To Play with Magic Audiobook By Draith cover art

To Play with Magic

The Forerunner Initiative, Book 1

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To Play with Magic

By: Draith
Narrated by: Andrea Emmes
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Buy for $24.09

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"With a onesie, and the ability to stop time, anything is possible."

Dragons, catgirls, guns, and magic—oh, and the ability to stop time. What more could a modern gal want?

Well... If my past would stay locked in a dark corner back on Earth, that'd be nice.

Right, there was that one other thing: finding a way home before the world ends. But hey, that's what my mom would call the last step in your five-year plan.

The first? Play with magic.

©2023 Draith aka D. F. Kirtzinger (P)2023 Podium Audio Action & Adventure Magic Fantasy Fiction Epic Fantasy Epic Dragons & Mythical Creatures Mythology
Interesting Characters • Unique Magic System • Engaging Progression Fantasy • Well-designed World • Entertaining Humor

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I read this initially on Royal Road, and am currently on book 6. If it wasn't obvious based off my progress in the series, this is among my favorite series I have listened to, leading to me purchasing the book to support the author, and to hear what voices the narrator would use for the cast.
While there were a few flaws in the Audio version, they were all minor enough to not be noticable for most people who aren't utterly obsessed. (Roberts's Matrix Resource accidentally being called Umbra rather than Reprieve)
As for the story it's self, it is a slow burn Progression Fantasy through a well designed world. Most pieces of world building are well placed and integrated into the pacing well, and are fairly logical in their design. The slow pace however, does mean that the story develops pretty slowly, though there's still progression and action, there's just additional focus on the moments of downtime, compared to other LitRPG authors.
My only real complaint, is in regards to the System, as the Forerunners are antagonistic towards the system, but it's not specifically noted what their grievances are. There are some subtle hints as to whats wrong with the System, most notably birth control but I feel that's a fair exchange for immortality, and the System only seems to use it to prevent overpopulation.
The characters are well designed, if a tad flat in the early books, and Alexis' sense of humor is hilarious. Which is quite entertaining, seeing as the book is written as though it was Alexis telling the story herself. Also, Smoulder is absolutely adorable, and is definitely the best Doom-Bunny.

Read it on Royal Road

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It is entirely possible this is a good series. Listening to book one is not the way to find that out. Andrea Emmes does a good job but there is only about three hours of plot in this book. The rest is explaining the system and increasing stats. I’m going to give book two a shot and see if that changes.

Three quarters set up

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This is a very promising start to a series. The story is emotionally, rich, as well as having decently developed characters. The path to progression is a little bit complicated… But not overly so. As long as you pay attention and have a reasonably decent memory, you’ll pick it up quickly. The one problem that I have with the story is that while on her own, Alexis does pretty well… However, when she returns to her companions, she pretty much immediately falls into the people pleasing role. I hope this trend doesn’t continue in future books, or at least gets broken by her. She is an amazing and dynamic character.

Promising start!

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I was looking for something to listen to. Between other books. This wasn’t terrible. There was a lot of explanation. But, it was necessary. To make sense of what was going on. So, it was ok. Some of it was actually kinda cool. It’s definitely a “beginning of the story” book. I’ll keep going. It left me interested in what happens next!

It was good.

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Story is interesting but the main character is annoying, immature, and has some disfunction from her past effecting her present. Also the narrator’s voice for the main character is also not appealing.

Story is Interesting

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