Book picks similar to
Death Mage's Ascent by Jonathan Bender
fantasy
magic
mc-magic-user
needs_shelving
The Fifth Vertex
Kevin Hoffman - 2014
His failed attempt at suicide unlocks within him a long-dormant form of magic thought to have died out thousands of years before, a power that may be the key to saving the world from an equally ancient enemy. Urus and his companions--Goodwyn, the greatest warrior in Kest, and Cailix, a mysterious orphan--must find a way to stop a powerful group of sorcerers from destroying the five long-hidden vertices that ward the world against threats from beyond, while fighting off threats from within. They soon learn that the scope of the coming danger may be more dire than any of them could have imagined. As the battle for the vertices spreads to the neighboring realms, Goodwyn must face the realities of war and death; Cailix discovers a devastating truth that could change everything; and Urus discovers his uncanny gifts and courage as he peels away clues to his true identity. But even as Urus gains the power he has always craved, he experiences it all in profound, lonely silence.
The Master's Chair
Mackenzie Morgan - 2010
Long ago, magical and non-magical creatures lived together in harmony on both worlds, but as life on Earth evolved in the direction of science and technology, the use of magic deteriorated and soon magical creatures and sorcerers became the subject of myths and legends.Meanwhile magic flourished on Terah, and as sorcerers became more powerful, they became more influential, and soon they were the heads of government. The Council of Sorcerers became the ruling body, with the chairman, the Master Sorcerer, the highest position on Terah, a position that comes with tremendous responsibility and formidable enemies.When Master Sorcerer Badec realizes that his unborn son, Myron, will be his one and only heir, he protects the child by arranging for him to grow up on Earth. Myron is scheduled to be returned to Terah on his twenty-fifth birthday, at which time he’ll learn who he is and begin to study magic as well as everything else he’ll need to know in order to assume his role as Terah's next Master Sorcerer.For twenty-three years, things go as planned, and Myron goes about his life as Kevin, a typical nerd, who is more comfortable with computers than with people. Then Badec becomes quite ill and the decision is made to bring his son home early. One morning Kevin is an accountant living and working in Omaha, and the next he is in the middle of a field with six complete strangers, surrounded by huge stones and a forest. Before the day is out, Kevin learns that he is actually a sorcerer named Myron and that he’s next in line for the Master’s Chair. While he’s still reeling from that bit of information, he finds out that due to his father’s illness, he has a little less than one year to learn enough about sorcery to be able to defend his life and chair against sorcerers who have been practicing their craft longer than he’s been alive.Welcome to Terah.
Builder
P.S. Power - 2012
The son of a baker from the deep woods, who was granted a special scholarship from the king to study magic. Only, the world of nobility and intrigue is never that clean or easy. Nothing is done without a reason. Not even an innocent boy from humble beginnings can escape the plots and back stabbing of those who seek his undoing. Worse, the plotting he’s involved in comes from a time before he was even born. Only the most powerful of wizards can even hope to figure out what’s going on in time. Simply knowing that might not be enough to save him.
Rebel Elements
Jasmine Giacomo - 2013
While Philo tracks down its true importance through ancient archives and noble manors, Bayan struggles to fit in at the Academy, where his anger at his situation gets him into as much trouble as his outlander appearance. Worse, his rage poisons his magic, making him a threat to his hexmates.Bayan's dreams of escape begin to fade as he forms bonds of friendship. But when an assassin strikes close to home, a chain of events is set in motion, leading Bayan and Philo to uncover a deadly plot that could change the world as they know it. Bayan's fate stands at a crossroads: one path leads to the destruction of all he has come to know, and the other to his own.
