Warrior Mage: Chains of Honor, Book 1 by Lindsay Buroker (Epub)

Description

His mother was one of the most powerful wizards in the Nurian Empire until she abandoned her people to become a notorious pirate. That choice doomed the family she left behind to a life of disgrace.Yanko White Fox doesn’t remember his mother, but as the only gifted child in the family, he is expected to erase the mark she left on them all. With an affinity for earth magic and communicating with animals, he’s not the most natural candidate to become a warrior mage, but it’s the only sure route back into the Great Chief’s good graces. He has resigned himself to training for that destiny, whether it matches his passions or not.Long before he’s ready for his first battle, insurrection comes to his distant corner of the empire. Rebels take over the salt mine his family manages and slay the only relative who ever supported Yanko. On the heels of the tragedy, a courier brings a message from the Great Chief’s son. Whether he is prepared or not, Yanko must undertake a quest, one that could save millions of lives… or fail utterly, leaving him dead, his family forgotten, and his people the victims of starvation and endless war.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I read Buroker’s sci-fi space opera and was amused (although the first book is only so-so, 3 stars). This book has the same “flip” dialog but it falls a bit flat considering the main character has just suffered a series of attacks, the death of one of his closest relatives, and the loss of his home and possibly his entire family. Then the “quest” he’s given. How implausible can you get? There are too many extremely unlikely coincidences, and the main character is willing to allow people he cares about to die rather than kill their attackers. (I call that the DC syndrome, as in the olden days DC comics had heroes who wouldn’t kill to prevent killing.) I also didn’t like the scene in a lava filled cave…Apparently Buroker doesn’t know enough about lava to know that it gives off enormous quantities of toxic gasses and would be fatal for anyone exposed in a confined space nearly instantly. The main character is 18 yrs old, but mostly acts like a 15 or even 14 yr old – with occasional exceptions. He makes some assumptions which might be plausible for a while but which should have eventually set off all sorts of alarm bells. He accepts (nearly inexplicable) actions of others without question, and makes no effort to “fix” his stalker problem. Hint: when you’re searching for something, and someone’s after you, and you don’t really know whether the search will take days, or months, or years, the first thing you do is end the threat rather than running around like a chicken with its head chopped off. It’s kinda like watching a rat run thru a maze; you may not know the twists and turns, but you can see that the path(s) are artificial & limited. And as other reviewers have said, this story ends with no resolution, quite unsatisfactory, a half-of-a-story. I guess if you are expecting a story about a (young) naif who flees home on a quest together with a companion (who may be in it for love) and a gandalf-like father figure, and are expecting a fairly drawing inside the lines plot, and are maybe 14 years old and don’t expect people to actually get hurt, then this is your (half) story. IOW, derivative, and with dialog that isn’t as funny as Buroker means it to be, I think 2 stars is reasonable, 3 at the most. I just finished the book an hour ago and don’t think I’ll bother reading more. As the famous quote goes: Where’s the meat? – I didn’t find any.

⭐I like this book, it’s written with the same easy flow that all of Lindsay Buroker’s books are, however I will say that the story is very short, and none of the action seems dramatic enough to fully flesh out a standalone book, nor does the resolution at the end feel like a stop; rather it feels like a transition paragraph to a new chapter.I’ve read the beginning trilogies of 2 of her other series, and neither of them suffer from this. The Emperor’s Edge series are quick stories, just building through to the main plot, but what happens in them is much more fleshed out. They have a mystery of the week feel to them that allows them to stand on their own. The first three in her Dragon Blood series skirt closer to it, but all seem to have a stronger ending resolution- perhaps helped by fully fleshing out a turning point for the main characters in each of the books.There are no major turning points here, just a rush of events that the main character is reacting to. You don’t get a strong feel for the secondary characters like you did in the Emperor’s Edge either, they remain just as mysterious to Yanko in the end as they did in the beginning.It’s easy to bond with Yanko, both because he is well written and because in small ways he reminds me of Amaranthe…capable, and weirdly good with people. Despite the familiar feeling he is his own character however, with a much younger, more inexperienced voice, and different motivations.I quite enjoyed the book overall, and immediately purchased the second in the series. Once the 3rd comes out and you can read them all together I think the story will flow fantastically, and although it could be frustrating to pay for a book that feels like it’s just 1/3rd of a complete story, the e-books are priced so reasonably that I have no objection to getting each section as soon as possible instead of waiting until the entire thing is complete.

