This isn't a genre I would normally enjoy, but this book was surprisingly good. I'll be looking for more to read from the author. Hopefully they're all this enjoyable.

Trust betrayed, love lost, the terrible cost of magic, and uneasy alliances are just some of the ways I would sum up D.M. Wozniak’s The Indivisible and the Void. The book, the first in the Age of Axion series, begins with our main character, Master Voider Democryos, learning via a letter that his wife has left him. The scene is revealing to the reader in terms of the makeup of Democryos as a person, including insight into his fears, shame, and eventual perseverance. As Master Voider to the king, Democryos lives a life that is on one hand privileged yet, on the other, rigid and structured by necessity given his level of responsibilities and because of the discipline required to wield the power of the void.

The magic system that Wozniak has created is interesting to say the least. Voiders gain their power through the use of void stones, which are black shards they typically wear around their necks so it is always close as it is necessary for a voider to have physical contact with the stone in order to draw forth its power. When a voider does call upon the power of the stone, they almost enter another dimension where their perception of the world around them changes (think Frodo putting on the ring in the Lord of the Rings movies). Also, they gain almost unlimited power that is hindered only by their force of will and their creativity. As with all such godly powers, though, there is a cost, one which Democryos slowly learns about as the story unfolds.

Drawn by suspected conspiracies and a need to confront his estranged wife, Democryos sets out for the front where a war has been raging with the neighboring kingdom over access to shipping lanes. Along the way, he finds new allies and makes new enemies, but ultimately confronts his own insecurities and learns a great many truths about void stones and the reason is his wife left him.

D.M. Wozniak delivers a somewhat original story with a main character who is not entirely what one might expect. He isn’t at all times heroic, yet he is good. Only when he lets go of everything he thinks he knows about void stones does he fully mature and find new purpose. This new purpose sets up nicely for further exploration in the next novel in the series.

The Indivisible and the Void starts out as a strong four rocket contender. I was flipping pages fervently early on. But the momentum begins to taper off somewhere about 2/3rds of the way through and doesn’t pick up enough to hold that rating. I’m instead giving it three rockets. Definitely a good read and a series I will continue reading.

Fantastic!

I really enjoyed the vivid writing and the plot was so captivating! I highly recommend to fans of sci-fi and fantasy looking for a fast-paced novel set in a unique world!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Thank you to D. M. Wozniak for providing me this arc via Netgalley!
Maybe I'm just over my sci-fi phase, but this book really did not do it for me. It felt bland and boring.

3,5 stars
There are things I enjoyed and things I really disliked, but overall a solid start for a series.
On the good side: the magical system was intriguing and I loved how it seemed almost scientific at times; the sci-fi twist was phenomenal, I can‘t wait to see was consequences it‘s going to have in the sequels! I enjoyed the relationship between the MC and the priest (from enemies with very different beliefs to allies and then friends). Lastly, I like the trope about the privileged and sheltered person who explores the world and realized hoe little he/she knew aout how things really are.
On the (very) bad side: the whole storyline about Democryos “desperately“ looking for his disappeared wife only to fall in love with another woman in the process!!! The books tells you how much Democryos is in love with his wife while not so subtly implying that she‘s manipulative bitch, a social climber with a huge lust for power and a cheater in order to justify him mooning over another woman. And of course, the only way his wife could redeem herself was by sacrificing herself which conveniently left the MC free to indulge in his feelings for the other woman (you know, there‘s no wife now so what could you ever object!?).
I think the female representation in general is very lacking, there are only 2 main female charachters in the whole book and they are heavily stereotyped: the traitorous and lying bitch lusting for power on one side, the saint on the over side (of course, she‘s an assassin but she can‘t be a morally grey charchter because she‘s Democryos love interest!).
I hope the problems are going to be fixed in the next, which I‘m going to read because the world building and the twists left me curious. It has great potential.

I jumped into this book completely blind. The synopsis gives very little away.
Voider is a man in his forties which i don’t typically read books where the main character is above 25. His wife is actually pretty young. And I wont lie but I felt very weird about it.
Not only that, along the mission to find his missing wife he falls for yet another young woman.
I really had to push myself through this book.
I must say though that the magic system was very well done and what kept me most interested.

I was given this ARC by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I read the arc of this from Netgalley and... yikes. The synopsis cleverly leaves out that the wife he is so desperately searching for is less than half his age and that he was her teacher when they first met. He describes her as the most beautiful woman he had ever seen when he also called her a girl the paragraph before. The romance aspect of the book was honestly sickening, as on his search for his wife, he falls in love with another "young woman." The book also doesn't even say anything against marriages or romances like this, fully supporting the main character's predatory actions. The world-building is full of racist and sexist undertones, not even looking at the main character. The only enjoyable aspect of the book was the magic, which was unusual and intriguing. However, that wasn't enough to compensate for everything else.

I was quite confused a lot of the time but when I did finally get into the story I really enjoyed it

This was an amazing fantasy/sci-fi read. Very unique and atmospheric, the story grabbed me on the first page and held my attention throughout the whole journey. I really need a sequel!

What surprised me the most was that the main character was in his forties - it was refreshing, because I don't see non-teenage or somewhat older main characters in fantasy books all that often.
The other thing I was immediately intrigued about was unique magic - based on touching the voidstones and looking at world in a completely different way. I must admit it gave me shivers.
Another thing was sudden sci-fi elements in a fantasy world later on which I didn't expect - and I loved it!

