About

Silvers is the first book in the Quest Academy series written by Brian J. Nordon.

Silvers book cover

Blurb

A world infested by demons. An Academy designed to train Heroes to save humanity from annihilation. A new student's power could make all the difference.

Humans have been pushed to the brink of extinction by an ever-evolving demonic threat. Portals are opening faster than ever, Towers bursting into the skies and Dungeons being mined below the last safe havens of society. The demons are winning.

Quest Academy stands defiantly against them, as a place to train the next generation of Heroes. The Guild Association is holding the line, but are in dire need of new blood and the powerful abilities they could bring to the battlefront. To be the saviors that humanity needs, they need to surpass the limits of those that came before them.

In a war with everything on the line, every power matters. With an adaptive enemy, comes the need for a constant shift in tactics. A new age of strategy is emerging, with even the unlikeliest of Heroes making an impact.

Salvatore Argento has never seen a demon. He has never aspired to become a Hero. Yet his power might be the one to tip the odds in humanity's favor.

Review

This book had a nice blend of magical studies and slice-of-life scenes. There's a bit of action as well towards the end. I especially enjoyed the crafting sessions. The author did a great job of bringing together the Heros who needed the magical items, guild politics, support staff, teachers and Sal (main character) using his unique powers related to crafting. Reminded me of Super Powereds (Drew Hayes) and Arcane Ascension (Andrew Rowe).

Sal had a really overpowered magical ability — I thought he (and other such OP students) would've been pulled from the academy and fast tracked to work as much as possible against the demons. That said, only a month passed in this book and the already established safe zones are perhaps good enough to not require desperate attempts. It didn't really feel like there was an apocalypse going on. I don't mind though — it made for a very enjoyable lighthearted read.

Writing was easy to follow and characters were well written, including side characters. Other than the first few chapters that felt a bit slow, there never was a dull moment — I didn't want the book to end! I had a few more nitpicks, but overall this was a fantastic experience. This was the author's first published book (apart from a prior webserial), so I'm hopeful the sequels would be even better!

My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

What others are saying

From Russell Gray's review on goodreads:

Once I settled into it, the story and the characters were great. The author balanced the character's OP ability well with the story and it's refreshing to see more stories from the "support" class perspective. I think the author also did a great job introducing and balancing the large cast of characters.

From Allison's review on goodreads:

I loved almost everything about this book. It is engaging, well written, and leaves you wanting more. The story is easy to fall into, and while the main characters are maybe a little overpowered for the start of a series; they are fallible and prone to the mistakes all students make.