⭐Yanko can’t seem to do anything right, like get in the prestigious mage school to redeem his family honor, or learn a mental science worth knowing. But a secret mission spurs him onto an adventure that takes him from his beloved home—and he must do everything he can to save it.Here’s what I liked: Buroker has a way with dialog. It’s always my favorite of her books. This is in the same world as her EE series, but we got to see the other countries.Here’s what I didn’t like: Lots of passive voice took away the immediacy of the action. He has conversations with himself, but there’s no change in formatting so it looks like she’s switching from 3rd POV to 2nd POV and it’s jarring. It really took me out of the story to have to go back and realize he’s chastising himself.Overall, the pacing was ok, but I found myself skipping a lot of paragraphs to get to the fun bits.

⭐This book feels like it was written skillfully but in haste, with insufficient thought about the overall plot. The characters are reasonably interesting and adequately fleshed out, recognizing that this is the first book of a series and they will develop over time, but the plot is very loose with respect to time and timing. Without spoilers I can mention that there are least three points when two critical characters both happen to pass through the same place at the same time. Third-party forces arrive exactly (to the minute) when needed. Allies reveal hidden capabilities precisely when they are required. And so on. I quickly tired of these coincidences. Perhaps there’s some outside force causing all of these seemingly unrelated happenings, but if so it’s insufficiently foreshadowed. I’m not going to read the next book to find out.

⭐A hood book and a very interesting start to the series. I love the world of magic, science and of course Martial Arts. A great young hero Yanko.In this world both science and magic exists. Magic is call the mental science, and fire is rules over all else. Enter Yanko an talented young practitioner hoping to got to school to further his talent.A total contradiction, the ultimate outsider. Where family honour is paramount, he comes from a once great but disgraced family, though powerful not in the right element, dispite coming from a privileged background he gets his hands dirty.Part of my loves the way Yanko though completely in over his head manages to rise to the occasion, as well earn grudging respect from people around him. His sheltered life changes when “offered” a quest. That with every victory just keep getting more and more dangerous.A good book, that did entice me to carry on reading the series. I hope to see Yanko grow to the potential others see in him. Also kick hand out some well deserved butt kicking to certain people. With a lot of history, and ground to cover the potential for growth is endless.

⭐2 stars because it’s very well written. Other than that, it’s a dead loss for anyone older than 16. It was such a disappointment, because I’ve enjoyed several others of this author’s books. However this one is so slow and boring and the central character so uninspiring that I doubt I’ll be buying any more of her books. I really struggled to read to the end, hoping it would turn out to be worth it – but it’s a poor ending, which basically amounts to a cliff hanger – except that “cliff hanger” implies some excitement in anticipating the next in the series, whereas with this I was just so relieved to be done with it. Give it a miss.

⭐Immature dialogue, jerky pacing, no sign of intelligence or deep thought in the world building, formulaic plot, stereotyped roles and characters and overall unsatisfying. Other reviewers who scored it highly must have very limited reading experience. I got a completely false impression from the Amazon reviews and it rather damages my trust in the value of well reviewed items on amazon!Though I did get to the end and there is worse out there, I have zero interest in what happens next: AVOID!

⭐Lindsay writes some amazing stories – and this is yet another one of them. It takes into the Nurian Empire – the ‘baddies’ from the Emporer’s Edge series. However you soon come to love the ‘hero’, Yanko (who has already appeared in the salt and sword series), very quickly and are taken on an emotional rollercoaster during this book.This is written with the usual humour, pace and excitement of her previous books and I really enjoyed reading it. The characters are really well developed, the dialogue entertaining and emotions expressed in such a way that they become your emotions.I find the style of writing so very easy to read and the plot flows clearly and smoothly throughout the book. There is never any impression of parts of the book being rushed, or of the author having run out of steam and just putting down what little story was in her head. The plot is always highly thought through and very detailed, with the characters staying true throughout the story.A definite must read if you love fantasy books, particularly the likes of Anne McCaffrery.

⭐A very enjoyable read with a whole new set of characters that are well written with distinct and engaging personalities set in an already familiar world.The adventure/quest that the main characters find themselves on is well paced but is never predictable, so you don’t know what will happen next, which means that you always want to read a few more pages.As this book was on special offer, free, it just couldn’t be overlooked which was a good marketing strategy as I will now have to acquire the rest of the books in the series.

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