A Practical Guide to Sorcery [Currently in Book 6]

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

In a world where magic is a science, Siobhan is a genius. But even geniuses need schooling. When Siobhan stumbled into the theft of a priceless magical book, she thought her dreams of becoming the world's most powerful sorcerer were destroyed.But then a mysterious spell changed her life forever...Siobhan is now wearing the body of a strange man and has a new identity—Sebastien. With a new chance for a new start, she allies herself with a local gang—secretly a revolutionary party funding itself through crime. Now, she is bound by vow to repay them in magic and favors.But as Sebastien's reputation begins to bloom, and Siobhan's old enemies still lurk in the shadows, she quickly realizes that the secrets of this world are deeper and darker than she ever could have imagined.Forced to juggle the two sides of her double life, Siobhan is determined to uncover the truth and take control of the name they gave her - The Raven Queen.

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2020
Author: AzaleaEllis

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.8/ 5.0
Followers: 10,032
Views: 513,217

Chapters(29 total)

What readers say about A Practical Guide to Sorcery [Currently in Book 6]

“When I originally found a practical guide to sorcery I skipped it for months. I thought it was a crime series with a soft magic system and I find soft magic systems to be very hard to flesh out in a interesting way. The series focuses much more on the MCs…”
raskvannRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“Here is a short review This story stands tall above the crowd due to the depth of its characters. Characters come to logical conclusions that are comically inaccurate, providing a backdrop of humor against an often serious plot. Magical school is slow at ti…”
smasRoyal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(10)

raskvannRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
When I originally found a practical guide to sorcery I skipped it for months. I thought it was a crime series with a soft magic system and I find soft magic systems to be very hard to flesh out in a interesting way.
The series focuses much more on the MCs journey to learn and grow her magic. The factions in the city simply have goals that can catch our MC in a bad spot and her lack of resources means crime is a necessity to solve some problems. It seems like in the opening scenes that the magic can do anything but in reality the MC always over prepares for problems when she can because the odds are always enormously stacked against her and things almost never go to plan. In reality the magic system is mostly hard with soft elements sprinkled in. The Will being a very nuanced and interesting element I haven't gotten bored of exploring in almost 200 chapters now.
Good characters with their own goals. I'm so used to everyone revolving around the MC but everyone in this series have usually clear goals that at best are adjacent to what the MC is shooting for. A large interesting world filled with factions and a delicious grey where the bad guys are still very evil. But they feel justified because the factions around them are being a different kind of jerks.
I really love the unreliable narrator of each characters perspective. They very clearly care a lot about specific things and will skip other details entirely simply because that's not their focus or interest. This leads to going over major scenes several times from different perspectives is always a treat because inevitably each person thinks something different is going on, notices different things and play off the other characters extremely well. Everyone's outlook on the Raven Queen is a little bit different and always entertaining
While the MC does grow in power its very slow compared to a lot of books I read and while the potential for huge gains is out there this is very much a slow burn style of story. Th
smasRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Here is a short review
This story stands tall above the crowd due to the depth of its characters. Characters come to logical conclusions that are comically inaccurate, providing a backdrop of humor against an often serious plot.
Magical school is slow at times, but balances out tension. The plot could advance more quickly, but it’s a nice slow burn. The progression of power feels earned. Power is often intellectual and derived from cleverness, rather than beating one’s head against the wall for xp points. The MC is simultaneously weak and strong, creating interesting scenarios that require a combination of talent and quick thinking to escape. The power measurement system is not entirely fleshed out, and unfortunately gets in the way at times. The world building is narrowly scoped. It is difficult to picture the world. Magical beasts exist, but do not appear. Info dumping occurs.
Overall, this is an incredible read, and I’m saddened to have caught up to chapter 200.
Isa LumitusRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I should have written this review years ago. That alone is high praise, because it shows that the series has held my attention for years.
The first thing I have to say about the story is that the magic system is great. There are lots of things the readers (and Siobhan) don't know, but it follows very consistent rules. This is demonstrated with the custom spells the MC makes, and the reasoning we're given in how they work.
The second thing I have to say is that the characterization is great, which is a big point for me. I like characters that make smart choices while pursuing their goals, and I admire it when an author can have characters disagree with each other without either being dumb.
Siobhan herself is one of the rare cases of the INTJ personality type being the main character. For those who aren't familiar with the term, that personality is usually given to the villainous mastermind for their tendency to plan, be pragmatic, and have few friends. It's not often given to a character we sympathize with, much less the POV character.
The third topic would be how fights get handled. Almost all of them feel like something out of a horror story. Generally, one side will use some new magic with frightening implications, and the other side is left scrambling to adapt. This isn't just something the MC has to deal with, she's done it to her opponents, too. Effects we've seen include flesh-unravelling strings that hunt by sound, watching darkness that crawls into your mouth, and mind-altering parasites that can phase through the ceiling.
Despite all this, there are actually quite a few humorous moments. There's the way Siobhan's Raven Queen persona has fallen into success with a ridiculously exaggerated reputation. There's also the way that Lacer makes perfectly logical deductions... that are still somehow wrong. For example, the time that he's disappointed that his student hasn't been replaced with a shapeshifting imposter... Even though his student, Siobhan, actually is
Tyrone4920Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is well written and engaging. I really enjoy the world and characters. I do not have any real criticisms to share.
Characters are all flawed in their own ways. There is surprising depth and history to the world, with character name allusions to help connect the lore to our world. The MC is smart, driven, and forceful... but not the overpowered loner know it all that poorer writing would include. I especially like the use of rumors and exaggeration overinflating reputations of some of the events and characters that we have first hand experience with.
I have had many enjoyable hours reading this and look forward to many more hours ahead. It looks like the author is posting regularly, so I look forward to watching this story come to a close and will be sure to follow this author in their future works.
chumponimysRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Many stories on this site can feel a little slapdash. Maybe the characters are interesting, but there's no real plot. Maybe the core idea has potential, but the formatting and grammar are abysmal. Maybe the story has great turns, but the world is generic and boring...
It is very easy to feel like authors care about one or a few specific things, and disregard the rest in their stories. It usually forces me, as a reader, to turn off a little more of my brain or expand my suspension of disbelief a little further than usual to enjoy those bits the author did very right. And it means I can't trust something that seems off to ACTUALLY be off because of the story. Maybe that character read like they were acting a little weird in that scene because that scene needed another revision or two?
A Practical Guide to Sorcery is one of those few special gems on this site where every. single. thing. has been completely and absolutely nailed.
Azalea has so, so much love for this story and it clearly shows.
I could tell you about the multi-faceted characters with their own wants and needs, which actually affect the plot of the story. About the deep, expansive world and magic system that is slowly drip-fed while alluding to oh so much more. Or about the secrets, secrets, and more secrets with dramatic reveals, espionage, and stakes you can feel.
But honestly, I think it's enough to tell you that you are in good hands with this story.
This is a work where the author cares, and I can't recommend this to you enough.
If you like hard fantasy that takes its time to set up its big, epic moments, then I can't express how excited I am for you to have stumbled onto this story. Find your cozy spot, get your blanket, and buckle up :)
loganlcoxRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The comparisons to Name of the Wind are justified insofar as the story is built upon a strictly defined conservation of energy magic system, and an MC struggling to make it through not-Hogwarts due to a dire financial situation and the obligations they are forced to take on to compensate for it.
However, it's a completely different story. The MC is forced to act under an assumed identity, and one of the strengths of the story is the exploration of the different "selves" the main character presents to other characters. And the gaps that the other characters fill in on their own, often very wrongly, but always amusingly.
Whereas Kvothe (unreliably or not) is good at pretty much everything but being born to the right circumstance, Siobhan seems a more realistic portrayal of genius. She's Good at magic, certainly the best in her class, but she makes mistakes and she has weaknesses. Even prodigious thaumaturges in their first year of school can't be expected to outshine years of experience, and when Siobhan manages something truly impressive it is always well justified as a hard-earned ability. Nobody else can do it, because nobody else did the (often arduous) things that she did to earn that skill. And who says you can only have one genius in the world at a time....
In short, don't write this off as some Name of the Wind knockoff/mashup. It's a tremendous standalone fantasy series, and I do not understand how it's buried in rankings under 100 Isekais, except maybe that when you show up looking for Isekais all you find are Isekais. Hopefully one day someone comes here from the front page and this part of the review seems dated.
my-trash-tasteRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Really thoughtfully crafted world with plenty of fleshed out characters and a meticulous magic/thurmaturgy system. The plot keeps pacing forward even though it's a longer work (so not suffering from the trap of meandering without plot progress like much long serialized fiction can end up doing). I really enjoyed the read and im sad that im all caught up now :(
xGrimoireRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
A very good read. The characters are engaging and very memorable. I also like how even though Siobhan transforms to Sebastien, in her POV, she always refers to herself as her. It shows that she knows herself and is and always will be Siobhan Naught. It also is fun to see how the Raven Queen becomes this Boogeyman from out of nowhere and that rumors of her keep growing and growing. This is becoming one of my favorite things to read.
Andrew ReiseRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Overall score of 4.25. The world is well built and immersive, the magic system is familiar but not completely derivative, and the characters are compelling to me. I've enjoyed reading the novel so far (Chapter 26).
The style score lost a star with me because there are times where the prose feels modern or understated compared to the content and setting to me. It's not to the level of throwing modern slang in, but it feels more like a piece of historical fiction in terms of prose compared to the unique fantasy world it seems to be going for.
Grammar is 4.5. No major complaints. I'm on chapter 26 and only have a vague impression that I saw something wrong once or twice, which means whatever it was was very minor and could have been part of dialogue.
Story as of chapter 26 is a bit predictable for those who have read a lot of fantasy, but still enjoyable. I wouldn't go into this expecting anything genre defining or genre breaking, but the characters are engaging and the larger narrative could branch in multiple directions, so it's not boring.
Characters are by far my favorite part of the novel. Multiple POVs, each has a different feel, and the characters have actual depth to them.
I'm a fan of fantasy novels that show multiple POVs, flawed protagonists, and exploration of magic systems, like those by Patrick Rothfuss, Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan, and this is one of the few I've found that delivers something that scratches that itch. Would recommend.
GenPowerEveryNightRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
This novel was a bit hard to get through at the beginning, with it being a little 'drab' in comparison to it's description at first, but once the ball gets rolling it definitely doesn't stop! I love the world as of 72-ish chapters in, and each chapter with the respective PoV of the most prominent characters gives you a glimpse through the world of the protagonist Sihoban(Sebastien), and all of the people around them who have their own opinions and motives to interact with the main character.
For the premise of the story, I was a bit sad to not see the main character go all berserk and have mastery over blood magic, but their slow general progression with their 'Will' and steadily increasing catalysts (what they use to cast magic through), the overall progression is very fulfilling and I find myself enjoying each new chapter I read.
If you are looking for an interesting story inside of an interesting world, this novel is for you! But don't expect anything super crazy, atleast in the realm of being 'overpowered' in comparison to the rest of the characters. After all, the MC is just a girl (boy) who struggles to succede in her new world and manage her second person of the 'Raven Queen.' B)