Servant Mage by Kate Elliott

Publisher - Tor.com

Published - Out Now

Price - £15.99 paperback £7.95 Kindle eBook

In Kate Elliott's Servant Mage, a lowly fire mage finds herself entangled in an empire-spanning conspiracy on her way to discovering her true power.

They choose their laws to secure their power.

Fellian is a Lamplighter, able to provide illumination through magic. A group of rebel Monarchists free her from indentured servitude and take her on a journey to rescue trapped compatriots from an underground complex of mines.

Along the way they get caught up in a conspiracy to kill the latest royal child and wipe out the Monarchist movement for good.

But Fellian has more than just her Lamplighting skills up her sleeve...

With novellas we get reminded that we don’t always have to have endless huge volumes of pages to tell a story. You can create a world and tell one tale. In Kate Elliott’s impressive Servant Mage we get an exciting new world and go on a series of quests and witness magical feats and revelations that Lee the reader thoroughly entertained.

Fellian knows her place as a lowly servant working hard, using her Lamplighter power to simply light up the night sky for her owners or she faces death. That is what happened to her parents and she has no desire to go through that experience again. But a mysterious stranger buys her time and soon she realised she is actually with a group of rebels on a rescue mission. A group like her that wield elemental power. But Fellian soon finds her group diverted by a sign that finally it may be time for the rebellion to strike back.

I loved the ambition Elliott has in this story to create what could easily have been a trilogy-worth of plots and distils it to one fast paced adventure that also has some subtle interrogations of core ideas in SF. In this tale of magic wielders with elemental powers pitted against a fundamentalist group who hate magic we get a familiar idea but some lovely spins

By mixing groups of different skills we see their powers are enhanced. Fellian is on a fast learning curve and realised she is far more than simply a human lamp stand. The powers we witness are indeed mighty and varied but don’t overpower the story. Indeed the ruling groups here are many and ruthless. As we see what happens to Fellian’s family and learn how brutal they are to crack down on power they feel a tangible and dangerous opposition; one not afraid to sacrifice their own armies to gain advantages.

The topic of power is one I really enjoyed getting explored. Elliott subtly explores this world and how so often we just assume the rebel groups are always perfect. Indeed under the magnetic personality of the group’s Captain it’s refreshing to see Fellian treated as an equal but perhaps that’s just because she is useful? I like Fellian questioning her world and choices a lot.

In terms of adventure there is plenty of building set pieces. City escapes, chasing armies, disaster zones and even a treat to a magical dimensions filled with terrifying creatures. Elliott knows how to build and then let the story breathe as Fellian learns more about the world. No five volume slogs here just beat after beat. Getting it all through in less than 180 pages takes skill and my only issue was I wanted to see what happens next. But sometimes it’s good to leave that to the reader’s imagination.

Servant Mage was a huge amount of fun but created by skilled storytelling and was my first experience reading Elliott it will definitely not be my last! A huge amount of fun and well worth your time!