I really really really wanted to like it...BUT URGH.
I did not like it...i just... no. it was not entertaining not fun...not interesting.

Didn't finish. After almost 10 chapters, I got lost with so many characters, many events at the same time, and I couldn't relate to any of them, understand what was happening, what the story was about, or care about what was happening. It didn't do it to me.

I didn’t even reach the 5% mark. I tried hard with this one, but it was definitely not to be. It wasn’t holding my attention at all. I got through the first chapter and realized I wouldn’t be finishing the book, but tried a bit more. But ended up (like I knew I would) deciding to stop reading.

It was the case of the writer thinking they were capable of writing lengthy sentences and thinking it would work because they’re writing a fantasy book – it’s even more seen when it’s a high/epic fantasy book. It’s a very, very common thing to have long sentences for fantasy because I don’t know, apparently fantasy = long sentences. Some authors do it well and I’m not too annoyed by it. Personally I think we could without long sentences in fantasy or anywhere else. Like learn where to end one sentence and begin another (of course, I’m including myself here). Smythe, unfortunately, is not an author who knows how to masterfully create long sentences.

That was mostly the reason for dnfing the book. I could tell I would have this issue the entire way through and I wasn’t interested in having to slog through a near full paragraph and it just being one sentence. Plus, the characters didn’t capture my interest from the beginning.

An exciting new fantasy, this book is filled with magic, tension, action and adventure. The writing is well paced, though a tad slow in some places for me, and I love the concept of the story! I did feel a lot of the book could have been streamlined but I loved the world building and how complex the characters are.

Huge thank you to the chance to review this book!

I really enjoyed this one. Perfect for fans of epic fantasy!

I liked the characters and world building as well.

This is a wonderfully written and richly descriptive fantasy novel great for fans of Brandon Sanderson. It did seem a bit slow in spots, but it all tied up nicely in the end. It’s a strong debut with interesting characters, a good magic system, and great world building.

Fast paced and full of adventure. Some parts were rushed or obvious and I felt as if more could have been done to further along the plot. Overall, I'm not mad at it. It was a quick read.

This story started slow and seemed to drag at times but overall it had some good parts. I got bored with it and nearly quite but decided to stick with it. The story could use a little work to keep up the pace and hold readers I treats a tiny bit more.

https://theworldsofsff.com/2020/passage-to-dawn-01-the-other-magic/

I picked this book up as a ‘Read Now’ option on NetGalley and as always, I provide an honest review.

The Other Magic has three main characters: Aynward, Kibure and Grobennar, and follows each of them as their paths eventually collide in the same location.

Aynward is a spoilt prince who enjoys drinking with his friends. He’s low down on the succession list and is shipped off to University in the hope he matures and makes the most of his intelligence. Kibure is a slave whose powers manifest while being whipped by his master. He is subsequently caged, a priestess, Sindri, is hired and he is taken by ship to be sold as a slave. Grobennar is a high priest who has been charged by the god-king Magog to find and destroy the dark one’s emissary.
This is a decent book but has flaws in its storytelling, worldbuilding and structure. And, at least for me, there were a few issues with name, which won’t bother other people I’m sure. I did not deduct stars for this, If I did this would be 2.5*. Let me also be clear, I did not not enjoy this book, as I said it was a decent read, though longer than it needed to be and lacked richness. I think the author could have done more with his word count.

The Other Magic is a tough review to write because all I can say about things is, ‘they were okay’, or ‘decent’, or ‘good in parts’. Characters were okay, but nothing stands out—though there are some wide characters later who I think could be very interesting moving forward. Magic system was standard, but it was good how priests could ‘borrow’ power from others to increase their magic ability. Worldbuilding wasn’t bad but it lacked richness etc. It’s tough to give examples without spoilers and I write spoiler free reviews. So, if you want a decent read, one that will take a while and you don’t have any ‘must-reads’ on your TBR that this is a decent book to pick up and fill the time. If you’d like to know more about the weaknesses read on…

Full disclosure… I almost stopped reading this book around the 15-20% mark, but not because it was a poor story that I wasn’t enjoying. There are a few flaws, but I’ll get this one out first, which, granted, may just apply to me, but it was really annoying. Aynward. That’s the name of one of the three main characters the story revolves around. Every time I came to that name, I read it as ANYward. My brain saw ‘ayn’ and immediately read ‘any’. I thought it was a poor name choice. There’s also a raven called Rave which I found a little lazy too. There was also another naming issue that only happened in one paragraph, but I completely forgot to highlight it with my Kindle, so can’t recall it.

This brings me to the second flaw, you’d think I’d get use to Aynward before hitting 20%, but the chapters are short. There are over 100%, meaning the average chapter is shorter than 1% of the book, and this isn’t a really long book, like ‘The Wise Man’s Fear’ by Patrick Rothfuss, but it is quite long, like say ‘Name of the Wind’, also by Rothfuss. Both of those books also have many short chapters yet are two of my favourite books of all-time. Short chapters can work, but in The Other Magic it broke the flow for me. It also meant I kept getting taken from Aynward, to Kibure, to Grobennar and back to Aynward, making the name issue, consistent for me in the early stages. Granted it may not both others. More importantly, as I said, the constant switches ruined the flow. Yes, there are three main characters in the same timeline and events are concurrent, but hardly any time passes in many of the chapters. Smythe could have easily combined many ‘Aynward’ chapters together and done the same for Kibure and Grobennar. Doing this would allow the reader to get into the flow of each character’s story, while allowing the author to maintain the timeline and events.

