The Aegis of Merlin Omnibus Vol. 1

By: James E. Wisher

Narrated by: Joe Hempel

Conryu has his life all figured out.

At least until the final day of school arrives and with it the annual wizard's test.

When Conryu passes the test, no one can believe it since everyone knows boys can't do magic.

Suddenly thrust into a world of magic and danger, Conryu must figure out how to use his news powers and quickly.

He soon finds himself on the run from a mad religious cult and hunted by a group of wizards that view a man wielding magic as the worst abomination imaginable. When his home city is taken hostage by the sinister Lady Raven, Conryu is the only one that can save the day.

Can Conryu master his magic before it's too late?

©2017 James E. Wisher (P)2020 Tantor

Fantastic!!

Great read and listen, the story was well written and the narrator was very good. I cannot wait until the next series.

Interesting new magical world

The world the author builds and the magic system inside, were my favorite parts of this omnibus. The tone was sort of a grown up Harry Potter, with a magical college instead of a high school. It really sparked my imagination. The story was engaging and characters were all interesting. The writing and narration were both good. There was a light harem element to it, but the author did a good job of managing it and there was nothing I found offensive. The only down side for me was that for such short books there was much time spent developing side characters. I would have liked to have seen more time devoted to the main character, but that's more a matter of personal taste. For some people having many different personal stories to follow might be a plus.

great series

I really enjoyed listening to this. can't wait for the next set. It was a lot of fun to listen to.

Much better than I thought it would be

James E. Wisher crafts a story around a parallel Earth world where magic is a thing. The twist being that only females were able to wield it, until a reluctant teenager named, Conryu Koda, surfaces and shown to have the highest magic capacity ever recorded; albeit, unskilled at wielding it. What follows is that a secret cult, considering him an abomination, is out to destroy him and he needs to find ways to avoid all the ever-deadly assassination attempts on his life. There is much more to the story than that, involving other secondary characters with separate sub-plots and intrigues.

The story progression steadily moves forward with the MC acquiring additional skills evenly and not all at once and he is dependent on the assistance of other female magicians to thwart the attacks from the cult. This allows for listener investment in the other cast of characters.

There is an obvious near soft-porn element to the story, what with him being the only male and with the strongest magic potential and the author lightly touches on that aspect throughout the telling but never quite crosses the line into harem territory.

The MC's childhood sweetheart, Maria, has an intermediate magical ability and, unfortunately, moves from a 2nd tier character to a pitiable one, almost being relegated to a 3rd tier role.

Joe Hempel's performance was very good at ably distinguishing the voices of the variety of characters and making for a good listening experience.

In all, this Vol. 1 of the Omibus was entertaining and I plan to purchase Vol. 2.

Excellent job 👏

this was one of my favorites. I really enjoyed the intro into this universe and the characters I felt like I was apart of the story and I love conryu like a brother. I look forward to exploring the rest of the series. 10/10

A well written Young Adult story.

Firstly I purchased book One and a month later the omnibus was offered this is definitely the way to go.
We are all young at heart, and these stories fulfill that need. Each leads to the next but are also stand alone books.
There's prejudice, evil people, irritating people, good demons and bad demons. Really something for every one. Most importantly it is a fun and engaging Audible that is hard to put down.
Joe Hemple was a good choice for narration. He has a fairly wide range of voices and dialects. So I am looking forward to seeing him in the next release in this series. Hopefully the Omnibus with 5 through 8.
So for me this is a full five stars.

C Wright.
Somewhere in the hills of Northern California.

Review

Overall this audiobooks were pretty good for the price I was given. Individually it’s not worth getting but as a bundle package it’s definitely worth your time.

Excellent

Overall really enjoyable read, world building was clearly visualized, intriguing plot lines and strong appealing main / side characters. Good narrator, able to shift his voice accordingly and avoided sounding the same throughout.

Great characters

Loved the narration and was a fun read that kept me engaged. As the books continue I like that the author goes deeper into the lore of the universe.

Great work

Very well done, I fully enjoyed this series. I really hope for more to come in the future!