior Mage from the beginning without knowing the others, and Buroker does a good job of fleshing out return characters for those who haven't met them before -- but I would recommend picking up the Swords & Salt stories, as they clarify things. Whether you read them before or after Warrior Mage may not matter as much, but reading them at all is definitely a good idea.
The story itself has a lot of Questing Action packed into it, but not so much that it's impossible to keep up. Scenery comes into play a lot in this book, actually emphasizing the different landmasses and geography that the characters are in as part of the story -- the world itself feels rich and involved as if it were a character. There are quite a lot of convenient coincidences that keep the story moving forward, but that's something I actually enjoy in a plot, myself, the fact that things really can hinge on whether you happened to chance upon someone in a crowd, or if someone you already knew was involved in a situation you were forced into. Yanko just has that kind of luck, whether or not you believe in his gods fueling it; it leaves the reader wondering if or when it will run out, and if you're familiar with Lindsay Buroker, you know it will. There are frustrating twists and a tense cliffhanger, but they're the sort that don't leave you wanting to express anger or dissatisfaction with the book -- they fit right in and keep you invested in the story.
Something I've commented on before from Decrypted and then Republic, but which really shines for several chapters here, is that Lindsay Buroker has an incredible talent for writing language barriers without creating fictional languages. You can really see how characters struggle over communicating at times and very much feel the way the different languages do or do not mesh.S he's given us a few Nurian and Kyattese words over the years, but the way that one assumes the protagonist's language is the 'default' and then displays characters struggling to communicate in it, stumble over grammar and mix up similar-sounding words without ever forcing the reader to put up with words being there that *they* cannot immediately recognize is fantastic. It was a bit part in some of her other works, but it stands out gloriously in Warrior Mage. It's enough that I absolutely had to put it in a review.
Things I didn't enjoy were really not anything that should take stars away from the book, because they are definitely opinion-based and not faults of the narrative: that I'm not as fond of teenage boys as storytellers (and boy was he ever written well for a teenager) unless there's a contrasting adult female POV, and that Yanko did manage to develop a skin-of-teeth type of planning that rang very similar to Amaranthe and Rias' styles blended together. Authors having similar characters is certainly not something that bothers me, but within the same world it might have been interesting to see how someone does something completely different ... though we do have people like Tikaya and Zirabo for that, and the similarity may simply be because Yanko, like Amaranthe, is focused on clearing his name and honor above all else. As a result I have tiny, but soaring hopes that the pair may at some point meet.
And as a result of that, I'm so glad I can legitimately give it five stars! Not that I expected any less of a Lindsay Buroker product, but fantasy is actually my least favorite genre of the ones I spend any time in so I can be a very hard sell. Buroker consistently meets the targets of things that make me want to invest my time in a book.
Warrior Mage is technically a first in a series; there are three short stories known as the Swords & Salt collection that precede it. It is also a universe tie-in with many of her other works, and is set in the wider universe that the Emperor's Edge series and its spinoffs are part of. (A hat tip to Ms. Buroker for not giving the world itself a proper in-character name, because that honestly tends to damage my suspension of disbelief - if a world doesn't have heavy space travel or much awareness of other worlds, they don't really have a need to name planets, do they? And people in reality do not frequently talk in many contexts about being "from Earth.") However, I didn't find that having read the Emperor's Edge series was a requirement to appreciate this book, though one of the major players has a major role in Republic and there are a few callbacks that will bring utter delight to readers of the EE and Encrypted series. You can still pick up Warrior Mage from the beginning without knowing the others, and Buroker does a good job of fleshing out return characters for those who haven't met them before -- but I would recommend picking up the Swords & Salt stories, as they clarify things. Whether you read them before or after Warrior Mage may not matter as much, but reading them at all is definitely a good idea.
The story itself has a lot of Questing Action packed into it, but not so much that it's impossible to keep up. Scenery comes into play a lot in this book, actually emphasizing the different landmasses and geography that the characters are in as part of the story -- the world itself feels rich and involved as if it were a character. There are quite a lot of convenient coincidences that keep the story moving forward, but that's something I actually enjoy in a plot, myself, the fact that things really can hinge on whether you happened to chance upon someone in a crowd, or if someone you already knew was involved in a situation you were forced into. Yanko just has that kind of luck, whether or not you believe in his gods fueling it; it leaves the reader wondering if or when it will run out, and if you're familiar with Lindsay Buroker, you know it will. There are frustrating twists and a tense cliffhanger, but they're the sort that don't leave you wanting to express anger or dissatisfaction with the book -- they fit right in and keep you invested in the story.
Something I've commented on before from Decrypted and then Republic, but which really shines for several chapters here, is that Lindsay Buroker has an incredible talent for writing language barriers without creating fictional languages. You can really see how characters struggle over communicating at times and very much feel the way the different languages do or do not mesh.S he's given us a few Nurian and Kyattese words over the years, but the way that one assumes the protagonist's language is the 'default' and then displays characters struggling to communicate in it, stumble over grammar and mix up similar-sounding words without ever forcing the reader to put up with words being there that *they* cannot immediately recognize is fantastic. It was a bit part in some of her other works, but it stands out gloriously in Warrior Mage. It's enough that I absolutely had to put it in a review.
Things I didn't enjoy were really not anything that should take stars away from the book, because they are definitely opinion-based and not faults of the narrative: that I'm not as fond of teenage boys as storytellers (and boy was he ever written well for a teenager) unless there's a contrasting adult female POV, and that Yanko did manage to develop a skin-of-teeth type of planning that rang very similar to Amaranthe and Rias' styles blended together. Authors having similar characters is certainly not something that bothers me, but within the same world it might have been interesting to see how someone does something completely different ... though we do have people like Tikaya and Zirabo for that, and the similarity may simply be because Yanko, like Amaranthe, is focused on clearing his name and honor above all else. As a result I have tiny, but soaring hopes that the pair may at some point meet.