Battlemage

Stephen Aryan

Sep 2015 · Sold by Orbit

About this ebook

"I can command storms, summon fire and unmake stone," Balfruss growled. "It's dangerous to meddle with things you don't understand."

Balfruss is a battlemage, sworn to fight and die for a country that fears and despises his kind.

Vargus is a common soldier -- while mages shoot lightning from the walls of the city, he's down in the front lines getting blood on his blade.

Talandra is a princess and spymaster, but the war may force her to risk everything and make the greatest sacrifice of all.

Magic and mayhem collide in this explosive epic fantasy from a major new talent.

Ratings and reviews

Great book over all. Good style of writing. Similar style of magic to many books out there, but with enough differences to make it feel unique instead of played out. Author did a great job keeping the reader focused for the most part. Tons of small things you will miss on the first reading that add so much value to the book. I suggest going back over it for those who didn't think it lived up to what it could have been, or if you just want to enjoy it a little more the second time.

Not a bad book, especially for a first published work. It could have probably have used another draft or an editor, but it's still an enjoyable read. I found the most interesting character to be one of the secondary characters, specifically the one we see in the first chapter. So it was a little disappointing that he turned out to be a secondary character, especially after we find out what he actually is. Wish we could have seen more of that guy. I probably won't be getting the next book, but if I do it will be to see more of him, whatever his name was. (It's been a few weeks since I finished it, give me a break.)

You know I can't say that I've ever taken the time to write a review on a book before. Huh. I'm sincerely shocked at the good reviews for this book. Conceptually? Great! How it was written? Let's just say this is the first book I have ever started and not finished. The details in the soldiering bits with Vargus were pretty good. At least the battles were. The interactions between the soldiers themselves were lackluster and bland though. The magic fights though.... that's where the book really lost me. Just about the least descriptive things I've ever read. Like a 5th grader could come up with better detail. Also the amount of contradictions was insane. One paragraph would talk about one of the mages whirling around all sorts of patterns and what not and the next would immediately talk about how motionless they were the entire time. What? The climax? The thing they spend the entire book building up to? 3 pages long. There aren't even any words exchanged. It's just like "they're both alive, the guy did a vague thing using a lot of power, and now the other guy is dead. tadaaaaaa." How did this even make it to publication

About the author

Stephen Aryan was born in 1977 and was raised by the sea in northeast England. A keen podcaster, lapsed gamer and budding archer, when not extolling the virtues of Babylon 5, he can be found drinking real ale and reading comics.

He lives in a village in Yorkshire with his partner and two cats.