Guild Mage

Blurb

There are a lot of things wrong with Liv Brodbeck.

She’s too small, for one thing. When she works in the castle kitchens with her mother, she can’t carry a sack of flour or roll a keg of ale.

Baron Summerset’s chirurgeon says that she has brittle bones, so she isn’t allowed to wrestle or sword fight with the other children. Even sledding downhill in the winter brings the risk of breaking an arm or a leg if she falls.

Everyone says that she ruined her mother’s life when she was born. Not when they think Liv is in the room, of course, but she overhears all the same. In the kitchen of a less kind lord, a cook bearing a bastard child would have been more than cause enough for both of them to be out on the street.

No, a child like Liv doesn’t have much hope. But when she accidentally unleashes a surge of wild magic, she takes her first step on a journey which will lead her from the kitchens of Castle Whitehill, to the cold palaces of the Eld, and beyond, to the graves of gods…

Thoughts

As of writing this review, I’ve read all four available ebooks, and then every available chapter on Royal Road.

Guild Mage starts off strong, and hits a bunch of the common tropes that set a story up for several well-known plot arcs. Our MC is both a typical commoner, struggling to do more than get by, but with a mysterious but important heritage that comes with access to magical skills. Or in Liz’s case, a connection to the word of Power for Ice.

The magic system’s structure is one that you may recognise from many prior works, though I guess Eragon and the Inheritance Cycle is what people will be most familiar with (despite it definitely not being the original use). It’s all about universal language, and knowledge of this poorly understood language and its incredible complexity, when combined with having imprinted a word of power, is what lets the magic happen. In the setting, the knowledge, both in terms of who gets access to specific words of power, and knowledge on the language itself (grammar, words of not-power, etc) is hoarded by the noble faction. Each noble family will have a word, maybe two if they’re lucky, and they leverage that word to keep and grow their power base.

In the early days, this system is fun, makes sense, and you can see how the magic system has guided the formation of the power structures in the world. I like that.

I say the early days, though, because (IMHO) a few issues crop up as you get deeper into the books. The Eld (the elf-analogues who live longer than humans, are better at magic, and have pointed ears) who live in the north, of which Liv is half of, don’t hoard words like the nobles do. They’re open to sharing. Further, we find out that there are numerous elders in the book who are old enough that their native tongue is Vaeldic (the magic language). Suddenly, the two main impediments to incredible magical power simply vanish. Now, this point does some up in the books numerous times, and the in-universe explanation Liv gets is that, when fighting another archmage, its better to use fewer words that you really know instead of trying to use more words with a loose grasp of their meaning and intent

Except… like… Live could learn those other words of power but not use them in archmage battles? So many times Liv creates something in ice and thinks “Damn it’d be nice if this wouldn’t melt soon. If only it was stone.” only to, you know, have had the opportunity to imprint the word for Stone (just like her friend did), but she deliberately passed on the opportunity. It gets a bit more strange when you realise that words give passive benefits too. The word the magic academy teaches, Aluth, is the word for Mana, and learning it becomes super useful because Liv gets to sense mana around her a lot better. Learning the word for Truth helps detect when people are lying (with some training). So there are clearly numerous reasons you’d want to learn words outside fighting another archmage, but all these characters just… don’t. It makes no sense to me, and it makes me frustrated with the main character.

Anyway, that’s my main gripe with the magic system. In terms of all the ways each person uses their words, whether its in single combat or in pitched battles, is fun and inventive.

The Academy arc is also fun, but short as the global plotlines forces Liv to move faster and faster. I said plotlines, because there’s both the politics side within the current nation, and also the more-overarching goddess of blood plotline, and you can feel Liv’s frustration with all the politics getting in the way of the real issues in a way very reminscent of real life. Liv’s characterisation is strong, and a highlight of the series.

For the first half (of what I’ve read), the focus is more on Liv as a person, and her personal growth in power. After this grows to a point, there’s a rather large shift where the conflict pivots to larger battles, and there’s far more focus on logistics, planning, and Liv having to play politics. I feel like the second half would appeal to the PF crowd less, but from what I’ve read I assume we’re going to lean more toward kingdom building as the series continues. It might take a while though, because the plot development is definitely on the slow burn side.

As a final note, one thing I really liked about the series is its approach on time. With Liv aging slower due to her half-Elden nature, there’s a Frieren-like poignancy to many of the observations and realisations about her family and friends, as they age, mature, have children, or pass on, while Liv barely changes. It’s really well executed and the introspective qualities it brings are very rare to find in this genre.

Alright, summary time. Slow-burn mix of both the classic wizarding-come-of-age character growth, plus politics and kingdom building down the line. Expansive plotlines, with a well-defined magic system that has clearly shaped the world.