The End Of Magic by Mark Stay

Two powerful mages. One steeped in privilege, the other bound by a moral code. Their world is thrown into chaos by the end of magic.

‘What will you do when the magic is gone?’Sander Bree is a royal mage. He lives an easy life advising the king on matters of court and politics, yet he still complains that he’s stuck in a rut.Rosheen Katell is a wandering mage and, with Anzu her griffin, she’s worked hard to build a reputation as a trustworthy truth seer. She never lies, never kills. Very soon, their magic will be gone. A cataclysmic event will change their lives and world forever. Sander must keep a promise that would have been difficult enough with magic, but is a suicide mission without it. Rosheen is forced to side with a murderous warlord, and her once-solid principles are tested and found wanting. Both will be set against one another in a war unlike anything the world has seen before, in this sweeping fantasy of magic’s ending.

A stand alone fantasy novel for fans of Joe Abercrombie and Scott Lynch.

Author Bio

Mark Stay co-wrote the screenplay for Robot Overlords which became a movie with Sir Ben Kingsley and Gillian Anderson, and premiered at the 58th London Film Festival. Author of the fantasy novel The End of Magic, he is also co-presenter of the Bestseller Experiment podcast and worked in bookselling and publishing for over twenty-five years. He lives in Kent, England, with his family and a trio of retired chickens. He blogs and humblebrags over at markstaywrites.com

Review

I don’t read a lot of fantasy novels but that is slowly and surely changing as novels like this one are winning me over. It was very easy to imagine this world and the characters in it, even from the first chapter. I loved this book and devoured it in one sitting! It just was a delight to read and a very interesting premise as well - the end of magic!

The pace of the story was really well balanced as it allowed you to form this world in your mind whilst carrying the narrative easily. The events were peppered throughout at convenient points and really made you want to carry on reading! I think the ending of this really lends itself to a series and I hope that is going to be the case as I would love to read more adventures with Rosheen, Oskar and Sander!

The characters were brilliant in this book and I particularly enjoyed the brutal Haldor, Malachy and Sander. Sander’s journey from royal Mage to a normal human was great. Oskar and Rosheen I am not too sure about. From the writing perspective they were brilliant but as a reader I don’t know whether to root for them yet, now or in further books (🤞). But then that’s just me being picky and not a reflection on the book at all!

This book just came at the right time for me. I’m just getting into this genre and I’m beginning to love it. This is why I love being part of this book community as it has allowed me to broadened the genres that I read and I am loving it! This is an excellent book. I really hope there is going to be more!

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