Furthermore, there is a part where some of the characters come together in the same area (I won’t mention the story away) and the author still switches chapters. I think it would be better to simply leave a blank line of some sort of decorated line to let the reader know you are changing perspective to the other character. A new chapter is not needed. While on the topic of chapters, a lot of the early chapters, apart from being short, were a little drawn out, particularly with Kibure.

In addition, the three main characters are all male, which seems like a missed opportunity to be more diverse. The only female of any real note is Sindri, who is with Kibure throughout the book.

There were other issues I had. At times I felt some of the chapters were a little tedious to read. I think because some of the characters actions and smaller story arcs felt a little bland and slow. Some conversations and interactions felt a little forced and unnatural. There was a lack of detail, wonder, richness, and pace. I mentioned earlier that it’s as long as the ‘Name of the Wind’ but it has nowhere near the richness in storytelling and detail. Name of the Wind is a 5* book told by a master storyteller (imo). The only other books I’ve given a full 5* have been by Brandon Sanderson. Even if I compare The Other Magic to books I’ve given 4* to, such as several of the Lightbringer books, or those from the Legends of the First Empire, or Red Queen’s War, the storytelling, structure, prose, just doesn’t live up.

This is however a debut novel and I think there is sense for optimism regarding future works by Smythe is he can tighten up some of the storytelling and worldbuilding. There are some interesting characters we meet towards the end of the book who I want to learn more about, and I believe we will in the follow-up.

Overall, The Other Magic is a decent read, which had the potential to be better, so I felt let down—there are some interesting ideas in there. I am interested in reading the follow-up book and hope it takes a different approach in its structure and there is more richness in the storytelling and development of characters. The best developed character for me was Sindri but she was only the 4th main character.

I’m giving this book a 3.5/5 rating. The story was slower paced than I prefer and the ending unfolded too fast. We really didn’t need all the info of the first half of the book, instead we could have used some of the amazing action that was happening at the end or some more magic. Also we could have used some more University - Aynward - magic time instead of a seemingly fruitless chase between the priest and tazamine.

Kiburé the tazamine who will change the world, that is what we are to believe, gets boring really fast. He seemed one of the most interesting character to look out for with the most chances of growth. Instead in this story he grows from a likeable slave to a boring, uninteresting would-be-mage. He never gets to use his magic by his own will. I mean a raven can do more magic then him....

I’ll still read the sequel, I’ve really grown fond of the Aynward - Sindri combo and hope to see more of them. Also I’ve high hopes for Kiburé and the grey cloaks. I hope the sequel contains the magic and action I hoped the first one would have.

I love reading epic fantasies and this was no exception. It’s an incredible debut novel. I loved all of the lore, history and general world building in this book.

All of the characters are very different, and this makes them all very intriguing in their own way. I enjoyed reading from all three characters’ perspectives. Aynward in particular was quite frustrating at times — his character is incredibly arrogant and I often didn’t really understand why, but this worked really well. It’s exactly how others in the novel also feel about him! I liked that he starts to grow and change throughout the book, too. I also really liked Sindri’s character and finding out more about her past and her motivations.

This is quite a long book at over 600 pages. But it’s definitely not a slow burn — this book is full of action and adventure! There is a lot happening throughout the book, in all three stories, that kept me interested throughout. My favourite part was when all three characters are in the same city and you ‘see’ encounters through their different points of view.

The Other Magic is a great book and I recommend it to fans of authors like Robin Hobb and Brandon Sanderson. There is so much here that I think I will need to re-read it, just to absorb it properly! I can’t wait to read the next one in the series and learn more about this vast, immersive world!

DNF at Chapter 15

What drawn me to this book was eye catching cover and the genre.

I found the language hard to crack. The sentence structure and vocabulary are not easy. The writing style in general didn't suit me well. Characters' actions and behaviors didn't feel natural, the conversations between characters didn't seem genuine but forced.

The book follows three main characters. The POW changes per chapter which I enjoyed a lot but there were too many side characters. I soon got lost in who was who and what was their agenda.

If you combine hard language and such overdetailed world, then there is very little focus and energy that a reader has left to enjoy the story. Personally, I love a lot of world building but in this book everything seemed to be just little bit too much which in the end cause that I didn't relate to any characters and my motivation to read dropped.

I love fantasy but unfortunately I am not into this book much.

I couldn't finish this book. It was too heavy and simply, I got through a few chapters before I felt like I just wasn't invested in the characters or the story.

It's hard to believe "The Other Magic" is a debut novel, it's so well-crafted and executed. The characters are complex, the story is ensnaring, and the writing flows very smoothly. Magic, mayhem, action - I enjoyed every page. Book 2, please!

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advance copy to review. This review is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

The Other Magic by Derrick Smythe, an interesting read that jumps back and forth between multiple viewpoints until they merge near the end.

Interesting storylines that intertwine with past and future as magic struggles while evil tries to overcome and turns to prophecy.