Mage Against the Machine
Ratings3
Average rating3.7
15
Ratings3
Average rating3.7
Harry Potter meets The Terminator in this action-packed adventure about a young man who discovers that everything he believed about his world is a lie. The year is 2120. The humans are dead. The mages have retreated from the world after a madman blew up civilization with weaponized magical technology. Safe within domes that protect them from the nuclear wasteland on the other side, the mages have spent the last century putting their lives back together. Nikolai is obsessed with artifacts from twentieth-century human life: mage-crafted replica Chuck Taylors on his feet, Schwarzenegger posters on his walls, Beatlemania still alive and well in his head. But he’s also tasked with a higher calling—to maintain the Veils that protect mage-kind from the hazards of the wastes beyond. As a cadet in the Mage King’s army, Nik has finally found what he always wanted—a purpose. But when confronted by one of his former instructors gone rogue, Nik tumbles into a dark secret. The humans weren’t nuked into oblivion—they’re still alive. Not only that, outside the domes a war rages between the last enclaves of free humans and vast machine intelligences. Outside the dome, unprepared and on the run, Nik finds Jem. Jem is a Runner for the Human Resistance. A ballerina-turned-soldier by the circumstances of war, Jem is more than just a human—her cybernetic enhancement mods make her faster, smarter, and are the only things that give her a fighting chance against the artificial beings bent on humanity’s eradication. Now Nik faces an impossible decision: side with the mages and let humanity die out? Or stand with Jem and the humans—and risk endangering everything he knows and loves?
Reviews with the most likes.
Practically devoured the book, only to find the meal was cut short at the end.
The core premise (runaway science vs magic) is hugely attractive, it has plenty of action passages (sometimes barely justified), it has a doubly imaginative world building (needs more spells, though), and many characters are intriguing, even if not all are well-rounded... Why did I give it only 3 stars?
1. Too slow. The pacing is quick, but the plot advances slowly. A daring escape takes page after page after page, wasting precious space as the book nears its end, meanwhile loose threads keep piling.
2. Read bait. The book is evidently meant to be the first in a series, yet it could have done more with 500 pages. The ending feels incomplete, thrilling but hungry for real answers to its own questions.
3. Language. Imagine Harry Potter in his twenties, throwing f-bombs because it's cool. Imagine everyone important doing it occasionally. It's not very frequent, just enough to be distracting.
All being said, I will definitely read the next book in the series. I even changed the rating to 4 stars at the last moment because it's not a masterpiece, but it's a decent and entertaining book.
3.75 out of 5 stars
In 2120, humans can no longer reproduce, artificially intelligent overlords have a stranglehold on humanity, and small communities of mages are hidden throughout the world. Nikolai, a newly minted mage Edge Guard, protects the border between his world and ours, while Jem, a cybernetically enhanced human, smuggles contraband away from the watchful eyes of Earth's AI overseers.
What's so alluring about this book is that its characters are basically living in two different genres. Nikolai is attempting to come-of-age in a Harry Potter-ish mage community, while Jem is just trying to survive and overthrow evil AIs in a Terminator/Fallout/Children of Men-ish post-apocalyptic world. Jumping between their perspectives kept me engaged and kept things fresh throughout this lengthy tome while I waited for their storylines to converge. It did seem that Nikolai's story was more fleshed out than Jemma's, but I enjoyed them both for what they were.
And although I winced at a few overexplain-y info dumps, bristled at some cringe-y romance, and was slightly disappointed by a concluding act that somehow feels both rushed and overlong, I found Mage Against the Machine to be a fun genre-mashup that was an utterly enjoyable ride.
My thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
https://spikegelato.com/2018/09/28/review-mage-against-the-machine/
