Antimage

Ends of Magic, Book 1

By: Alexander Olson

Narrated by: Phil Thron

A scientist from another world. A mage seeking deadly knowledge. A power that could topple an empire.

Nathan's life was defined by labs and lectures until an Archmage yanked him into Davrar and made him a tantalizing offer: master magic in exchange for Earth's scientific secrets. Yet, Nathan can't shake off the feeling that darker truths lurk beneath such promises.

The world of Davrar is a dangerous place teeming with dungeons and monsters–ruled by levels, Talents, and a near-infinite progression of power. Nathan will need to rely on himself to survive, forging alliances and taking every advantage he can get against those that seek to control him.

His unique capacity to counteract magic gives him an unprecedented edge, making him a beacon of resistance against those who wield magic as a weapon of control.
Armed with intellect and an emerging power that could dismantle the very foundations of Davrar's society, Nathan emerges not as a mere student of magic, but as its ultimate adversary: the Antimage.

©2023 Alexander Olson (P)2023 Tantor

Ok but

Yeah not gonna lie wish it had an LGBTQ tag wouldn’t have picked it up the random into dudes thing breaks my immersion sonce it seems mostly irrelevant. Also some of the science stuff got long winded but other than that not bad interesting concept for all that but doubt I’ll pick up the second one

a good start, high expectations

It's fun and fast, and the mc is smart and not a douche. the world is interesting, the mechanics are novel. the side character are disting

The mc is a bit too perfect. He has no flaws. He's a genius scientist working on groundbreaking advancements in microbiology while working on his doctorate, who practiced martial arts and various extreme sports, who also had time to schedule dnd games.

While also not being too invested in his friends or family to want to return from being summoned.

Great and satisfying concept

I came from a reddit post describing the story, it sounded like my kind of thing and i’m glad to say it was, definitely worth a read and i’ll be checking in to see when the next books get audio versions.

If I had to criticize one small thing, I would say I found it kind of confusing how Nathan never really questions the culture of hoarding insights, it seems to me like the only real reason for adventurers not to share knowledge like that is greed and wanting to control the power, it’s not been hinted that the skills get weaker if you share them with too many people, the only other risk would be enemies like giant’s rest getting ahold of them much like the concern with guns. If he’s willing to question the dueling culture then why not at least acknowledge that his world shares knowledge like “insights” freely and have a small discussion as to why this world doesn’t rather than just instantly accepting it as how things work here?
As I said it’s a very small gripe that just tickled the back of my mind a little each time trading or selling insights was brought up, overall it was a great listen and i’m glad I came to check it out!

Fantastic premise

I love the idea of merging science and a magic system, especially turning it on its head the way that's been done here, the narrator has an older voice then I would of given the protagonist but I still think he does a wonder job.

Pretty sciency

I really enjoyed this book. If you are not a fan of things getting very very technical, this might not be one for you. sometimes the science explanations were beyond me, but I still enjoyed the story despite my lack of understanding of higher level sciences.

As for some reviews as saw saying this story was "woke" I'm not sure what they are referring to. I was expecting things to get super preachy or overly sexual, but nothing ever came up.

In short, I recommend this book if you like it when your fantasy magic gets technical.

Excellent LitRPG

This book manages to take the relatively worn isekai premise and execute it realistically and refreshingly. An mc who gets overpowered as a result of coming from another world is nothing new, but this mc has interesting restrictions and is forced to rely on his team to thrive. The use of science is lovingly implemented and actually realistic-this mc actually knows what he's talking about when it comes to science and it pays off in a reasonable way. The system itself is also interesting and refreshing, especially given how it impacts the culture of the world. I especially appreciate how alien the language and speech pattern of the native characters are, which is very realistic and helps us feel as out of place as the mc in a new world.

It's sad I even have to address it but unless you are a blatant homophobe I don't see why you would have a problem with the bi mc ocassionally commenting on how attractive other male characters are. The mc is supposed to be in his mid-late 20s and acts like it, instead of the excitable teenagers that most LitRPGs protagonists are, especially in regards to attraction and romance. Overall a very enjoyable listen worth the credit.

