Outlier Mage 2: Darvist

Outlier Mage, Book 2

By: Ken Pence

Narrated by: Greg D. Barnett

Baron Lee and Lady Bala are headed to Denshu, his gift from the King.

There is an imposter mage who has taken over his province and he must woo the residents to support him while taking down the imposter. The town is seventeenth century in most of its infrastructure and trade. Lee knows the new king put his strongest mages in the southernmost town in the kingdom—adjacent to Darvist. Lee knows the King plans to abscond with the remainder of the huge loan it had obtained from Darvist and Lee's 'gift' of nobility and the Denshu province was to give the king time to get away from a follow-up invasion.

Lee has to upgrade the town and raise the standards of the people he has come to respect before they can assist him. He is experimenting with the two portals he confiscated during the last invasion to see if he can stop the next attack or give him the means to respond. He thinks he has some of the keys to using the magic in portals since he can't do it with twenty-fourth century electronics. He is mastering the ability to create matter from the zero-point mana energy he can produce. This nearly inexhaustible supply of mana may give him the means if he can learn to control it and teach his closest associates. Anna is staying by his side now and the town has become accustomed to her presence but she has limited powers. Bala is training the townspeople with magical abilities to support the defense of the town.

©2024 Ken R Pence (P)2025 Podium Audio

Meh

If the review read like the book:

The story goes nowhere . The character ‘growth’ is slow. It is also painful. You listen to the author read. He reads with accents. The accents are confusing. Is that a French accent? Or is it German? Or is it Russian? I am so distracted. Is the AI Anna going to get assaulted? Yes, we get the elf girl form is hot.

I’m sure the point is made. Honestly, I don’t dislike the plot but I feel that a good 5th grade English teacher would do wonders for the flow and dialogue to make it sound less robotic and childish (or like a “learn to read” book). End of the day, I listened all the way through to give it a chance, but it isn’t worth the credit. Lots of other great reads out there in the genre - this may just be one that you read the old fashioned way.

That was boring

The protagonist feels to powerful, at the same time i feel like the things he does would have some crazy consequences if it was done in a real world. And it seems arbitrary how he treats people, if i was a common powerless person i would fear for my life if he was close.

Great series and very good narration

I loved this authors “Lux” series, and this offshoot of that series has magic added to the excellent tech which this author usually provides. You get some bad bad guys and a straying girlfriend plus lots of action. As usual, the hero doesn’t find too many challenges that he and his companions can’t handle. Always a fun read from this writer, and I enjoyed this narrator even more than the “Lux” series narrator. I continue to recommend this authors works, and his yet to let me down. I bought the Kindle book 1st and later found that my wife enjoys, listening to these audible versions.