Grishma
Kelly Anne Blount - 2013
His simple world was turned upside down one horrible night when Grishma attacked his family, killing his father and kidnapping his mother and younger sister.From that night on, Ryder devoted his life to killing Grishma. He tracked the monster from Necoh, to our world, and back again. Unfortunately, during his quest, he accidentally transported Brooklyn, a high school junior into his tumultuous world, where she is mistakenly identified as Princess Sophie, the missing princess of Sumner.Days after Princess Sophie’s return, Grishma plots and manipulates the King into drugging and marrying off his only daughter to Prince Algid of Dratun. Desperate to save Brooklyn, who now believes she is the long lost princess, his mother, and his little sister, Ryder embarks on the deadliest part of his quest.Will he save Brooklyn? Will she ever regain her memory? What will become of his mother and sister?Through epic adventure, loss, and love, GRISHMA depicts the strength of the human spirit and the tight bonds formed by the unique creatures of Necoh.
Set in Stone
Frank Morin - 2015
Connor's not that smart. He manages to get caught in the middle of the escalating conflict. Worse, he learns his curse is the rarest of powers, the Blood of the Tallan, and both sides will do anything to control it and secure his loyalty. Connor is fast, but even he can't outrun this avalanche.Truths are sacrificed, loyalties are sundered, and dangerous girls twist his heart into knots.That's when things get complicated.While his friends try to free the village under siege, Connor peels back layers of intrigue and half-truths to find secrets neither side wants him to know. Surrounded by deadly enemies that all claim to be his friends, Connor must choose a course with the lives of everyone he loves hanging in the balance.His only hope is to gamble everything on a curse that could destroy them all unless his final choice is Set in Stone.
Fire & Ice
Patty Jansen - 2011
Most citizens are immune to it, but a few, always born with physical disabilities, can bend it to their will. For fifty years, the ruling Eagle Knights, who fly on the back of giant birds, have killed these Imperfects, fearing the return of the old royal family, who used icefire to cut out people's hearts, turning them into ghostly servitors. The old king's grandson Tandor only sees the good things icefire brought: power and technology now forgotten while the people of the south live in dire poverty. He's had enough of seeing his fellow kinsfolk slaughtered by ignorant Knights, of Imperfect babies being abandoned on the ice floes to be eaten by wild animals. His grandfather's diary tells him how to increase the beat of the Heart the first step to making the land glorious once more. Arrogant as he is, he sets the machine in motion. All he needs is an army of Imperfect servitors to control the resulting power.Isandor is Imperfect, an ex-Knight apprentice, betrayed by his best friend and running for his life. The queen Jevaithi is Imperfect, living like a prisoner amidst leering Knights, surviving only because the common people would rebel if their beloved queen were harmed. Both are young and desperate and should be grateful that Tandor wants to rescue them from their hopeless situations. Or so he thinks. The youngsters, however, have no inclination to become heartless ghosts, but while they defy Tandor, the Heart beats, and he alone cannot control its power.
Wizard in a Witchy World
Jamie McFarlane - 2016
But when a chance encounter with a beautiful witch, Gabriella, sparks a vision of her demise at the hand of a werewolf, he knows he must act. To make matters worse, his vision reveals feelings he has for this woman he's only seen from afar and in that moment his life is changed forever. Trouble has been brewing in sleepy Leotown, but explodes when Felix witnesses the gruesome murder of Gabriella’s coven leader and ends up number one on a short list of suspects. It's a poor start to their relationship when Gabriella and her coven sisters attack Felix while looking for answers. With her foot literally on his chest, Felix begins to doubt what he felt in his vision - that is - until the werewolves actually show up. Wizard in a Witchy World is the first book in the Witchy World series – an urban fantasy, paranormal fairy tale.
Union of Renegades
Tracy Falbe - 2006
He is the first to join the powerful rys spellcaster Shan, whose race possesses magical powers and whose Queen Onja rules many human kingdoms as their Goddess. The wickedness and tyranny of Onja disgust Shan and he desires to seize the rys throne from her. The third renegade is Miranda. After escaping from her abusive slave master, she becomes a crucial player in Shan's bid for power. To weaken Onja, Shan raises rebellion among her human subjects and gathers allies to his cause. Shan demonstrates his magic in battle and convinces his followers that the fearsome rys Queen can be overthrown. For over two thousand years Onja has ruled, but now, not even fear of her ability to enslave souls will stop her ambitious enemies.