Great Story. Ignore the Homophobes

Just wanted to clear up some confusion. There were some down votes for this book based on an assumption of the MC's sexual preferences and a lack of an LGBTQ tag. There is a section in the first half of the book in which the MC comments on the attractiveness of another male character multiple times and to be fair it was done in a somewhat awkward and jarring way. However, if you make it to the latter half of the book you realize that the MC says the same things about a few women. Therefore he is either Bisexual or simply commenting to himself on the attractiveness of others. There is no romance in this book and the main character never makes a pass at any one. Enjoy

a sheltered nerds character build

this story begins abruptly, gets interesting, then drags on for too long before something cool happens and ends even more abruptly than it starts. no closure here

The characters have little to no depth, they are there to cover nathan's weak points and serve almost no other purpose. none of them suffer any true loss, In fact, nathan picks up a skill to avoid that exact thing. They resolve nothing and begin nothing. The other characters or friends of the MC have NOTHING in common with Nathan and there is also no static between him and his "friends" either.

In addition to this nathan is a huge hypocrite from the start. something i personally dislike. He immediately condemns one society for the actions and words of one person, consigning them to a future death "they do not deserve to live" when that exact sentiment is supposedly what he rails against. He's mad because the one who brought him to davrar doesn't think certain others "deserve to live" pot meet kettle.

Before he has any CLUE how this COMPLETELY FOREIGN LAND works, and the rules it operates on, he's decided already that one of it's main societies needs to die. Thrusting his own will to immediately alter and morph the current NEW LAND to more closely resemble his own with the scientific knowledge and technology he shares with people who would be completely incapable of understanding the long term ramifications of such things having never heard of or witnessing anything like it.

It's a great IDEA for an epic tale but falls short. The story gets lost and far too wrapped up in "building a character" and gives fragments around it. Like the author was obsessed with min-maxing a video game character and pieced together a place for it to be.

Having said that i do intend to listen to book two to see if it develops, but wont go further if it is more of the same.

As always Phil Thron is awesome and is the reason i picked this book up to begin with.

Great beginning with a thoughtful and competent MC

Great story. Listened to it in 2 days. Eagerly awaiting the next book. The MC was smart and competent and made intelligent decisions. Totally worth the credit

Started off great but fizzled half way through

The story was fine until the main character decided he was going to be a fighter and his target goal was to annihilate an whole country because of a few interactions. Nathan was presented as a man of logic, science and reasoning but he decided to become a raging meathead when it came to fighting. All of his fights devolved into him running around almost naked, bleeding everywhere like an idiot, and almost dying while trying to punch things to death. If he didn't luck out with acquiring his regen talent and enemies conveniently avoiding headshots or bisections for the most part then he would be dead. He doesn't wear any armor, he doesn't wear an helmet, nor leather protection. He doesn't carry basic weapons with him like a knife or club. Armor or weapons don't need enchantments to useful. When he did get spears he only used one once in a fight and never used one again. Almost all his fights are him running at enemies he is ill equipped at fighting and plot keeping him alive. For example, he decides the best way to fight a horde of zombies was to fight hand to hand while they ripped him apart hoping his regen and allies would see him through. You know instead of having a spear or glaive to put melee enemies at a distance using his new acquired strength to good use. You would think a character who spouts so much scientific knowledge throughout the story would recognize that his fighting style of being a raging berserker is extremely flawed. Especially, when he does go berserk he almost always gets himself nearly killed because he gets lost in the "thrill". Speaking of strength, the author does a poor job explaining how strong the characters are and what progress through leveling actually represents. When Nathan jumped to level 27 to 33 or to 44 there's no real indication of how much or what kind of increase those levels add to him as a person. We are told he is stronger and we get some feats of strength but it's all over the place. I couldn't tell whether the final duel at the end was fair or he was lucky because the story is vague on how strong Nathan is. Out of nowhere we are told his skin is as hard as metal but when the hell that happened?

I didn't like how he declared that a whole nation must die based off the conversation he had with one person. He has no idea how the rest of giant rest actually operates and he has no reason to trust the nation he ended up with to tell him the whole story. For all he knows they could be lying to him and only a small fraction of giant's rest is awful. As a modern man, he should recognize how small minded his rationale is giving how he has all of earth's own history as an example of the folly of that way of thinking. I like when he used modern solutions to fix old world problems. However, it's not realistic that he taught advance math and scientific theories to an adult person from the middle ages in weeks and that math properly applying to magic. What does those numbers mean to a girl who makes fire and force come from her body by magic? What equation is she using to somehow produce magical results that totally doesn't destroy the laws of physics in which does equation rely upon? I get what the story was going for but it falls apart when you really think about it.