Great Worldbuilding. Dreadful Pacing.

Comparisons to the 'Kingkiller Chronicles' by Patrick Rothfuss are legitimate. L.E. Modesitt Jr. offers a tale about an artistic young man (apprentice Portrait Artist 'Rhennthyl') who discovers that he has magical talent and enters 'Collegium' training. The sociopolitical structure of his home country of Solidar is imaginative, the cultural traditions among the various castes and guilds are intriguing, and the role of magic in maintaining order (including plausibly-deniable assassination) is intuitive and loaded with potential conflict. Modesitt Jr. writes descriptively, has a firm grasp on realistic dialogue, and builds characters masterfully, but gets bogged down in logistics and minutiae. There are loooong discussions of politics, international trade considerations, and romantic courting conventions among the elite - but sketched-out magical combat that typically lasts a sentence or two at most. The author struggles to maintain attention once he's gotten it with innovative plotting.

As to presentation: I disagree with other reviewers. Tantor Audio did well to cast William Dufris to read the book. Admittedly, some of his voice-acting is cartoonish, and he breathes audibly, but he otherwise delivers the book commendably.

This first book of the 'Imager Portfolio' series rates 6.5 stars out of 10. As a 'Plus' selection, it was a fine distraction for a couple of quiet afternoons.. but spending a Credit on it would be questionable. I personally won't be continuing with the series - but I will try more from this author.

[NOTE: "Soleil" is a much better name for "Sunday" - the 7th day of the week - than "Dimanche"]

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Good story poor narration

Poor narration. Very breathy narration, he sometimes seemed to forget which voice he was using and was very annoying. I don't think I'll continue if the same narrator is doing the rest of imager. plus even in 5G service the story seemed to skip once I a while even when reqinding it skipped the same place several times.

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1 person found this helpful

Good idea for a fantasy, but way too much frills.

The MC was mostly ignored by his family until he became an imager. After that about a third of the book has him visiting his family where they constantly meddle in his life. Also, there is constant talk of marriage. It seems like the author cannot see coupling without marriage. The narrator helped to make the book even worse; it was hard for me to tell the characters apart.

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1 person found this helpful