The story starts with a vague magic school aspect, but we quickly leave that in the background and go on a journey. We follow the main character Master Voider Democryos on his journey to find his young wife who left him. On his way he meets new characters, learns about secrets kept from him for years, and tries to find out what could be the actual reason for his wife leaving him. Is this a part of some sinister scheme he knows nothing about, even though he's the king's right hand?!

I really liked the writing style itself - it's flowing, easy to read and follow, and at the same time very beautiful and descriptive enough, but not too much.
The pacing of the story was good as well. I can see how the beginning of the book or the journey aspect could seem a bit slow to some people, but I personally don't think this book was slow or boring at all.

At the beginning it was a bit hard to really like and root for main character and his companions because they were all so very human - flawed, morally grey and quite ignorant. But that wasn't the negative thing - on the contrary, it made them very interesting to read about and I could see the potential in them to become so much more throughout their journey. As the story progresses, we see them learn, change, grow. I became very attached to them! The character development is one of the strongest parts of this book.
It was very interesting getting to know the world bit by bit, getting acquainted with different cultures and concepts and ways of thinking, seeing the world and importance of the quest expand unfathomably. I think there is still much more fascinating things to discover about this world and it's people.
I need more of Democryos and his friends, more of this captivating world and writing.
I can't wait for the sequel!

I was given a digital copy of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The views expressed in this review are my own and have not been influenced in any way.

This book was very... okay. I was not attached to any of the characters. I was never that interested in finding out what would happen. All of the characters seemed very stereotypical/tropey. It kind of felt like I was reading about someone's D&D campaign, but not in a good way. I don't think I've ever been so bored while reading a fantasy novel. If a review hadn't been requested from me, I would probably have left it unfinished.

The secret twist that created the magic system, and ended up being the cliffhanger to the next book felt like a cop out. (view spoiler)

The objectification of women and the way the female characters were written was so one dimensional that it was painful to read. I found myself wishing that a central female character would die just so I wouldn't have to read that particular badly written trope any longer. The main character's missing wife seemed to be objectified to teach us some kind of moral lesson, but the aforementioned female character she was contrasted with was not really that different, or at least the way the main character looked at her.

Go and chase down the woman who left you only to end up with another?
Sure, why not?
I loathed that plot so much, which is probably why I had to start that book three times to struggle to the end. I don't remember what it was about, so I think it's safe to say I am not going to read the second one...

I received a free ARC by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was an amazing novel. Highly recommended for fans of the genre. Will be recommending the book for purchase.

This is one of those books that you pick up because of the gorgeous cover. I am not gonna lie - this gorgeous beauty pulled me right in, and I just had to read it because of its uniqueness. Usually, we read books with "magic school" tropes from the student's pov but in this one, it's from the teacher's (Democryos) pov.
I loved the writing style which was very visual and metaphoric. The book has a good start and Wozniak does a good job of taking common tropes and making them his by adding original stuff to them. The story has a very slow start but if you can stick around until the last few chapters, it will be worth it. However, I must say that the ending was a bit predictable.
I think that the author could have done a better job of explaining the magic system. There weren't enough details and the story was not exactly plot-driven but it felt like it was aiming for "plot-driven". Plus, it was agonizingly boring for me at times because I enjoy action scenes and there weren't any, despite the mention of war and magic fights. Most of the book was a LOT of taking :(
What saved the story, was the epic journey, the originality, and the wonderful side characters. It wasn't a "hard-to-read" book for me, but it wasn't good enough to make me want to read the next book in the series.

I love how the narrator describe something in a metaphoric way but also understandable.
I just don't vibe with the personality of Democryos, there is this aura of his like he is above all or really important.
I love the description of the places in this book, it is so enchanting to read and pictured it.
The one thing that made me to DNF this book is the lack of explanation how the magic system works. Every time the characters discuss this voidstone or the indivisible I feel like the characters just talks about it and i'm like an outsider who can't relate to their topic.
The plot are intriguing though but I feel like it kinda lack of the consistency. Like this will happen, then another thing happen without the actual progression in the plot, but it just makes the book more longer.

The indivisible and the void had a good start but it just didn't grab me. I ended up not finishing the book.

I love this book and the world I was transformed into while reading it. I highly recommend this book and thank you to net galley for allowing me to read this book.

To start off, the title of this book instantly had me intrigued as to what I would find in between the pages. While it is a bit of a slow start and a slow burn, this is definitely one of the most interesting and unique novels that I have read this year. The author does an exceptional job of taking common fantasy tropes and twists them to make them feel new and refreshing. I feel like there is also excellent charactor development found from the beginning to the end of the book.

However with that said, I do feel that this is more of a lead up to future books rather than a book that can stand on it's own and still be part of a series. But that is my only real negative critique of this book.

As someone who hasn't read any other novels from this author, this book definitely got me interested in reading what else they have written!

The writing style, the topics covered, the plot, the characters, the magic system ... I already want to read the second book and know how the story continues.

That cover is AMAZING.

I received this book from NetGalley for free in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a fantastic read! The pace was just right, neither too fast not too slow. The plot was captivating and kept me interested throughout. The magical system was very refreshing and unlike anything else I have ever read.

The characters were well developed, distinctive and believable.

I am definitely looking forward to reading more from this author and just wish this one had been longer!

this was a great start to a series the world was built really nicely and I enjoyed getting to know the characters. I look forward to more in this series.