Matthew Hawkins

Dollar Store Brand Red Rising

Revisado: 03-09-25

Uninspired copy of Red Rising. Unlikeable protagonist, whom is great at everything because he was raised in luxury with the best tutors, is now going to an elite school after spending only three years working for a living. Magic system is incredibly vague. Even though this book takes place at a magic school, we never use the classes as a way to develop the magic system. Checkov’s Dog appears out of no where and teaches the protagonist magic with the power of friendship.

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story drags out. four hours of epilogue after the real story ends.

Revisado: 07-27-24

story drags out. four hours of epilogue after the real story ends.

great performance by heath…. some how they push the limit, voicing 15 people all talking at one time.

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MEH. Convoluted & Banal.

Revisado: 04-07-24

A book consisting of non-stop “What if”’s
Author creates a Fourth magik system on a nonsensical single world. This new magik system is a direct copy of the “Core” power system from Cradle series by will wight.

The story and writing style is formulaic from every other Rowe works. hook > flashback > interlude > repeat. Main character is a derivative copy of Corin (SAM), Sage (CA),and with the backstory of Keras (SSS). Spirit companion personality is just copied from Dawn (SSS)


Personally, I feel like Rowe has written themselves into dead ends with the other series on an undeveloped world magik system and keeps having to make new systems that overly complicate existing works. Each in their own would be interesting but the constant references to the other magik systems needlessly complicates the current explanations. We already have two series about magical sword loving people and their almost awkward lust for “sheathing their sword”. Do we need a trivial copy?

Voice acting and production is amazing as always but when the characters are just written echos of other characters it’s really hard to not hear and think you accidentally started up the wrong book.

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regretful , red herring

Revisado: 02-12-24

just skip to the last chapter. nothing in this book matters. none of the setups pay off. none of the character building matters. this was only building a new villain that will be dealt with in the next book. 99% of the conflict is just a red herring. final “resolution” was to casually use a mcguffin that was sworn never to use for over 20 books. I think i’m done with this series.

tl;dr amazon won’t let me return this book… I really want to.

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adequate entry to the Arcane Ascension universe

Revisado: 09-06-23

A pretty good entry into the universe. it’s neat to see how sunstone and citrine operators delve into the spires.

I think this is the first book that truly passes the Bechdel Test. Fully fleshed out female characters who have their own stories and personalities that weren’t just side pieces for the male protagonist. The fact that I hated how annoying Nieve was, but could also relate, shows how well women are represented in this book.

Now for the non-binary elephant in the room. representation is important, but every time a nonbinary person was talked to or about by a non-primary character, they had to have this sudo-surprise / hard time believing they were not male or female presenting….. in a world with Wydd? I do not feel like having to explain nonbinary aspects to every side character was necessary. it kinda broke my immersion. I think there are better formats for advocacy of marginalized real world groups.

voice actors changed the pronunciations of countries and the goddess from the established vocal performance. i kept having to translate in my mental voice :(

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Texas Plothole and Plot Armor Reckoner

Revisado: 08-10-21

If Steelheart is Omniman, and Obliteration is Joker…then this book’s Villian is Barney the purple dinosaur.

~”I can kill your friends at any time and any where” says the boot to the ant.

And yet days progress and eventually the ants destroy the boot.

Book one : epics are heartless psychopaths
Boole two : epics are corrupted by the use of their powers
This book : epics forget they have powers… some epics just disappear from the story while their homes are destroyed.

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Headphones Warning!

Revisado: 06-07-21

Do not wear headphones while listening to this book.
Some chapters drift down to a whisper so quiet you’ll need to crank the volume to max. The next chapter is guaranteed to blow out your ear drums. Who ever was the audio engineer for this book should fired.

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Copy Paste, Copy Paste, Copy Paste

Revisado: 01-07-21

(disclaimer, i just finished binging three books of Undying Mercenaries)
Generic Protagonist with god-level skills, charisma, and luck.
Generic Best friend character who gets protag into trouble.
Generic Opposite-Sex Love interest who is tormented but dangerous.

Made it 50% through the book before returning it. It is not a bad book... just extremely underwhelming.

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Whimsical British-style Writing.

Revisado: 09-05-18

I got a couple hours into this book and had to give up. You really have to enjoy or be in the mood for light hearted sci-fi comedy. Two hours in and I know about 8 characters, 3 independent story lines and overall no plot progression. I prefer world building and a central plot.

If you like the narrator (and only the narrator) from Hitchhikers Guide..., and want an entire book of non-sequitur banter, this is the book for you!

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