The Bookstore Mage

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Following the unfortunate news of his grandfather’s passing, Lucien is forced to go back to his old hometown. As the sole living relative, he gets to inherit his old pop’s bookstore. A place where he had spent most of his childhood.

There, however, he finds an ancient book that ends up shaking his view on the world and raising the curtain over a side he never knew existed, one filled with magic, mythical creatures, and all sorts of dangers.

“Wait a minute! Are you telling me, grandpa was a wizard?!”

Follow Lucien as he slowly unveils the mysteries of this hidden world, meets new people, saves princesses, befriends dragons, and uncovers the ancient secrets of his bloodline.

This is the story of the Bookstore Mage.

*******

This story is set in a modern-day setting. It’s not earth but a parallel world similar to ours with different countries and all of that.

There will be some world-hopping elements down the line.

There will be some elements of army building.

There will be pets.

There will not be any harem, I’m not confident enough to write a realistic one without compromising the relationships.

There will be a realistic development of both the MC’s powers and his relationships.

This will seem like a slow start, but it will hopefully pick up the pace whilst still being enjoyable.

I’m not writing the chapters now, this is an old draft I had for a long time. So the updates will be consistent.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2022
Author: Immortal_Simo

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.3/ 5.0
Followers: 973
Views: 188,992

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

ThaumamuseRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I really enjoyed this story when I found it, and read it pretty quickly. When I came up the chapter 42, it went on my "waiting" list. Then, it never updated. I reread it from time to time, but I really wish I could see the finished product. Overall, the writing and slice of life parts feel very cozy, and the character interactions with the group are amusing. I really enjoyed this one, well done.
1Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
A nice 'magical inheritance' themed story, with a relaxed pace. Lucien recieves ownership of his grandfather's book store after his demise, and quickly discovers that nothing is as it seems. A touch of progression fantasy, a focus on learning about magic, with the help of some dusty books. Exceedingly enjoyable, I can't reccomend this wholesome work enough!
BsreadsRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
A very nice almost slice of life story of a normal guy coming back home and learning magic from a book he inherited. He is then introduced to the supernatural/magic world in his town and he learn and adapts to it. If you are looking for a more relaxed magic in a modern world story then this is a great place to start.
DarkAetherRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I think the part that I like most about this series is that it almost seem's like it's giving off "I'm really not the demon god's lackey" vibes all without the utter oblivion of the mc. Our mc is unedicated in magic, knows it and is working to better himself but at the same time there are mysterys hidden all over the place ( a lot centering around gramps' place) and we get to experience each of the mystery's with the mc as he learns about the world, magic, and more about who the hell's gramps is????!!!!!
TheGrayZRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Please, do give the story a try. I appreciate the author providing us this story even if it isn't entirely polished. Now, for my cursory review.
I'm enjoying it, for the most part. I'm interested in seeing the mystery behind the town solved. There hasn't really been much world building yet in the first 20 or so chapters, only name of the town (Halden) has been revealed, as well as a group of rogue mages and (supposedly) the ruling body of mages. But beyond that nothing has been explored. Perhaps the author isn't sure how to introduce the world concepts without it sounding like a lore dump. Maybe introduce interlude chapters stylized as an encyclopedia entry? Short snippets of information about a magical creature, a person, location, whatever? Sort of like how Elder Scrolls loading screens work.
My biggest issue is that there seems to be continueous time skips in this story which leads to no real exploration of the interactions between the characters, and some are odd and not ackknowledged again. It also causes some major pacing issues with the plotline of the story, at least in my opinion. I highly suggest investing dedicated chapters that explore the dynamics between the MC and the people around him. I understand the premise of the series is he's new to the magical world, but currently it feels he exists in a bubble. But at the same time he seems to prefer the misunderstandings that bubble provides? Up to the author, I suppose.
Youngish OldsterRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
Note: Review edited at chapter 42
Note: my first review. Not sure who the victim is gonna be here- Immortal Simo or me? Hopefully the damage will be contained.
A mystery/slice of life tale. Setting is modern/magical, with lots of well-integrated world-building snippets. The story is about Lucien & his inheritance of his grandfather's bookstore, including a grimoire (I'm guessing?) that grants Lucien magical abilities. It seems these abilities are very powerful and out of the ordinary compared to other mages. Lucien doesn't quite know that yet, so shenanigans happen as he learns.
Lots of fun plot directions in the early chapters, including interactions with various magical organizations that are taking an interest in Lucien. Many shades of grey- who is antagonistic, benevolent, or somewhere in between? Future chapters will tell, I'm sure.
