Sufficiently Advanced Magic

Adventure awaits in this land of magic and mythical gods!

Five years ago, Tristan Cadence disappeared during his Judgement – a potentially fatal quest to earn a magical attunement. Now, it is Corin Cadence’s turn to enter the Serpent Spire for his Judgement, and Corin has only one thing on his mind – find his brother.

By completing the Judgement, Corin hopes to earn a powerful attunement that will enable him to find his brother. As with all heroes, things never go as planned. While Corin does survive the Judgement, the attunement he receives is not one he was hoping for; furthermore, his actions in the Spire may have put him on the wrong side of the gods. And the last thing any teenager wants, is to be an enemy of the gods.

Sufficiently Advanced Magic, book one of the Arcane Ascension series, by Andrew Rowe quickly draws readers in with it’s easy to read (or listen to) writing style and well developed characters. Once you start, you won’t want to stop.

Arcane Ascension is one series I will be adding to my “favorites” list for teens and adults.

In terms of content, I give book one, Sufficiently Advanced Magic, a PG rating and book two, On the Shoulders of Titans, a PG-13 rating. The series contains some brief references to LGBTQ issues/topics. For the most part these references are quick and almost feel like they were thrown in there for the sake of being politically correct. However, because the second book has a few more references and contains some innuendoes, I would be hesitant to recommended it to younger children. (I will note that books one and two did not contain any sex. I have not read book three yet, but I hope it continues to remain relatively clean.)

Thieves at Heart

When I first started reading Thieves at Heart by Tristan J. Tarwater, I was excited. Tarwater’s writing drew me in, and I thought perhaps I had found a new fiction series to explore. However, it was not to be. Halfway through the book, I was still trying to figure out what the point of the story was.

Thieves at Heart follows the exploits of a young girl named Tavera who is being trained as a thief by her adopted father. Why do they steal? Because they like it. They get a thrill from planning and orchestrating a successful “take” (what they call their heists). Aside from that, there is no point to the story – no real plot – nothing moving the story forward.

While I did finish the book, I won’t be reading any more in this series. I’m the type of reader who enjoys stories with more intention.

However, like I said earlier, Ms. Tarwater’s writing did grab my attention within the first few pages, and I would consider trying another series that she writes. I think with a bit more proof reading and some editing, Ms. Tarwater shows great promise as a writer.