Spellslinger

Spellslinger – the book that blends in perfectly with my kitchen table. This is a YA fantasy book about a young mage who’s about to turn 16 and have to take mage trials. If you pass all four you get to keep your powers and status as a Jan’Tep. Fail and you become Sha’Tep (basically a slave to the mages.)

The main issue with the protagonist Kellen is that he’s gone his whole life without being able to invoke magic. Each child has six rings engraved on their arms for an element that they can learn to invoke (with there being a seventh forbidden shadow element.)The book starts off strong with Kellen using street smarts to win a duel against another mage. Being resourceful and witty is his main magical ability. It keeps up that pace well and never really lulls for too long in any one plot point.

There are a lot of cool reveals that I’m now going to quickly go through. The first one was when Kellen sees that he has part of the shadow black on his eye. When his parents see that they drug him and decide to remove his six magical bands. They can only remove one each night and Kellen would scream and beg for mercy while his parents kept telling him it was for the best. Then we learn that they already knew he was corrupted and were suppressing his magic throughout his childhood to try and stave off the mark. He went his whole life striving to unlock his abilities while his parents secretly prevented it. Luckily, he gets rescued before the final band is disabled.

Part of being a child in a world such as this is learning that not everything is always so kosher. Another such awakening was about the mahdek. Growing up he was taught that this tribe was evil and would summon demons against them. They wanted their land. Turns out that they were actually the natives of the land and the Jan’Tep attacked the mahdeks children to distract them while summoning demons to finish the job. The shadow black was a self inflection from using that void magic. Victors always write the history.

He also learns more about the Sha’Tep from how he’s being treated without powers. His uncle and dad were close growing up, but his uncle became Sha’Tep and lost all his respect and autonomy. Now he has to serve the family. We later learn that he’s part of a rebellion to try and sabotage the current children’s magical abilities. Generation by generation they were getting treated more like slaves and no amount of arguing was helping their cause. The Jan’Tep only cared about people with magic. The lights of the town only turn on for mages at night. The town was expanded and built like slums for Sha’Tep to live in. The underground system they use to mine is poorly built with constant casualties.

My favorite character was the “squirrel dog” named Reichis. He was fun with his snarky comments and always wanting to get into the action. Ferius was also a mysterious and cool character, but it got annoying how convenient her appearance always was.

Going in I had no idea this was YA, but it quickly became obvious. Something about the writing, dialogues, and prose felt simple. Still, I loved the concept, reveals, and quick speed that I could read at without having to fully engage my brain. It was easy to get sucked in and I’m sure I’ll be continuing this series for that.

Rating: 704/1000