Sufficiently Advanced Magic

★★★☆☆ 3,5 stars for this magical litRPG story

Prior to Sufficiently Advanced Magic I did not know a genre called litRPG existed and I didn't really have an idea as to what that genre is, so I'll explain it real quick. LitRPG is a fantasy genre where the main characters are faced with game-like quests and challenges. In this case there is a tower level-crawling challenges. Furthermore are the characters often aware that they are playing a ‘game'. Here's also a short wiki article about the genre.

Rating this book was difficult for me. It has flaws that really bothered me to the point were in took away some of the enjoyment. I was unsure whether to give three or four stars, but I ulitmately decided on three because the flaws just bothered me too much.

The story is about Corin Cadence who is going to his judgement. It's the first test in the Tower, in this case the Serpent Spire. Passing the test and the way you do it is vital for the type of attunement you will get. An attunement determines the type of Mana you can use.

While trying to beat the tests, Corin comes across something unusual and gets entangeled into something he really can't handle at his current level. He'd really rather not be invovled in all that, thank you very much, the only thing he cares about is reaching the top of the tower so he can ask the Goddess to give him his brother back who never returned from his judgement.

I found the idea of the litRPG part really interesting as well as the magic system. Your Mana is really measured in Mana Points so it really feels like a game and I loved playing things like Golden Sun. It took a bit getting used to because as I said, I didn't know litRPG or even that something like it exists so I was a bit confused when the book started to appear so game-like.

The writing had quite a flaws, the first and most bothersome thing was the repetition of phrases. It got to the point where I really wanted to throttle the characters. Believe me, you'll hate the word “interesting” and the phrase “I'd have to research that later”.

I didn't really have any emotional connection to any of the characters because, despite the book having 600 pages, you learn awfully little about the other characters, instead the author drags you throw long passages where stuff gets explained or analytical parts. I don't mind those usually but I'd rather have learned a bit more about the other main characters or Corin himself.

The pacing also sometimes took the urgency out of some situations or the overall story.

My favourite character wasn't even any of the main chara's but one of the summoned monsters, the karvensi Vanniv, I love his sassy ass. I'd sign up for a story about him right away.



All in all it was an interesting read with twists I reall wasn't expecting and even though I gave it 3,5 stars I really did enjoy it and look forward to the next book that should come out in 2018 according to the author.