I was recommended this novel when I requested "a science fantasy with Star Wars vibes". And yes, this was what I was looking for. It's diferent from Star Wars (no epic fight between good and evil, no monastic order of mystics, no aliens), but in many ways it has a similar feel.

This is a space opera with fantasy elements. We have space travel which is made possible by mages. These jump mages can instantly transport spaceships equiped with adequate magical runes across vast distances. However, there is a limit on how often and how far a mage can jump, which means that interstellar travel requires multiple jumps. Military vessels usually carry more than one mage, so that they can jump more often and therefore travel faster.

Mages belong to a guild, but they live independently and hire their talents to merchants, official military forces and so on. The Protectorate, led by the Mage-King of Mars, is a loose coalition of space systems that brings law and order to human civilization. However, apart from a few common laws, each planet is free to establish its own laws and system of government, and some of the worlds in the fringe of the Protectorate are quite lawless. There are powerful criminal organizations, pirates, slavers, wars between settlers and megacorporations...

To maintain the peace and enforce the laws of the Protectorate, the Mage-King employs agents, powerful mages in their own right, who are called the Hands.

The story is about a young mage who works for a trader vessel. Under attack by pirates, this mage manages to modify the magical runes of his ship to allow them to be used not only to jump, but also as a weapon. This is something extremely illegal and supposedly impossible, but he manages to pull it off. When the modification is detected in their next port of call, his ship is soon pursued by a criminal cartel and by one of the Mage-King's Hands.

This is the first book in a series, but it has enough resolution to work as a standalone. The book was a lot of fun, but it was not perfect. The writing is only functional. Don't expect great stylistic feats. Also, the focus was on the action and adventure more than on the depth of the characterization. Nevertheless, it is a quick read, and very enjoyable if you are in the mood for space battles, magic and adventure. ( )

Starships fly with rune magic. The MC is in need for a ship to work on and finds a crew that has made one enemy too much.
Together they start a tour de force.
Excellent Science Fiction! ( )

Glynn Stewart's writing is not great. He does not have a gift with words or with story telling. His narrative is flat and boring. I was put off from the start by the way he reminds us about events that just happened one chapter ago, or by some premise he explains again only tens of pages after he introduces it. And then again, and then again, as if he does not trust his readers to be able to remember things for longer.

The plot is equally simplified, for the forgetful reader. In chapter one Damian cannot get a job because of all the other "birthright" fresh graduates. In chapter two, a birthright mage dies saving his ship and his all-powerful and father is so upset that he bans the surviving ship and crew from ever getting a birthright mage. In chapter three Damian and the ship's captain are put together to solve each other's problem.

The entire book is equally simple. I am looking at the big ratings people gave this book and I simply fail to understand what is it that they liked.

One thing the author is good at is world building. And he is quite imaginative at that. But the plot, the characters, the story telling, the phrasing, the choice of words, and generally speaking the literary style in this book are uninspiring. ( )

Seriously fun listen.

The narrator is a favorite from the [b:The Rules of Supervillainy|25696701|The Rules of Supervillainy (The Supervillainy Saga, #1)|C.T. Phipps|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1442613369i/25696701._SY75_.jpg|45512944] series: Jeffrey Kafer. ( )

I picked this up through kindle unlimited and I freely admit to inflating my rating on this series because it was just so much fun to read (and is a step up from the typically stuff you get on kindle unlimited). I basically binged this series over about 1 weeks time.

I like Hard Sci-Fi
I like Fantasy

This series gives you both. All of the SciFi stuff that typically gets a tech hand wave as being so advanced it appears to be magic (I am looking at you FTL and Antigrav devices) actually IS magic ... and it is awesome. IMHO the author does an amazing job blending these two elements into his stories and I simply love the world building (plus 1 star for something I have only seen in more of a steam punk genre instead of SciFi).

The stories are more of the cookie cutter, classic hero's tale that simply makes you feel good when you finish it. The good guys are very good (and relatable and easy to like/identify with). The bad guys are actually reasonable intelligent and provide a decent foil for the protagonist with enough humor to make it a fun afternoon read (you get another star there). It is never going to be a classic ... but it will be one of the few stories that I plan to re-read.

I so wanna be a "Starship's Mage" now!!! ( )