About

The Enchanter is Tobias Begley's debut book.

The Enchanter book cover

Blurb

Evan never thought he was going to be special. As the adopted son of a tailor, he had always expected to manage the shop after his father passed. But when his Aura awakens, he finds himself entering Yesgol Academy of Magic, a place filled with the children of elite mages and nobles, all of whom have had magical education from the time they could walk. Among such prestigious company, Evan will have to learn fast or be left in the dust and in debt.

At Yesgol, he studies the arts of enchanting and divination, but all is not as it seems. As Evan pushes forwards his skills as a mage to catch up with his peers, he finds himself entangled with a secret society for the reformation of magic, deals with the occasional extraplanar horror appearing in the shadows of the school, and catches the eye of a charming young noble who's been excommunicated from his family.

Review

This was an engaging read right from the first chapter. I love magical academy books and progression fantasy is one of my favorite subgenres. This book combined both in a satisfying way for me, and the afterword promised more exciting works to come.

The first half was mostly slice-of-life — introducing characters, world building, start of a new academic year and so on. I enjoy this sort of set up at the beginning of a series, and it was well done here. The technology level seemed to be 19th century with steam powered trains, use of pistols, etc (doesn't play a big role in this book though).

The story is told from Evander's POV. I think more perspectives (or interludes) would've enhanced the experience here. The stakes increased a lot in the second half — magical experiments, end of year competitions, extraplanar horrors, etc.

Evander suffers from agoraphobia, social anxiety and crowded areas. I felt like the author did a good job of showing how it affects everyday living. There were other characters as well with their own quirks and issues.

The magic system was interesting and had a lot of flexibility in terms of application and gaining power. I think it is more apt to say the author combined several different magic systems — witchcraft, bonding with familiars, runes, etc (all powered by aura).

Overall, I would say it was a good debut and recommend the book for those who enjoy academy settings.

My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟☆

What others are saying

From Gabriel Cavalcante's review on goodreads:

The debut novel of Tobias Begley, The Enchanter enters the fields with a lot of promise and a quality of writing that constantly improves throughout its length. The world of Cré, in which the story takes place, is woven with a significant amount of interesting magic and potential; there are sorcerers, witches, druids, and numerous mysterious beings that wield magic in distinctive ways.

From Sam's review on goodreads:

Really good read, the writing was fluid and overall it was well formatted without too much preamble or unnecessary descriptions. The story itself was good and reminded me of some of my favourite stories such as Name of the Wind and Cradle. Definitely worth reading.

Bingo

/r/Fantasy/ 2022 bingo categories:

  • Cool Weapon
  • Published in 2022 (HM)
  • Features Mental Health (HM)
  • Self-Published OR Indie Publisher (HM)