/lit/ - Literature

The Paranoid Mage

Callum Wells has always seen strange things that others did not, but at of 30 he's caught up in a magical attack and his latent power comes to the attention of the Guild of Arcane Regulation, who bag him, tag him, take him in, sit him down and tell him how it's going to be. Off to magical kindergarten, then to serve GAR at their pleasure for an unspecified "draft" period.

Or not. "Callum knew a hustle when he heard one." Rather than accepting tutelage in his newly discovered powers in exchagne for service, Callum ditches his captors at the first chance and goes on the lam, hiding, teaching and training himself where possible, fighting where he feels he must.

Not going to say it's amazing, but it was surprisingly engaging. If you've gotten yourself over the triple hump of self publishing, urban fantasy and progression fantasy, this might be worth a shot. The progression aspect is cool because there are no stats, levels or cultivation realms, just a guy who knows nothing trying to teach himself what's possible. It very clearly draws from overt progression fantasy, but does without the overt mechanics. So it's like The Fugitive meets an extended 80s training montage punctuated with bursts of creative violence.

This is also one of its shortcomings. Though the mages in-story can't think of how a spatial mage can be a combat class, I'm sure you can and so can I. But still, each of Callum's terrorist attacks are the same but different, reflecting his expanding knowledge and ability. And through alternate (but sparingly used) PoV, we see the rigid thinking of the GAR stiffs who consistently misattribute his cleverness to the work of greater and stronger forces.

I don't know if it's going to win anyone over, but if you know what goes on in this end of the pool this has more going for it than most.