Discarded

Dumpstermancer Series, Book 1

By: Michael J. Allen

Narrated by: David S. Dear

Magic has been franchised. Magical conveniences are sold everywhere like designer coffee. Everyday life is filled with technical and magical wonders. Only, the magic is murdering people.

Thoth Corp's hot new spell is turning people into ravening monsters. Their only hope to quietly rectify the situation before the epidemic spreads is the spell architect they framed and sent to prison.

El's response to his former partners wasn't polite.

Homeless, forbidden to use government-regulated magic, and barely surviving out of dumpsters, Eli struggles to rebuild his life. Fairytale rats thought long extinct with the rest of the fey rescue Eli from murderous vigilantes, but at a cost. They force him to save fairy matrons stolen away by Thoth's monsters, thrusting Eli between his old company and a shadow war waged against humanity.

To stop the war, cure Thoth's victims, and rescue the city, Eli need only find some way to make magic out of trash.

©2018 Michael J. Allen (P)2018 Michael J. Allen

Very well done

I was very pleasantly surprised by this book, The world and characters were very well done and took on a life of their own as the story progressed. David Dear did an excellent job of bringing the characters to life and keeping you engaged with the story. Very much looking forward to the next book even though I'm not a fan of cliffhangers. I was given a free copy of this audio in return for an unbiased review.

Magic has been marketed and made expensive

A mans life is ruined when he is framed and locked in a magical prison. He served his time and now he’s out, a free man...except he has nothing and just continue to answer to the powers that be, but that’s not in his plans. Instead he drops off the grid to be a homeless man who does no magic. Magic is now pre manufactured spell boards and spells with the components made almost 300 times more expensive then they were. One of the greatest spells he designed to help burn victims has been altered to provide beauty to those who can afford it...only Something has gone wrong and people are being transformed into hideous magical creatures....he is being enlisted by creatures of the Fae, long thought extinct, to help them survive this league of beasts...can he do it? Can he become the magus he was always destined to be? Or will he just be the bum behind the dumpster? Listen and find out. Learn for yourself what my father always knew. One mans trash is another mans treasure, I mean spell component. I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator or publisher

Audible Gold

First let me say that this book was given to me for an honest review, but I always leave honest reviews so this doesn't change how I review the book.

This was an amazing read. The author connects us with the characters and the performance by the narrator was perfect.

I look forward to seeing more books by this author.

It's an interesting start to a series.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

This is an interesting story about a man who feels betrayed by society because of his skin color and abandoned by God when all he tries to do is help.
I'd love to see this story develop more and where it goes.

Started a bit rough but hit an awesome stride

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

I was a little worried when I started this one, the Narrator took a couple of chapters to really hit his stride with the characters. Once he did and the story got going this was great.

It's a pretty standard wronged underdog VS major power doing a bad thing plot, but I particularly enjoyed this telling of it. The main character loses his place in society and gets dragged around, by his sense of duty, saving the world. The author does a great job with some background world-building, there's a whole hidden world under the surface of this one, which leaves a lot of space for the continued story. The only real issue I had with the book was the cliff-hanger, it comes across as cutting off mid-sentence. It's not a world ending thing but left me more annoyed than curious about the next book.

Overall, it's a fun, gritty, R-rated (for violence), story that will keep you wondering what will come next. I'm looking forward to the next book and will probably pick it up once it comes to audible.

Really interesting book with amazing magical creatures!

This book was unlike anything I have ever read before. Magic has become accessible to everyone in the world as long as you have the right equipment. However what would you give to become beautiful. Eli discovers just how twisted magic can become. When Eli is falsely accorded and sent to the wasteland upon his rerun he discovers tang the spell he has crates to help people with physical disfiguring, such as burn victims, become “beautiful” has been drastically altered. The spell could go so wrong it could turn you into a monster! So what is the price of beauty. However how will he help his friends when if he himself gets caught using magic he could find himself back in the wasteland?!
This book will take you on a wild ride with many unique characters and magical creatures on Eli’s quest to fix his spell along with helping his friends along the way! I really enjoyed the narrator, David S. Dear, he did a very good job of bringing the characters alive and made sure to make it easy for us to discern each character by giving each one their own quirk or accent with his voice! It felt like listening to a full cast audio book. If you are looking for a good book filled with lots of magic and magical creatures then this is the book for you!

Dumpstermancer

I was given this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

This book has been so refreshing! The MC is an older black man. That right away got my attention and made me realize how non-diverse this genre is. The magic system is maybe a little underdeveloped within the story in that I never felt like I really understood it, and it seemed not to follow the same rules all the time. That was ok though, because really this story breaks a lot of conventions in a super good way. Really fun!

A great start

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

This was an intersting urban fantasy story. I loved how the author's magic system works and how magic was woven into a modern world we are familiar with. The narration was a little rocky at first but he quickly finds his groove and does a great job the rest of the book. The world-building and character development is very well done. All in all, this is a new series I would definitely want to continue.

It was worth a listen

It was alright, I just didn't particularly care for it. The story didn't flow as well as I would like and the character development was clunky and forced.

Original Take On Urban Fantasy

This was an awesome original take on urban fantasy. Eli, a spell designer is out of the wastelands after what feels like 100 years to him but is considerably less to the outside world. He finds capitalism has taken over magic and people are selling spells to anyone who can afford them. He's disgusted and pretty independent so he wants to make his home in an alley but the world won't leave him alone. There's his old colleagues, people involved with the reason he was sent to the wastelands, and a busy body who won't take no for an answer on whether he needs help or food.

Eventually he gets sucked into conflict and has to rely on his knowledge of spells and being an actual magus to reluctantly figure things out and try to save the day from spells gone wrong. Also there's a reason it's called Dumpstermancer and that's pretty cool in my book.

The characters are great and entertaining with interesting personalities and in most cases some wrinkles to who they are that are not obvious on first glance and the narrator does a great job bringing this ensemble to life.

I received the review code for this audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this honest review.