*Review* Sufficiently Advanced Magic by Andrew Rowe

 

Genre: Fantasy

Published: February 26, 2017

Pages: 625

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 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.

I read this book because it was one of twelve suggested by friends for me to read this year. I lucked out by finding the audiobook version available during a 2 for 1 credit sale on Audible, which is why it's the first of the 12 books I read even though it was not the first book suggested (although I never intended to read them in the order suggested necessarily because I'm a mood reader). The fact that it was recommended by my arch-nemesis's husband and he's been trying to get her to read it for a while apparently and she still hasn't was just icing on the cake for me getting to it sooner rather than later. 

This book felt like it took forever to listen to, even at 1.7 speed. I mostly only listened while cooking or washing dishes, which definitely contributed to that. I didn't feel so invested in the story that I wanted to keep listening when my hands were free to hold a book/phone to read myself, and I think that's due in part to the fact that there was a lot that Corin needed to learn, which means there was a lot we as the readers needed to learn too. In any case, the action scenes were few and far between, and the routes between them were very information heavy, and didn't have me on the edge of my figurative seat. 

It wasn't until a reveal at the end of the book that I really wanted to know what happened next, which kudos to the author because now I really do want to read the next book, but by the time I actually have time to do it, I will probably have forgotten why. There's definitely still a ton of things that can happen in the story, so seeing that this is the first book of a four book series is not surprising. Overall I give this book 4.17 out of 5 stars. - Katie 

Amazon

Andrew Rowe was once a professional game designer for awesome companies like Blizzard Entertainment, Cryptic Studios, and Obsidian Entertainment. Nowadays, he’s writing full time.

When he’s not crunching numbers for game balance, he runs live-action role-playing games set in the same universe as his books. In addition, he writes for pen and paper role-playing games.

Aside from game design and writing, Andrew watches a lot of anime, reads a metric ton of fantasy books, and plays every role-playing game he can get his hands on.

Interested in following Andrew’s books releases, or discussing them with other people? You can find more info, update, and discussions in a few places online:

Andrew’s Blog: https://andrewkrowe.wordpress.com/

Mailing List: https://andrewkrowe.wordpress.com/mailing-list/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Arcane-Ascension-378362729189084/

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ClimbersCourt/