Mini-Review Monday: Breaking Magic

Breaking Magic
By Alex C. Vick
Series: The Legacy of Androva #5
Paperback: 330 pages
Publication Date: April 26, 2017
Publisher: Createspace / Self-published
My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ✰ ( 4 out of 5 Stars )

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Categories: Magic, Fantasy, Review Copy

Callax is fifteen, and he already knows he won't ever grow old. Twelve years after leaving the childstation he will be summoned to the Gathering, where life essences are taken by a deadly, irresistible spell. On his world, this is one of the many ways in which the Exta serve the Opta. His best hope is to avoid an early binding by staying out of trouble.

But in protecting his younger brother Benedar, he was noticed by the Breaker, the evil magician in charge of the Gathering. The closer Callax gets to the ruling house and the girl who lives there, the more he learns, and the greater the danger. A danger he might not understand until it is too late. Callax thinks the Breaker’s defeat will save him, but he is wrong.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review.
Cal is just like every other child on Imbera. Young, enslaved, and doomed to die by the ripe old age of 18. There are two types of people in this world; Opta who are the masters, and Exta who are the slaves. Exta are required to live their lives working for their masters, and when they turn 18, they will be tortured and sacrificed to them. That is their life and they have all accepted their fate.

The beginning of it all was completely unremarkable. My life-giver was an ordinary Breeder. I don't remember her, obviously. She was long gone before I was old enough for the first memory to stick in my head.

It is a disgusting, horrible world that made me angry. Imbera reminded me a lot of Red Queen and the struggle between Reds and Silvers. I found myself unable to put this book down as the story progressed.

Cal is a wonderfully written character. The reader gets to witness his struggle to trust himself, and when he finds that he remembers details of a life he has never lived, trust becomes hard to come by. His skills as a Worker and the memories he recovers from another life are enough to make the Opta question him. But it just might be enough to stop them as well..

I really enjoyed this story. The world was cruel, but the author managed to hold my interest. The Opta were basically a bunch of power hungry assholes, and the Exta weren't able to fight them because they had no magic of their own. I hate bullies, and this story was full of them. I wanted to see them go down, dammit! I wanted to witness the weak overpower the strong. For the youngsters to stomp on their ashes and all that..

Why Opta and Exta? He shrugged. Optimum is best, of course. The rest are just Extracts. Pieces and fragments to do with as we wish.

The ending was anti-climatic though. I wanted revenge! I don't want to give any spoilers for the book, but dang. I needed more than that to satiate my anger! Other than that, I really did enjoy this story. I would love to dive back into the world of Androva with the other four books in the series. Thank you so much, Miss Alex C. Vick for the opportunity to read your haunting and beautifully written world. <3

About Alex C. Vick

This is me (probably stating the obvious). I'm the author. I've written four books about the Legacy of Androva so far. Book five will be released on May 1st 2017, and I've already started work on book six! The stories are contemporary fantasy, aimed at lower YA / upper middle grade, and I hope that they can be enjoyed by adults too.

Ever since I was old enough to figure out there was probably no such thing as magic, I always (secretly!) hoped that it was some kind of mistake. Surely it must exist somewhere? Eventually I decided it must have been lost or forgotten somehow. And that's where the idea for Stealing Magic (the first book) came from.

I live in the South of England with my husband and two daughters. When I'm not at work, or writing about magic, I also enjoy reading and photography.