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Reddit mentions of Into the Labyrinth: Mage Errant Book 1
Sentiment score: 7
Reddit mentions: 13
We found 13 Reddit mentions of Into the Labyrinth: Mage Errant Book 1. Here are the top ones.
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Release date | October 2018 |
I personally tend to enjoy the magical combat in stories that have very clear magical rules, so that you can try to figure out how characters will use their abilities tactically in order to defeat their opponents.
Some examples:
Into the Labyrinth, the first book in my Mage Errant series (and my debut novel), follows the adventures of Hugh of Emblin, an incompetent, friendless student mage. When an unusual mage picks him as an apprentice, however, his life begins to take a turn for the better- and the stranger.
When writing Into the Labyrinth, I really wanted to contrast Hugh with all the other socially outcast orphans out there, who tend to be tough, self-reliant, and capable. Hugh's very much not these things- he's got serious mental health issues he has to grapple with, including depression, cripplingly low self confidence, and severe social anxiety. He hasn't handled his difficult past with anywhere near the aplomb you tend to expect from a protagonist, and he really just wants to be left alone and stay out of people's way. Of course, Hugh seldom gets what he wants.
Into the Labyrinth features a fairly complex hard magic system, for those who enjoy those. The sequel, Jewel of the Endless Erg (which features a truly egregious number of dragons), is already out, and I'm currently in the middle of writing book 3.
If you enjoy that type of setting then I highly recommend Mage Errant, I've read the first three books and they are only through 2 years of schooling (albeit they start at like 16). But lots of learning, training and improving.
Into the Labyrinth: Mage Errant Book 1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07J675X2C/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_KFYXDbX0H4XEY
You must have a super strict definition of what you consider "progression fantasy" (vs I guess other fantasy that doesn't have strict RPG quantification).
Some other series that I consider progression fantasy and I enjoyed:
To me "normal" length book is 300-350 pages.
> why aren't established fantasy authors rushing to deliver?
New niche (niche-ier?) genre labels appear all the time, so there are probably a ton of fantasy stories out there that have that "progression" aspect to it that you are overlooking.
Seriously, just climb down through Amazon's category labels to the bottom of fantasy limb and read there.
The difference between "fantasy" and "progression fantasy" is how much the author details the main character(s) montages.
Into The Labyrinth is a group of Very Special Teens from Wizard School That Has A Labyrinth Under It. The whole setup promises plenty of weird and interesting magic. The latter half of the book takes places in the aforementioned labyrinth, where it basically turns into an old-school dungeon crawler. It's interesting and well-written, the world is vivid and alive, the twists are nice but it doesn't lean on them no one is The Supreme Magus.
He's only got 2 books I could find and one is the sequel to the other, so id start with the first one.
Into The Labyrinth
I'll add some of my favorites that you didn't mention. They are mostly Superhero, because that's what got me into self published authors that are frequently on KU.
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis Taylor. Great sci fi with plenty of humor and nerdy pop culture references, but also a fare share of danger and adventure. KU has all 3 books in the Bobiverse.
Sensation: A Superhero Novel by Kevin Hardman. This is a YA Super Hero novel, and is the first of 7 along with a couple spinoffs and short stories. The author also has a sci fi series and a fantasy series, but I haven't read them yet. I'm pretty sure all of his books are on KU.
Into the Labyrinth by John Bierce. This is the Mage Errant series. The 3rd book just came out, and there is a post here by the author. This is a book centered on a magical school, and it has a very good and detailed hard magic system.
Fid's Crusade by David Reiss. This is a Super Villain novel, and is darker than a lot of superhero books out there. There are currently 3 books in the Chronicles of Fid. I've only read the first one but I really liked it, and I even bought it when it was on sale so I could go back and read it again sometime instead of relying on it being on KU forever.
Arsenal by Jeffery H. Haskell. Another Super Hero novel, this one is probably in between the other two I mentioned in terms of tone, being darker than Kid Sensasion, but lighter than Fid. The protagonist is disabled and in a wheel chair, but made an awesome suit of armor to become a hero. There are 8 books in the series, and there is another series set in the same world with the 4th book coming at the end of the month. All of them are on KU.
Arcane ascension
Mage errant
Alco, check out /r/ProgressionFantasy/
I will just mention that I happened upon this post and was surprised there was an audiobook available
see, I checked out the page for book 1 as one does and saw no audio format listed, so just assumed none existed
by making this combined pack, discoverability is really reduced
> Which brought me to the book on amazon, easy enough. Except I can't actually buy the ebook. "Not currently available for purchase." Googling suggests regional issues are the reason, but the tutorials I found for changing location hasn't been working.
I have no issue purchasing it on AU Amazon
I've found it's generally easier to find a somewhat generically named book by searching the author rather than the title. If you put John's name in to Amazon, for instance, Into the Labyrinth is the first result to come up.
I need to give We Are Legion another shot, I DNF'd it a while back. I think I had been reading too many books with pop culture references then and had gotten sick of it. I've read the first two Sensation books, but I didn't like the second one much so I didn't put it on the list.
I've been meaning to read Into the Labyrinth for a while, it looks good from the reviews I've seen. I'll have to check out the other two superhero books as well.
Hey man, I'm also from Australia and I just searched up "John Bierce" on the Kindle app and it showed up. For free! I tried finding a link on Amazon for you but I couldn't. Weird. If you have the kindle app, you can download it from there. Or download the app :p Good luck!
EDIT: I tried some more. Try this link?
https://www.amazon.com/Into-Labyrinth-Mage-Errant-Book-ebook/dp/B07J675X2C/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1539174516&sr=1-1&keywords=john+bierce&dpID=51I9IvuaRFL&preST=_SY445_QL70_&dpSrc=srch
Try this https://www.amazon.co.uk/Into-Labyrinth-Mage-Errant-Book-ebook/dp/B07J675X2C/