Best New Fantasy Novel 2012 – Book Review: The Galactic Mage
The Galactic Mage is the debut novel by long-time satirist and humor writer John Daulton. Frankly, it is a triumph for fantasy fans and sci-fi lovers as it represents something new and interesting to read in genres that could use some fresh air. This is especially true in the wake of so many popular series coming to recent ends (like the Harry Potter series) and others being worn out from replay caused by the absence of enough new and good series to fill the void (like Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica). Readers in both genres looking for something new are in for a treat. The Galactic Mage is both a science fiction work and a fantasy work, and the author has blended the two genres in a way that is believable and compelling, which is why I believe it surely should make anyone’s list for best new fantasy novels in 2012.
Check out: The Galactic Mage video trailer
Avialable for paperback and Kindle at Amazon.com
Before going further, however, I should, in the name of full disclosure, point out that John Daulton is actually me, and this review is mainly a function of my wish to help people find my fantasy novel from amongst the massive sea of books available on Amazon, Kindle and Nook. There is so much competition out there, one must take matters into one’s own hands these days, which is why I have no compunction about writing my own review—particularly in that I am confessing my sin so readily. That said, this is still a legitimate book review, and as such, it still stands as completely true, and, aside from anything that may be inadvertently bias, the real point is to help spread the word about the story and to do so in keeping with all the essential practices of a modern, search-engine driven selling universe in which brick-and-mortar publishing lies moribund in a roadside ditch waiting only for Amazon to decide it’s time to strike the killing blow.
Analyzing the Best New Fantasy Novel 2012
The basic plot (no worries, no spoiler coming… the video trailer tells this much), is two-fold: the first plot line—the main one, arguably—follows the journey of main character Altin Meade from a planet called Prosperion, while the second plot line follows Ensign Orli Pewter from planet Earth.
Altin Meade’s planet, Prosperion, operates on a parallel to present day Earth but substituting magic for electricity in a way that enables a reader to easily make comparisons. The world is believable and meant to be taken as a reality possible in the universe, underpinned by science that wont’ be disclosed until book three, and I took great care to render it that way. It doesn’t matter why it works if it’s believable. Each reader will have to decide how effective that is in the end, but I promise my effort is not slapdash.
Altin Meade has two primary problems in the story, the first being what is referred to as his being a “Six,” which is a function of the magic of Prosperion. I admit that for some, this concept may be confusing in the early stages of the story, and more than one of my test readers confessed that the illustration at the front titled “The Magic Schools of Prosperion” was useful in helping to figure this out. That said, I think that, even without the illustration, by the time the Six idea is vital to the story, readers will have perfect command of it. I will argue that the experience is made enjoyable by the story’s unwillingness to simply go into long litanies of how magic functions on Prosperion… the type of narrative explanation that is painful in other magic-based works I have read and the reason why I so carefully avoided perpetrating that on my readers.
Altin Meade’s second, and primary, problem is that he attempts to discover the magical techniques that will enable space travel. Frankly, The Galactic Mage has some formative roots in a movie from ten or so years back, October Skies, where a young Jake Gyllenhaal seeks to develop rocketry. While different on pretty much all fronts, there are some parallels that are both amusing and delightful—at least I think so, and I confess to possibly showing bias there, so take that last part for whatever it is worth.
The story’s other primary character, Ensign Orli Pewter of planet Earth, has another problem, and hers is that she’s been on her space ship for more than half her life, brought on board as a child of twelve. Her ship is under attack from aliens who seek to wipe out all of humanity, and who have, in fact, wiped out a race of humans on another world before the story began (you find that out immediately after Orli’s character is introduced, so I’m not spoiling anything… plus it’s in the video, as you may have already seen).
So, without going any further into the plot than to say that Altin’s problem with being a Six works out to something of a curse, because sorcerers with that Six-thing always die. He’s also got a problem because magicians who have tried traveling in space before always die too. Literally all of them, in all of history. All dead. So, there’s a great deal of dying looming for Altin Meade and his goal. For Orli Pewter, the fact that the Hostile aliens are trying to kill all the humans they meet is an equally deadly problem, especially given how good they are at it.
That’s where the story begins.
The Galactic Mage, which I like to think of as the best new fantasy novel of 2012, or that at very least could prove to be the best new fantasy novel of 2012 with some luck and support from fans who will share it on Facebook and do that sort of thing, is a fun mix of two genres that is written for people who like escapist fiction, who enjoy tales of adventure that live in a morally centered universe without being didactic, and who fancy books that have covers with really hot chicks and epic-looking dragons on them.
I hope nobody feels ill-used by this review, as it is honest, and it does have all the right keywords in it to help me on my way to ranking for terms like “The Galactic Mage review” and, of course, the highly valuable term “best new fantasy novel 2012” that I carefully placed in the url and title at the top to help me achieve victory over search engine spiders just as Sam did Shelob in another epic Fantasy tale, that everyone knows, The Lord of the Rings. I must admit to finding it nearly as amusing to put my book in the same context as that great work of fantasy, while, in truth, merely at this point working the SEO system entirely in this whole paragraph. My few friends who fancy that sort of enterprise are either laughing now or will scroll up a few lines and begin to. Yet, I, unlike most evil SEO manipulators, am not being deceitful at all. In fact, you see into my very heart as you read this, knowing well the implications of why I am doing this, and, hopefully, you can grin with me as I, the proverbial little guy, try to game the big-boys at Google and the rest, into raising this book review to the top of any search looking for fantasy and science fiction books to read.
Please go watch my book video if you haven’t yet. Buy my book if it sounds good. Write a review on Amazon if you like it.
Thanks.
More Information on The Galactic Mage
- The Girlie Geek Blog - Exclusive pre-release book review
The Girlie Geek blog, with special focus on all things Anime, Cosplay, Games, Fashion, Girly Geek Stuff & More, had exclusive pre release review rights. Have a look at her review if this one wasn't impartial enough for you to base buying decision - The Galactic Mage novel page on Facebook
The official Galactic Mage Facebook page. Come have peek. Click over, click LIKE, enjoy! (Plus, stay tuned for information on the sequel, Rift in the Races). - The Galactic Mage webpage
Link goes straight to the book homepage on my website DaultonBooks.com. Have a look, grab a copy, or check out the blog and other things happening on the site. If you like fantasy, science fiction, contemporary fiction or just like writing websites.