Archmagion

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

A fledgling archmage struggles with responsibilities both magical and mundane as the city in which he lives, and indeed the world itself, teeter on the brink of supernatural apocalypse.

Book 5 'The Shadow of the Crown' continues Part 4 'Master'. Please leave a comment and thank you all for your support. Due to illness in the family my free time has become more limited but I am working hard to edit the novel into a shape fit for public consumption. Please rest assured that any delays will result in a more enjoyable experience for you as the reader, and in spite of the ever-increasing word count of the Archmagion project I am removing far more words than I am adding :)

Arc 11 'Ivory' is being released as I work on editing 12 & 13 and completing the book, yay!

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2023
Author: Archmagion

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.2/ 5.0
Followers: 214
Views: 280,804

What readers say about Archmagion

“I've had a strong dislike of writing book reviews since primary school, so that I'm doing so at all here is an indication of how strongly I feel that this is a really good piece of fiction (and apparently criminally underappreciated on here, but the rules s…”
34tomRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“This is a very good piece of fiction. The synopsis is pretty bleh, so here's what's happening. There are both regular mages (who learned) and instinctual mages (arch-mages), and they fall into five types (enchanter, sorcerer, wizard, druid... forgot the la…”
luda305Royal Road4.5 / 5

Reviews

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Community Reviews(5)

34tomRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I've had a strong dislike of writing book reviews since primary school, so that I'm doing so at all here is an indication of how strongly I feel that this is a really good piece of fiction (and apparently criminally underappreciated on here, but the rules say not to talk about that).
The story itself - the plot, world building, internal consistency, foreshadowing etc are at a level the likes of which can't be achieved without a great deal of thought and planning. Characters are interesting, and I find that interlude chapters which grant a perspective from someone other than the protagonist work effectively to deepen understanding of the character themself and their circumstances, and grant insight into the wider course of events, by and large without coming to feel intrusive.
The magic system does the job, and is picked up easily enough
The main character is by no means perfect, and nor would you realistically expect them to be.
Writing style, spelling grammar etc are very solid.
The shift to split chapters is for the best, I think. Very long chapters are not generally best suited to the format, especially if you're trying to attract hesitant readers.
Making connections between matters mentioned many chapters apart and keeping in mind information revealed in one part to better appreciate an event in another is rewarding, but not something the web serial is well equipped to facilitate. I'd recommend binging after saving a block of chapters. Indicating from whose point of view an interlude chapter is in the title would make it easier to find relevant chapters to reread for people wanting to refresh their memory.
luda305Royal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
This is a very good piece of fiction. The synopsis is pretty bleh, so here's what's happening. There are both regular mages (who learned) and instinctual mages (arch-mages), and they fall into five types (enchanter, sorcerer, wizard, druid... forgot the last one). It's a pretty grim world where the few major cities are besieged and all sides and within (b/c portals to hell open on a regular basis). And in our little mega-city here, all political power is concentrated in the magisterium (sp?), only slightly counterbalanced when an instinctual mage (arch-mage) awakens within the downtrodden and become something like a vigilante superhero (they even have masks and secret identities). Our protagonist is one of those mage-superheroes (specifically an arch-sorcerer, which basically makes him a Pokémon master) and basically it follows his early days of excitement (and romance, which is actually pretty well written and very cute). If you ever wanted a superhero story is a classical(-ish) western fantasy, this is the story for you.
I do disagree with visigoth's review about the skip ahead. After the prologue, the first two chapters are in media res as our protagonist apprehends his third bad guy group and his story really kicks off. I actually think that works really well despite the huge vocabulary we have to get through. On the contrary, in the next chapter, we then get a summary of what his awakening was like and frankly that was a big let down. Just having it alluded to in the background was I thought perfectly fine and having it all laid out like that so early in the story stole some of the magic (heh).
visigothRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
I feel a bit inadequate in leaving this review as it may just be my own bias at play but i feel it may need to be said.
Please for the love a god, begin your stories right when the main character gets their abilities or shortly before.
I was wondering why such a professionally written story had so little engagement but as i reached the second chapter i realized a common issue i've seen with other works of this caliber. Unfortunately skipping ahead in the mcs story has a tendency to cause confusion which in turn requires the reader to make inferences based on the context clues which is quite unpleasant when first getting into a story.
As a rule of thumb, the more complicated your magic system the worse this becomes as it then necessitates the author to info dump in order to catch the reader up.
All this combined creates a situation where most people will easily lose patience and drop the story before they can become invested enough to push through such inconveniences.
Kimbrough7Royal Road
★★★ 3.0
This author is the definition of verbose. He uses 100 words when 10 would do. The problem is that he says a lot of nothing. The power system is unique and interesting but the MC is so naive and stupid that you cannot enjoy it. I came back to this story multiple times to try to read it and every time I realized that it's not getting better.
If you want an interesting world, this is for you. If you want a competent MC, skip this.
EvisAARoyal Road
★★ 1.5
Let's start with the good/excellent for RR.
The grammar and prose is good, I've yet to see any major issues, but I've decided to quit at the start of arc 9 (by 13.06.24). Similarly, the worldbuilding is good, if maybe overreaching a bit for the scope of the story. The place where the author really shines is writing excellent characters, which may be a bit weird for me to say given the (in my opinion as a reader) following critique.
Narrative structure:
The interludes are too jarring and frequent. It gives me as a reader whiplash when the author decides to combine cliffhangers (and they are cliffs, every time it feels like) with 30 minutes of reading time for the introduction of minor characters, minor antagonists or removing agency from our main cast to discover the underlying antagonistic BBEG plan, rather than letting the reader follow along their trail of discovery. This is a structurally deliberate choice from the author, and for the life of me I can't understand why. Also, separating arcs from books/chapters are quite confusing, especially when the interludes are sprinkled so frequently on top, and not until I saw the author notes discussing arcs did I comprehend what the deal was.
Narration and a huge pitfall:
Mind control/influence magic is severely difficult to include in a story, because they remove agency from our characters, are severely traumatizing for ALL the victims of it (not just the primaries), and it also affects the readers suspension of disbelief. Handle with extreme care.
Now, since it's an integral part of the power structure of the story, you might consider remedies (anchors of trust, if you will), for the reader. Except for the jewelery, I can't really find anything.
What I find absolutely baffling then, is including extremely unreliable narration on top of this. How am I supposed to get reinvested (because of the suspension of disbelief), again and again when I can't even trust anything I'm reading? Even going so far as having our main char