Wizardry 1-5

[Lutgarda Briseno]

Soi had an embarassing first project and wanted to redesign it. Responsive, with wizardry. I did that before on two other projects and it worked fine. This time its not so flawless as webflow doesnt respond to the code at all. It completely ignores it, and its probably a super easy fix. But i cant find it. Since there is a lot going on with scroll animations i guess the problem lies in that or the body, but then again why.

To make my site responsive to any screen size or defined point (other than break points) where containers and font sizes scale up and down fluently. i used the wizardry method by timothy ricks, Ive done this before and it worked fine on other projects.

But the heritage that granted that power holds him back from the higher heights of his dreams. He's spent the last five years struggling to overcome his blocked wizardry, but when his parents are declared legally dead he is forced to make a choice. Stay at home and be forced to train as a Mirage Knight like his mother, or set out on his own to seek answers to his problem at the center of all magical learning, the Academy of Illunia.

This story takes place in the same world as my book Dear Spellbook, 100 years after the events of the first trilogy. You do NOT have to read that series to follow and enjoy this story. But if you have read Dear Spellbook, you will see a lot of familiar names, places, magical abilities, and magical artifacts.

As the title may suggest i enjoy the read but i do feel some glaring flaws that stand out significantly. Firstly, the description says reading this will not spoil any content from Dear Spellbook, this is just wrong. Major character deaths get spoilt, plot points and other such mysteries in the original books get spoilt within the first 30-40 chapters alone. Furthermore, I feel as though the book does not read as a standalone book and lacks identity but instead a sequel of sorts to the first 3, significant worldbuilding gets skipped over and exploration of magic and power systems goes under developed, as it reads as though it assumes you have read the other books set in this world. Tying into my previous criticism of the magic system there is a lot of information in the first 10 or so chapters none of which goes explained much and just leaves the reader confused, such as distinctions made between a sorcerer and a mage but no real explanation on what these distinctions are. Or the introductions of primals which i still have no clue what they are I think they're tied to specific Fonts but i genuinely do not know. and beyond that im pretty sure they're meant to be at least semi rare yet seemingly every single person our MC meets is a primal of some sort.

The strangeness of the world has been touched upon only briefly, with no in-depth explanations. I much prefer this over too much description that I just skim, but it might be a bit on the brief side? It's still early in the book, so not really an issue for me.

But the writing quality (in earlier chapters) is substandard. Grammar is great, but the writing suffers for it, and it hurts. Which makes me sad because the story itself is nice. There's a clear lack of a pre-reader or editor, such as some illogical sentence structure and such.

A thoroughly balanced magic system that feels both familiar yet unique. A relatable poor main character, whose limitations feel reasonable rather than forced. A backstory that is trope appropriate with a new spin. A cast of characters that feel compelling rather than just there to fill a role for the main character. I binged the whole series so far and cannot wait for more.

Thus far, I have been enjoying this book. I am willing to admit, that I did not read the author's previous work that introduced this world, but it has not impeded my enjoyment of the story. It is very obvious that this author is passionate about their work and this book is worth reading.

Only minor criticism is that the story is a bit slow paced at the moment. Alot is happening but I find the reason behind the drive a bit lacking. Would like to have a crisis or something to urge the MC on and suck in the reader. We know about the parents, but that is not really brought up or pushed internally and doesn't seem to have a clock on it. Also sometimes the motivation is not that clear. I didn't quite feel the drive and emotion to cause the MC to take a huge risk to leave and came across a bit cold. Locking yourself into a barrel of dung and jettisoned into the ocean where the barrel could leak and sink or smash or never get picked up is crazy. Especially since the premeditated plan was ruined. But perhaps the MC is just reckless or just really driven by learning magic, despite denying that reason and wanting to go adventurer. It's all there, maybe needs to be tied up or some reminders or thoughts before/during actions. I am still enjoying the story greatly.

Good story, and good characters. Early on in the story everything still feels very new so once we get more into the weeds maybe some of the shock and awe will go, but at the moment- a bloody good story.

The big thing holding this back currently is the poorly explained magic/problem the MC has. Lots of great stories have dense, confusing magic that isn't readily explained. A great example would be the Malazan series which has some of the most confusing magic you can find in a book. The difference though, is that the magic isn't actually the core tenant/plot of the story and it doesn't detract from it as you read and slowly figure it out over thousands of pages.

In Primal Wizardry, the entire main plot point is that the MC is a weird hybrid whose magic is not working right which is definitely intersting. However, through the first 20 chapters the mechanic for why this has happened, why primals can't do sorcery, why nobody else has tried just is not clear enough for the rest of the conflict to matter to the reader, and it definitely detracts quite a bit from the story. If it ever makes it to publishing I think the first 15-20 chapters really need to be revised to tackle this explanation better, preferably without a giant exposition dump. Author states you don't need to read his other works in this world, but as someone who hasn't read the others you definitely feel like you're missing some important info in these first 20 chapters.

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