The vaunted power of the Mage’s College. Unbounded freedom among the Wolfmen. The best of both worlds.
Recent college grad Sam King was hoping for a backpacking trip across Europe as a graduation present. Instead he’s going to get a different kind of trip: a three-month stint in the ultimate immersive gaming experience. As a lifelong geek, gamer, and outsider, it’s a better gift then he’d ever dreamed.
But when he jumps feet first into the world of Eternium, run by CAL, the Certified Altruistic Lexicon, it’s not exactly what he expected. All he wants is to quest, game, grind some levels, and get his hands on awesome loot. You know, have fun! But the Mage’s College seems to have a very different definition of fun, one involving study, blisteringly strict regulations, aristocratic hierarchy, and tons of pay to play.
Sam crosses the College and finds himself running for his life with a back-talking book that is far more than it seems and a class that no one has even heard of. If he can navigate the deadly College politics and the looming war with the barbaric Wolfmen, he might just find the fun and adventure he was looking for.
My Opinion: 332 pages, $2.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
Full disclosure: I received an advanced copy for review, I purchased a copy when it became available.
This is a side story set in the Completionist Chronicles universe. The main character (MC) is an original one created for this series, someone that will likely become an antagonistic force for the main series.
It’s a challenging thing to co-write a story set in an already established universe but James Hunter and Dakota Krout do a good job of it. While the story doesn’t bring any new world building to the universe, it uses what’s there well. For some readers it will be nice to return to the mage’s college, the Wolfmen, and the early parts of the game world. The game mechanics are of course top notch and followed well, with lots of information on classes, skills, and abilities.
I’ll be honest, I wasn’t overly engaged with the story in the beginning. The opening section, character creation, the 1st class that doesn’t matter, and the mage’s college stuff were all things I’ve read about in the main series, so there weren’t many surprises there. The story only really got interesting when the new class, the Bibliomancer, came into play and all the new information, the training of class skills and abilities. The story took the turns I thought it would but it was still fun to see how the Bibliomancer class overcame the obstacles.
Overall, while not my favorite story in the Completionist Chronicles universe, it is still good and pretty entertaining.
Score: 7.3 out of 10
Bibliomancer: A Completionist Chronicles Series (Wolfman Warlock Book 1)