Monday, January 7, 2013

The End of Magic

The End of Magic
Author: G.M. Gambrell
Genre:  Fantasy | Young Adult | Science Fiction
Release Date: September 3rd, 2012
GoodReads

This is an indie novel published through Amazon's self-publishing program. It's got a decent setting and premise for the story where the modern society as we know it has been overthrown by the magic users. Despite the implications of the story, where the magicians basically committed genocide on the humans (literally in fact, billions were killed and there's only a couple thousand survivors left by the current time in the story), the story isn't as dark as the blurb would have you believe. There was a huge war between the magicians and normal humans after people starting getting magical powers en masse. Now the only survivors are hiding in the ruins of the former human cities while the magicians remain cooped up in their shielded magical towns.

While this is a decent attempt for an indie author, it still failed to impress. For one thing, the characters aside from the main character Duncan, are wholly uninteresting. I could barely distinguish any redeeming characteristics or traits between any of them. If you were to ask me about which characters stood out in the story, I'd be unable to answer you simply because of how forgettable they all are. They're just so bland and devoid of any qualities that would differentiate them from one another or make them stand out in your mind while you're reading the story. I can't quite put my finger on the cause of it, but I think it's because of how focused Gambrell was in trying to further the plot, devoting all his attention and creativity to further the background and progression of the story, thus depriving the characters of any real development.

This is a mash-up of fantasy and science fiction that while ambitious, failed to keep me interested for long. It was a good enough but unsatisfactory read. The ending left an opening for a sequel but I sure won't be reading it if it ever comes out.

Scores:
Cover: 2
Characters: 3
Story: 4

Overall:  3.5/10 (2 Stars)

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