The Faded Land cover art

The Faded Land

A Progression Fantasy Epic (Keiran: The Eternal Mage Book 1)

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The Faded Land

By: D.E. Sherman
Narrated by: John Joseph Rogers, Rylee Kuberra
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About this listen

Keiran clawed his way from gutter rat to archmage in his first life.

His second was supposed to be easier...

Keiran of the Night Vale has staved off death for two thousand years. His mind and his magic remain as sharp as ever, but his body is old, worn out, and failing. What he needs is to reincarnate into a new, young body, and he bends his prodigious talents towards doing exactly that.

He awakens to find that he’s been reborn in a wasteland where mana has become a scarce resource. Even the internal mana generated by people is stolen away by those who rule them. And without mana, he’s no longer a mage.

It will take more than that to stop Keiran. With each passing week, he regains more of his old strength, but can he keep his secrets safely hidden? Standing in his way is his new home’s cult-like nightly mana tithing, a governor with deadly secrets, and a monster-ridden desert.

It's a deadly scramble to claim the mana he so desperately needs to survive, but Keiran didn’t become an archmage by accident.

He’s willing to use every dirty trick and tactic he knows to get there again.

©2024 D.E. Sherman (P)2024 Royal Guard Publishing LLC Dragons & Mythical Creatures Epic Fantasy Sword & Sorcery Magic Users Wizardry

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The story isn't unique, it follows similar plots where the MC is reborn in a fantasy world and has some slow but catchy progression. The narration isn't bad, but it's impossible to distinguish between the exposition(in some places), internal thoughts of the character and dialog between characters.

I'm just finishing book 3 but I'm gonna stop here for now. The action got a bit repetitive and I can already see from the cover of book 4 how the story will progress.

interesting

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Great story, good character building and the world is interesting but need more in book 2

Next please

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basically it's like have you ever completed a game fully maxed out everything well this is like that except he gets to go back and do it again but this time he knows all the shortcuts

Great character building overpowered mc

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its not a masterpiece, and it certainly has its flaws, but its got a lot of reasons to read it. the basics are all solid, decent character work, solid prose, adequate dialogue and pacing. its main flaws lie in the way it manages set up and payoff and the general lack of tension involved. a lot of the later books read a bit like an interesting chess game being recounted by someone that knows how to explain chess well, so if you interested in magical problem solving this is good for that. the world building is good, though the world after the book seems significantly more interesting than that one we got, which to be fair is the point. the first book is the strongest, and the second one is good as well, I recommend leaving it at that if watching an arch mage build up his strength from nothing over the course of a series is your main draw as that's where the main progression happens, after that its pretty much all late game, with a new main villain to replace the arguably more interesting villain of the first two books.
the main character is evil aligned, which is common in this subgenre, but he's on the better end, I recommend this book over something like speed running the multiverse because of how much more likeable the main character is, but its over all less well handled than something like legend of the arch magus.
the main problem with this series is that there is an over all lack of fun little moments to keep you engaged after the first two books, since the stakes aren't all that high through most of it, or at least they don't feel particularly high, especially after the second book, the first two are better in that regard as well. but it excels at the "person with no resources must use his superior knowledge to win against people who are the opposite" hook, especially in the first two books
if this is the author's first siries, then I am certainly interested what they do in future since if this is the worst they can do, I expect great things. I also massively respect him for replacing the place holder AI art piece that was the cover of the first book once he had the chance later on.

Final review after finishing the series

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I'm leaving this review while I'm starting chapter 30. I've been enjoying it, it's a fun listen. The VAs are very good. My only problem is that the there's too much emphasis on mana cost for everything it's gotten so old and it's kinda annoying.

The MC being 3 years old physically and doing all this wonderous stuff is really jarring. As I haven't finished it yet, I'm hoping for a time skip.

My Manaaa

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Great plot, great VA, pragmatic lead. Maim character makes sensible decisions and isn't to emotional which makes sense since he's eons old.

Good Protagonist

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A solid book with an interesting take on magic. The mc is interesting and the world building is good. However, it did take a while to start, it’s almost like this entire book could have been considered down to a couple hours. Nevertheless, I did still very much enjoy this book. I hope the next one can pick up the momentum.

Solid although slow to start

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Man in a toddler’s body and the, people’s stubbornness are a bit roughly thought out, but otherwise it’s a story. I would listen the next book for sure.

Mc overanalysing

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I really enjoyed this and I'm looking forward to next book, worth trying if your into the all powerful protagonist getting constantly underestimated.

Great story

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I like stories like this and hope to see more in the future. can not wait for the second book. 5 stars

amazing

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