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A review by debthebee13
The Magician's Secret by Charles Townsend
3.0
A young magician's unwanted travel adventure
The Magician's Secret is the first book in the now fully published Illusions of Power trilogy by Charles Townsend. Although the story is set in the fantasy genre, the plot is not so much based on magical elements, but rather on strategies and tricks typical of the kind of magicians who perform tricks and illusions in front of an audience.
Plot
The story follows our main character, the young magician Delvin, as he tries to clear his name after being falsely accused of certain crimes. The book is written as a travelling adventure, alternating between cozy and dynamic elements, sprinkled with many opportunities for Delvin to come up with clever deceptions to save himself and his fellow travellers through dangerous situations where they are often on the verge of being caught.
Positives
What I liked about the story is its cosiness, the occasional bickering between the main characters and the many clever and few cute moments in the story.
Space for improvement
Overall, the story has the feeling that many short stories have been inserted into the same larger story and are sometimes not fluidly connected. There are also parts with extensive descriptions with lots of details that seem unnecessary and slow down the pace of the story for no good reason. The magic system is not complex, but is skilfully woven into the plot. However, the world building is not very deep and the characters, aside from a handful of main characters, are not very developed.
Target audience
The book contains no profanity and there are only a few occasions where sexual interactions are vaguely hinted at. Based on the overall writing style and skill of the author, I think this book would be best suited for older teens and young adults. Although the plot itself has potential, it is noticeable that the author does not have as much experience and training in writing and I feel that the author did not receive thorough expert feedback on the draft prior to publication. There are no major errors in grammar or in the plot itself, but there are parts that could have been deleted to improve the pacing of the story without losing important details.
Final rating
Overall, I give this book 2/4 on the 4 point rating scale because it was a good story, but not something I would recommend to other adult fantasy readers. I think it would be good to market the story to a younger audience instead. I rate it 3/5 on the 5 point rating scale as it had an interesting premise and plot, but was just average due to the execution of the story.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book through Online Book Club for an honest paid review.
The Magician's Secret is the first book in the now fully published Illusions of Power trilogy by Charles Townsend. Although the story is set in the fantasy genre, the plot is not so much based on magical elements, but rather on strategies and tricks typical of the kind of magicians who perform tricks and illusions in front of an audience.
Plot
The story follows our main character, the young magician Delvin, as he tries to clear his name after being falsely accused of certain crimes. The book is written as a travelling adventure, alternating between cozy and dynamic elements, sprinkled with many opportunities for Delvin to come up with clever deceptions to save himself and his fellow travellers through dangerous situations where they are often on the verge of being caught.
Positives
What I liked about the story is its cosiness, the occasional bickering between the main characters and the many clever and few cute moments in the story.
Space for improvement
Overall, the story has the feeling that many short stories have been inserted into the same larger story and are sometimes not fluidly connected. There are also parts with extensive descriptions with lots of details that seem unnecessary and slow down the pace of the story for no good reason. The magic system is not complex, but is skilfully woven into the plot. However, the world building is not very deep and the characters, aside from a handful of main characters, are not very developed.
Target audience
The book contains no profanity and there are only a few occasions where sexual interactions are vaguely hinted at. Based on the overall writing style and skill of the author, I think this book would be best suited for older teens and young adults. Although the plot itself has potential, it is noticeable that the author does not have as much experience and training in writing and I feel that the author did not receive thorough expert feedback on the draft prior to publication. There are no major errors in grammar or in the plot itself, but there are parts that could have been deleted to improve the pacing of the story without losing important details.
Final rating
Overall, I give this book 2/4 on the 4 point rating scale because it was a good story, but not something I would recommend to other adult fantasy readers. I think it would be good to market the story to a younger audience instead. I rate it 3/5 on the 5 point rating scale as it had an interesting premise and plot, but was just average due to the execution of the story.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book through Online Book Club for an honest paid review.