Provenance
Kristopher Cruz - 2013
Born the night that the Archmagus Valeria died, Endrance was gifted with the talent and mind for magic. He'd proven that he was more than capable of mastering the forces of magic and intellectual study at the hands of a master as mad as he was crafty. He was one of the Scribed, mages who had undergone a painful yet powerful ritual that granted them the ability to tattoo spells upon their very skin.He had finally proven himself to his master, and was free to practice magic at his own pace. If that were all fate had in store for him, he would have been happy. However fate wanted more of this man's potential than a lifetime of quiet study.Instead, he was appointed the Spengur of Balator, a country radically different from his own. He would face an entire city of people that prized physical might and shunned the mystic. There he would meet staunch allies, and dangerous foes. There, he could change the world, if he could only survive.It is through the fires of strife that a person is melted down into the core of who they really are, and fate has stoked the flames white hot. Can he survive the blaze? And even more importantly, who will he be if he emerges from the other side?
An Oath of the Blood
Valerie Zambito - 2011
You fight, because the blood oath will have it no other way. In An Oath of the Blood, readers are introduced to four young, but powerful elemental shifters, living in the exiled land of Pyraan. When an enemy host breaches the island's shores, a deadly confrontation ensues and, despite the heroic and poignant efforts of the shifters, the land falls to the invaders. As the only survivors, the four friends are forced to flee south into the lands from which they were banished to warn of the invasion. Heartbroken and weary, the shifters soon learn that the safe haven they hoped to find is cloaked in danger. Throughout a journey fraught with magic, prophesy, betrayal, and peril, an enduring friendship prevails, love blossoms, and a riveting saga unravels.
A Prison of Worlds
Daniel Ruth - 2014
Not that he has anything against humans, after all, some of his best friends were human, however, it's just not for him. Now thrown out of his own reality he has to find a way to break his bindings and find a way home. Although he is an accomplished psychic Derek realizes that perhaps this may be the wrong skill set to bring to bear on ancient magics and devilish dragons. Now he has to explore the very building blocks of magic to take control of his destiny. Unexpectedly, while he's taking control, events occur that may lead to the end of the world as we know it. Mad mages, hordes of demons and unfortunate explosions follow him as he attempts to save the world. Which begs the question, what does happen after the apocalypse?
Heroes Die
Matthew Woodring Stover - 1998
He is relentless, unstoppable, simply the best there is at what he does.At home on Earth, Caine is Hari Michaelson, a superstar whose adventures in Ankhana command an audience of billions. Yet he is shackled by a rigid caste society, bound to ignore the grim fact that he kills men on a far-off world for the entertainment of his own planet--and bound to keep his rage in check.But now Michaelson has crossed the line. His estranged wife, Pallas Rill, has mysteriously disappeared in the slums of Ankhana. To save her, he must confront the greatest challenge of his life: a lethal game of cat and mouse with the most treacherous rulers of two worlds...
Take the Body And Give Me The Rest
Julius Schenk - 2015
He could feels the man's life force, his memories, his talents and hard won skills filling his own mind and body and turning him into something much more than the lowly soldier he'd been just mere moments before.
Dun Lady's Jess
Doranna Durgin - 1994
Together they race across rugged territories with the spell manuscripts no one else dares to carry, handling secrets with the potential to destroy worlds.That is, until a treacherous wizard rips Lady and Carey apart in mid-run, tossing them across realities and turning Lady into Jess—a woman of fiery equine spirit and unyielding intent learning to be human in a new land called Ohio.But Jess and Carey weren’t the only ones to tumble between worlds, and they aren’t the only ones looking for a way back. They definitely aren’t the only ones who want that deadly spell manuscript. And ultimately, only Jess—separated from the one person she trusts, flung into a new human form and culture—has the means to bring two worlds together and stop a wizard run amuck.That is, if anyone can…