The Glass Wizard - The tale of a somewhat depressed wizard

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

The Glass Wizard World is filled with fantastic peoples, beasts and places. And then there is wizard artefact hunter Yves who doesn’t really enjoy any of it. Follow him and his familiar into wizarding schools and witches’ forests, to the depth of the ocean and back to floating kingdoms. He insists that you don't.In this first book about the Glass Wizard, Yves and his familiar venture to the Crystalline Trench while trying to evade the Mirror World Stalker. Meanwhile, Yu is forced to become a guard at the Albweiss Mountain Guild.

This slow burn original story updates weekly until Yves dies or the Duckman runs out of coffee. Feel invited to explore the Glass Wizard World onthe story's website.What to expect:▪An oh so slow burn [sometimes dark and oftentimes psychological] fantasy story with wizards, witches, adventurers' guilds, dystopian human habitats, and many more fantastic peoples and disturbing individuals.▪It starts off with an odd wizard seeking refuge in a lighthouse, but he will make it around the world eventually.▪You meet Yves in his adulthood, with recurring flashback-chapters revealing the entirety of his life. There are no promises that it is a good life. Or that he is a good person.▪ Images, songs and music [such as in Ch.12].▪ Quite a bit of rhyming andexperimentswith layout and fonts to expose the characters' mental state or illustrate magical occurrences [feel invited to take a glimpse at Ch.6.4,7.1and16.1for a first impression].▪An author who is very slow but tries really hard.

Still not sure?Delve intoBardic Planet’s Extended Review of The Glass Wizard!

Dear Traveller,if this story fell into your hands, I hope it will give you something for the heart. It is for those who find comfort in lingering with a character through their journey, for those who seek a sense of solace in the pages they turn, just as my characters search for a purpose or place to belong. This story is for those who read because they wish to explore the depths of someone else's soul. Thank you for reading.

A note from March 2026I am still reworking the first five chapters, aiming to release them (with about 150 pages of added content) at the beginning of May. Thank you kindly for your patience and I hope you can enjoy the story still.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2023
Author: The Duckman

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.2/ 5.0
Followers: 1,026
Views: 132,396

Chapters(106 total)

Reviews

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

Community Reviews(10)

167fiveRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is a great story!
I absolutely love the interactions, the characters, and the plot. The entire thing seems so original, and I like how the author makes the font, the color, the very screen fit into the atmosphere that he creates.
Aside from the great worldbuilding and characters, the best thing that stands out to me are the pictures. Now, this is the best example of a book with pictures done right. Like, how does one even get this level of mystical artwork?
Overall, this is a great, great story. I heavily recommend new readers to check this out. Though the first few chapters are a bit poetic and such, it gets much better later on.
MianmaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Whatever you do, you need to leave the lighthouse with Yves and his familiar, because after that, the story truly opens up to you.
The characters are incredibly real
on a deep psychological level. Trust me, Yves will draw you in, because after a while, you will feel like you know and understand him better than anyone else does while also realising that there is so much more to explore and reveal about him.
The plot opens up a massive, thought-out fantasy world
with its own magic system, humanoid peoples and creatures. It feels like intelligent writing like you find in the good classics, with no plot holes or clichees.
The story forces you to pay attention and rewards you for it.
Since we first explore the world through Yves (a wizard) or Midnight (a beast), revelations about the world (e.g. witches) are impacted by their subjective experiences and opinions. You piece together the truth, which is not hand-fed to you, neither by the characters nor by the author. There is a website with fantastic glossaries, images and background information that further underlines the author's dedication to worldbuilding.
The style is part of the narration and it takes this already great story to another level.
English is not my mother tongue, but I recognise philosophical, poetic writing that features layers of intelligent puns. There are songs and poems that hint at a rich in-world culture. There are many images. On top of that, it is amazing how creatively he shows horror beings such as the Vicha, magical phenomena and emotions like fear through the abstract style / letter arrangement / art. The current chapters come slowly, but when this author delivers, he DELIVERS.
I will write a more detailed review in the future, because this story truly deserves one. But to sum up what I wanted to convey with my first sentence:
For the first five or six chapters, the story may appear rather technical: you learn more about the lighthouse and its magical protection than you learn about the prot
RainyLiquidRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The Glass Wizard is an interesting story that sort of feels like a dream to read. It jumps around sometimes and has long blocks of texts to explain stuff which I actually enjoy as it feels like the author had fun writing all the history and lore and it comes off that way. The story feels very dream-like in the early parts and the stuff with Yu has so far been a lot of fun. He is a character I dislike but I think that is done on purpose as he is often complaining and showing a lot of short comings. I look forward to seeing him grow and it feels like the adventure will be good for him. The world is interesting and the magic system hurts my head which is a win in my book as that means you can spend hours figuring out how it all works.
Overall it is well written which is shocking since a duck wrote it.
🦆
Tim WoodRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I reviewed chapter 12 per the author's request in a review forum thread.
I'm delighted to have read this chapter, it was very nice to have a chapter open with the lyrics to a Dwarven song and I was transported back to the first time I read Tolkien. Reading this felt like sipping and appreciating a fine brandy and I really took my time with it. I got a real sense of scale from the worldbuilding and I thought the characters and dialogue were incredibly well done. Especially the scene when the two girls burst out laughing at their companion's word answer, that was a nice touch.
Great work.
cursedclarkeRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I was asked to review Chapter 15 of The Glass Wizard (this is actually seven chapters broken up into nine pretending to be one) is not so much a chapter as it is a battleground of endurance, where language, suffering, architecture, social humiliation, and elemental magic all take turns violating the protagonist. In a work already steeped in psychological grit and social violence, this chapter delivers a staggering avalanche of character degradation and systemic cruelty. It is, without exaggeration, a sustained exercise in both literary virtuosity and the sadistic dismantling of a character’s physical, emotional, and social dignity. Yu’s journey through this sequence is not merely a sequence of events but a crucible, rendered with such intricate realism that the reader nearly flinches with every new humiliation.
The chapter’s structure is both linear and vertiginous. Yu descends, physically and spiritually, through the trials of the guild: first into meaningless labor, then hunger, injury, miscommunication, social alienation, physical trauma, and finally psychic unraveling. The chapter’s narrative rhythm mimics a spiral, not in the lazy loop of repetition, but a tightening coil of anxiety and exhaustion. Every scene is heavier than the last, every interaction slightly more off-balance, every effort punished, and every line of dialogue weaponized against Yu’s already cracked self-perception. Pacing here is weaponized with ruthless efficiency. There is no padding, no filler, only the cold churn of ordeal.
Stylistically, the prose operates at a high level of density and lyrical precision. Descriptions are textured, sensual, and psychological, often oscillating between poetic awe and grotesque detail. The shaman, for example, is not simply described but revealed, like a cryptid or god emerging from myth, each image laced with mystery and dread. Every room is rendered with architectural specificity, down to the weight of the furniture, the qualities of light, the scent of
Emu2thethirdRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
(NOTE: I started reading at chapter twelve because that is what the writer wanted. This is a review for chapter twelve and the chapters that followed. I cannot speak on the quality of the first chapters.)
I liked the overall feel of this story a lot. The writing style flowed very nicely. You can really tell that the writer put a lot of thought into the world and the details. The descriptions add a lot. It was very easy to get lost in this story. The world just really pulled me in. So my favorite thing is probably the style. I also enjoyed seeing into the main character's thoughts. As the title of this work suggests, he isn't the happiest person in the world. This was overall just a really nice story that filled the classic fantasy shaped void in my heart. I don't any complaints off the top of my head. If you like fantasy, give it a try!
Cptn_jock_spprwRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
The characters feel alive. The narrative is bland but captivating reflecting the main characters mind. When we see the world from Midnight's perspective it adds to the story instead of removing previous elements like most stories I've read. The only problem is the spacing at the beginning; but once you get used to it, a story element is added.
nzswc3iRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
It's not an advanced review as there's not much material to cover (yet, hopefully) but I still wanted to write something as I think the quality of the writing so far is quite good.
An important point when considering reading this story is whether intricate descriptive passages put you off. (It's almost contemplative in some ways). The author writes that well (and I kinda like this genre anyway), so it's not a put-off point for me, but... of tastes and colors...
The writing style is good (on the really good side of rr), and sentences flow nicely. Same for grammar.
The characters / world is a bit of a unknown still, as we know very little. There are very interesting elements that have been introduced, and I'd really like to see where this story is headed.
(note: I would have put the rating at 4/5 -- as there's not much yet, but to counteract the only other rating of the story that was way too low, I set it to 4.5/5).
sztrzask2Royal Road
★★★★ 3.5
The story so far lacks a hook to keep reader interested in the plot.
There's one in the first chapter "someone in the mirror", but that feeling of unknown, of dread or surprise is quickly toned down and drown in exposition and scene descriptions. Author paints a detailed picture in chapters, but the paintings are dead.
This writing style lacks directions and feels like treading water.
GatesOfDawnRoyal Road
★★★ 2.5
This author's creative writing professor did real harm. Yes, the writing is descriptive, the vocabulary extensive, the scenes evocative, the similes and metaphors picturesque, and the allegory subtle. But where is the pacing? In all of that lovely grade-A creative writing, where is the story? There is real promise here, and I've stuck with it for a little while, but there are just too many interesting stories out there to keep wading through this professorial delight for very much longer. I hope you are able to find your center and deliver on this presently thwarted promise.