I would like to thank Nazia from Orbit for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Orbit

Published – Out Now

Price – £20 hardback £9.99 Kindle eBook

In the glass city of Amoria, magic is everything. And Naila, student at the city's academy, is running out of time to prove she can control hers. If she fails, she'll be forced into exile . . . or consumed by her own power.

When a tragic incident threatens her place at the Academy, Naila is saved by Haelius Akana, the most powerful living mage. Haelius risks his reputation to help her to harness her abilities, but he has many enemies who desire him - and Naila - to fail. Trapped in the deadly schemes of Amoria's elite, Naila must discover the truth of her powers, or watch Amoria descend into civil war.

For there is danger brewing on the wind, and greater forces at work across the wider world. Forces who could use her powers for good . . . or destroy everything she's ever known.

In fantasy and storytelling in general I think you start to see certain types of stories echo through the years. There are countless tales of unexpected chosen ones, rebellions against mighty powers and people discovering they have hidden gifts. What makes fantasy though evolve is what each writer brings to the next version of the story. One of the best pleasures I can have in a book is when I think “Ah its one of those type of stories” and then the author surprises me. Such a feeling awaiting me in Annabel Campbell’s very promising and interesting fantasy novel The Outcast Mage which is both incredibly readable and by the end makes me very hungry to see what happens next.

Mages were once feared and persecuted, but they crossed the desert and built the glass domed city of Amoria. Mages were safe and even lived in harmony with the non-magical…for a while. Increasingly though tensions between the two groups are being felt socially and politically. Within the Mage’s Academy is their most unsuccessful student Naila, held back many years as although she has tested positive for magical ability appears to have absolutely no ability to perform it. Her teachers are ever plotting to finally remove her, and her fellow students see her as a Hollow Mage - a non-magical with no right to be there with the Mages. Unexpectedly though Naila crosses the path of the most powerful wizard in Amoria Haelius Akana who puts his own career on the line to teach her. But the many intrigues Amoria is brewing means student and teacher are soon in deadly danger and many ancient secrets are awaiting to be revealed.

Reading the first few chapters this can feel very familiar to fantasy readers. People with low magical ability in a world where magic exists plus a powerful mentor figure can have only one outcome but what impressed in Campbell’s tale is both the ways this changes that kind of story and it subtly morphs into a much bigger and more epic tale that really grabbed my interest and made me rapidly inhale the story.

The choice of core lead characters in the book is a good sign of this. We have Naila who pleasingly is not a chosen one. Campbell has created a character very much feeling an outsider and almost through her regular embarrassment and appalling treatment really out of confidence in herself and is on hyperalert for her next failure. She is incredibly sympathetic and yet doesn’t immediately go into hero mode within the story. She is quite key to the overall arc, but she isn’t a resistance leader, fighter or adventurer her reactions feel unusual natural and while she is here very much someone who knows life with mages and the non-Mages its her heart and kindness that pulls me along in the chapters focused on her.

With mentors we tend to expect the traditional older gruffer character and again Campbell pleasantly surprises us. Haelius is grumpy but more in his late thirties, arrogant but actually far more an active character too than say a wily Merlin figure on the sidelines offering advice and training montages. Campbell makes us see the similarities in the two that meant Haelius volunteers to help, but we also follow him in his other role as a Wizard which helps us explore more of Amoria’s problems and gets us involved in what looks like sabotage which is starting to break the city’s fraying social foundations even more. Pleasingly both these two characters while have a great bond make mistakes, argue and yet what works for me is this felt more an actual friendship rather than the traditional teacher/pupil, surrogate father/daughter pairings we may have seen in the past and I really liked how that develops and is something that I find quite rare in fantasy.

Campbell also has three other key characters to follow. There is Haelius’ friend Larinne a powerful Senator who finds her powers of persuasion not enough against the formidable and ambitious Oriven who wants Mages fully in charge. She has quite a more political than adventuring type role initially but must navigate exactly whose side is on. Two other unusual characters that have a growing role in the story are a priest from a neighbouring Empire named Entonin (an empire that pretty much outlawed Mages) who is not on secret missions but also is wonderfully human and his more taciturn bodyguard and not quite friend Karameth who has a dry sense of humour matched with a lot of pragmatism. All these characters start intersecting into the story and their arcs and development really hangs together so I enjoy when we move chapters to see the third person narration focus move onto their movements. Also stay tuned for lots of magic from battles to big powerful demonstrations of power which pleasingly has a cost for users – use magic too much and you are physically weakened for hours or even days so it is not an easy or overused out of jail key.

As Naila starts to understand what she is capable of is then Campbell start to also alter the type of story this novel is part of. This isn’t about Naila finally getting fair treatment from classmates this is an epic fantasy tale and as we explore the world, we start to see that what is outside Amoria is also quite key. This a world of feuding powers that very easily could go to war, it has ancient legends everyone has dismissed as myth and these are now all intersecting with the hotbed of conspiracy and sabotage that Haelius, Larinne and Naila start to get involved with. Two big magical set pieces unfold that have tragic impacts for the characters and the aftermaths of both turn things on their head and separate the cast. It’s a wonderful tonal change and each character is shocked how bad things have gotten so quickly. Campbell also throws in non-human species that are clearly going to have an even greater role in the story to come. What impresses me is that all of this is being delivered in a very readable flowing style that makes the story morph organically without long infodumps or too obvious plotting. I’ve a couple of issues more around the book’s antagonists. There is at the start a fascinating idea of a populist leader using social divisions to gain power and while its is explored the tale tends not to use Oriven that often and he doesn’t feel an even match for our heroes which I think would have really helped with the tension and to make things a bit more personal. I suspect though the book’s final acts have a plan for that in future…

The Outcast Mage is an incredibly readable fantasy novel that I found myself getting swept up into very quickly. Campbell is a really good storyteller delivering what is an increasingly complex world to us alongside some unusual character and delivering on lots of action and intrigue. Patience as the story sets itself up is rewarded as we go off into some more unusual directions which makes me intrigued where the wider series will take us. A very promising author to watch and I definitely am here for the rest of the series! It is highly recommended!