About

Tongue Eater is the 6th book in the Mage Errant series written by John Bierce.

If you want to know what this series is about, check out Bender's review on fanfiaddict. Here's a quote:

Mage Errant series is a light and fun coming of age adventure read that’ll definitely leave you with a smile. It certainly sticks to the many of the tropes commonly found in this genre, but what sets it apart is the unique worldbuilding and over the top colorful characters.

Tongue Eater book cover

Blurb

Kanderon Crux has fallen.

The traitors who brought the powerful sphinx down have fled with plagues and other magical weapons stolen from Skyhold's Vault, intending to use them against the Havath Dominion, no matter the cost to the rest of the Ithonian continent. Havath teeters on the edge of collapse after their failed invasion of Skyhold, and the nations and monsters of Ithos circle like vultures. The Dominion has no interest in going down without a fight, however, and there are few depths they're unwilling to sink to for survival.

Kanderon's surviving allies are working desperately to stop both the traitors and the Dominion, but the situation is worse than they know. The traitors didn't steal plagues at all. They stole the Tongue Eater, a weapon capable of devouring entire languages, and unless they're stopped, it threatens the fate of the entire continent. Hugh Stormward and his friends are the only ones who know the truth, and there's no one they can trust with the knowledge. Even with the fate of the continent on his shoulders, however, Hugh doesn't care about any of that.

He's convinced that Kanderon is still alive, even if no one else believes him, and he's willing to do whatever it takes to help her.

(Includes the bonus novella Gram of Clan Castis.)

Review

The series was initally planned as six books, but due to length the last book got split into two. I loved the directions this book went and the insane plan cooked up by Hugh and his friends. I would've happily devoured a trilogy of this book's content. However, in the context of the series, it did feel a bit weird even knowing that "Tongue Eater" was pretty much a setup book for the finale.

I was already a big fan of the worldbuilding and this book went overdrive on that aspect. And as usual, the intricacies of the magic system continued to play a major role. Plot wise, the initial part of the book deals with the aftermath of the siege, which included a lot of nifty surprises. The rest largely revolved around the insane plan and Alustin's preparations for Havath's destruction. Given the cliffhanger ending, the beginning of the next book is probably going to be explosive in terms of revelations and character reactions.

Overall I enjoyed this book, can't wait for the concluding book and looking forward to future series set in this multiverse.

My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

What others are saying

From Travis Riddle's review on goodreads:

Suffice to say, this entry is packed to the gills with Bierce's wonderful brand of worldbuilding and magical abilities, possibly the best showcase of both those things he's had yet.

From Garet's review on goodreads:

This book was such a pleasant surprise. I was expecting more greater powers and bigger magic battles and instead was amazed with some of the most well crafted worlds that leave me excited for more exploration.

Bingo

/r/Fantasy/ 2022 bingo categories:

  • Cool Weapon
  • Published in 2022
  • Self-Published OR Indie Publisher
  • No Ifs, Ands, or Buts