The Enchanter

I was a Harry Potter kid growing up, and despite falling out of love with the series for a wide variety of reasons, magic schools will always hold a special place in my heart. I also loved Shoenn Manga, and remember buying the newest Naruto books released to see what was happening during the Chūnin Exams. This has since transformed into an adult love of the Progression Fantasy genre, featuring readable prose, fun battles, and lots of power ups. There’ve been a couple good marriages between these two elements, and even a few with lots of queer rep (Arcane Ascension and Mage Errant both get a big shout out for this!), but Journals of Evander Tailor is by far my favorite. The Enchanter is the first book in the journey, and I’ll keep singing its praises as long as I can.

Elevator Pitch:
Evan is the human adoptive son of an elvish tailor. When he discovers that he has magic, albeit weakly, he decides to take the risk of attending an expensive university to broaden his future prospects. When he arrives, he discovers a system set up for nobility to succeed on the backs of commoners, strange eldritch creatures in the woods, and a desperate need to grow his power quickly and avoid being drafted into the military via flunking out.

What Worked for Me
Where to begin! I suppose my core love of this series is the magic. Evan walks the path of witches, who focus on preparation and rituals in exchange for less brute force. Evan in particular invests time in enchanting, and I found the book to be robust in how it approached item crafting in an easily digestible manner that was also interesting and complex. I was hooked by watching Evan’s journey as he learned and grew, and loved that the Begley was able to make preparation feel meaningful and important. Evan is very analytical, and I loved putting on my nerd hat and geeking out over the cool shit that was happening on the page.

I also want to shout out the romance subplot. While present, it very much takes a backseat to other aspects of the story and mostly skips any relationship drama you can think of. It is supportive, healthy, and resolves itself by the end of this book. It’s also free of explicit sex, which the author shared was an intentional choice to counterbalance the abundance of gay romance focused on spice over substance. There isn’t even ‘fade to black’ allusions of them having sex, and an asexual alloromantic reading of both Evan and Osheen is just as supported by the text as one where they are physically intimate offscreen.

Finally, the fight scenes are just fun. There aren’t a massive amount of them in this book, but they’re consistently engaging, feel tangibly different from each other. They also have stakes that feel meaningful and important to the plot and character developments happening. And there’s a tournament arc. Who doesn’t love a tournament arc?

This book is just a good time. Grab the popcorn and enjoy the ride.

What Didn’t Work for Me
I’ll start by saying that this book isn’t the pinnacle of ‘good writing’. It gets better, but the first 60-70 pages in particular feel like a bit of a mess. The pacing and prose improve – shifting to a style focusing on readability – but this book isn’t going to satisfy people who are looking for something that they’re going to have to chew on, or people who want to peel back layers of character to reflect on the human experience. I love all those things, but this book tickles an entirely different part of my brain.

In Conclusion: a light and fun magic school story for people who are interested in geeking out about the mechanics of enchanting

• Characters – 3
• Worldbuilding – 4
• Craft – 3
• Themes – 3
• Enjoyment – 5