At chapter 42, Lucien still hasn't developed into a character that keeps me invested in the story, unfortunately. He's strangely uninterested and uninvolved in the world around him, and the story doesn't really explain why. Is he recovering from depression? Is he massively socially averse? Has someone put a geas on him? No idea, but at this stage of the story, I find myself not caring a lot, since he doesn't seem to care much either. His default response to any interesting thing that comes his way in the story seems to be to go sit in his bookstore. Fits the title, but doesn't help the character or story. I hope this will change as the story builds.
Writing style is very good, and enhances the overall pace & mood of the story. This is definitely not all-action, blue-box litRPG, which, to be honest, is greatly appreciated. 😎
Give this a try if magical mysteries appeal to you. Mind the ambiguous/slow/low-initiative MC- this is a weak point in the story for now, imo.
ShaiyamineRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
It has a fun premise but it felt lacking in execution. I felt as if everything was conveniently plotted for the protagonist, as if there were a trail of gold coins and all he has to do was pick them up and win at life. I couldn't feel much struggle nor can I properly gauge the danger cost of a certain conflict.
It felt like there's no real danger even if there are friction points for the protagonist to reach his goal. I love the bookstore mage concept but the execution of the protagonist being overpowered while being clueless is lacking.
DaicemanRoyal Road
★★★ 2.5
Good stories manage tension by buiding it up over time then releasing it. This story's many POV shifts drain the tension of the story before it can build to anything interesting. In an effort to make the MC seem more cool and powerful, we keep getting alternate POVs showing how amazing the MC is, this happens early and it keeps happening often.
In chapter 3 when we are building up tension about the MC discovering a hidden magical alternate society, we are sucked out of it by shifting to an alternate POV showing how powerful and amazing his bookstore is. When the MC notices what he thinks is some magical thing spying on him, we quickly find out it was some other person who is amazed by his talent in seeing him.
The story would be much better off without these alternate POVs sprinkled in as they are constantly draining the tension of the story without any meaningful payoff except "wow, the MC sure is powerful and cool"
This is also exaserbated by infrequent breaks from 3rd person limited to omniscient where we are treated to the thoughts of side characters. Espically when the only thoughts we hear is about how powerful, dangerous, or amazing he is.
A better version of this story would save all these alt povs and combine them into infrequent interludes, where we get a payoff of some of the world's mysteries. Instead of using secondary characters to tell us how cool he is directly, show us how great he is by their subtle actions around him.
BookmanRoyal Road
★★ 2.0
I give the avarage story on RR 2,5 Stars.
Now here everything feels so convinient for the MC.
He goes from beeing a normal human to one of the strongest mages in town in a couple chapters.
And if that wasnt enough, he gets a powerfull protector servant that can kill powerfull creatures with ease.
The lack of strugle & tension in adition to the 2 dimensional characters killed all my joy of reading this.
The characters either are just there to point out how strong the MC is or are 2D villans straight from a children book.
There is no such a thing as good or evil, there is just selfishness or selflesness.
Someone could kill of entire town for entire good reasons.
Depending on the viewpoint they could be seen as heroes for doing what had to be done and no other could or as villian that slaughterd innocents without trying to save them.
What i am trying to say is that everyone has their own motivations,
their own dreams ,
short term and long term goals,
they have their own past,
their own childhood trauma.
I will not go into dialogue or show not tell.
There are problems there and i give you the author here a list of videos that helped me imrpove.
Jerry Jenkings is an Author of over 200 Books.
21 Times new York Bestseller.
How to Write a Novel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rn__v80q7_w&t=833s
Diferenze between show and tell:
"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”
― Anton Chekhov
(Every singel writter has problems with show not tell. )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-83QrAAbnQY&t=724s
How to Write Compelling Dialoge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpWKp-fnZuU&t=981s
Lastly:
My reviews are often very blunt and harsh.
I make a point to not honey my words. People learn better from pain.
I do want to give you my respect for writting and doing it public non the less.
Writting is hard, publishing chapter by chapter is harder.
All in all dont take my "low" star score to badly, if you check my other reviews then you notice i rate low mos
DzukelisRoyal Road
★★ 1.5
I read the story up to date, still expecting that it will get better, but it didn't.
The chapters are short and more than half will detail the boring routine of life: sleeping, eating, getting into pajamas and similar stuff.
Attempt to romance is weak, apparently some high level mage milf woman falls for the MC because he could do one thing better than she did it.
The magic part of story could have been interesting, MC sees things and is capable of new things, but the progression is nuts. Fireball is learned almost without practise one month after becoming aware of magic world.
I would recommend a rewrite of the story, but on the other hand i couldn:t write even this good, so good luck in future writting.