A Crucible of Souls: Sorcery Ascendant Sequence Book One (Mitchell Hogan, HarperVoyager)

A Crucible of Souls is the first book in a new series that was previously self-published and, after reading it, I’m not at all surprised that HarperVoyager decided to add it to its catalogue. There are a few early clichés in the form of an orphan with strange powers, a mysterious magical knick-knack and a magic school, but Mitchell Hogan uses them well and his protagonist Calidan has just the right mix of naivety and smarts. The book also has a very interesting magic system, which is useful to the characters but has plenty of limitations. Most of the story is told from Calidan’s perspective and a minor complaint is that some of the other characters are a bit underdeveloped. The thing I enjoyed most is the ambiguous nature of some of the characters. I know who the heroes are and I’m pretty sure about the villains, but there are a couple of others that seem to be playing a game of their own, and a few hints that what starts out as a fairly traditional fantasy might turn out to be something quite different. This is not as dark as some current fantasy and while not tagged as YA, I’d be comfortable selling this to middle teens and upwards. I would also recommend it to fans of Brandon Sanderson, Brent Weeks and Luke Scull.

Stefen Brazulaitis is the owner of Stefen’s Books in Perth