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Brian S Pratt

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The Unsuspecting Mage (The Morcyth Saga Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Brian S. Pratt (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.2 2,086 ratings

Book 1 of 7: The Morcyth Saga

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“Want to be a mage? Then do we have the job for you…”

Sounded great for a veteran role-player. When on-the-job training entailed battling demons, learning magic through trial and error, and living in a world without toilet paper, things could get rough. But to be dropped in the middle of a forest and having to do it on your own with no instruction…welcome to James’ world.

It all gets started when his grandfather suggested to James, a young man on the verge of graduating high school, that he check out the following advertisement for a job.

“Magic! Real Magic! Ever wanted to learn? We require someone with intelligence and a disciplined mind. Those well versed in fantasy novels and role playing games a plus. May need to travel.”

Sounded like the perfect job for a veteran role-player and avid fantasy reader. James had no idea he’d be whisked to another world, completely cut off from friends and family. Arriving in a meadow in the middle of a forest, he’s greeted by a creature not entirely human. He was then told three things:

Magic works here…
Don’t try to go home…
Get to the village of Trendle…

Then the creature vanished. Which way was Trendle? Where was he? What might inhabit the forest that will seek his ruination? These were but a few of the questions needing to be unraveled. Alone with only his wits and knowledge gleaned from hundreds of books and dungeon campaigns, he started out just trying to survive. He soon learned that one mistake, one lapse in judgment could mean his death.

Not long after arriving, he made the acquaintance of Miko, a street-wise kid who quickly became his friend and companion. Little did he know that the strength within this child from the streets of Bearn, a strength that would be tested again and again as they waded through battle after battle, delved in hidden passages deep beneath the earth, and faced off against an the might of an Empire, would be invaluable in the trials ahead.

The Unsuspecting Mage is the first book of The Morcyth Saga, a seven book epic fantasy adventure. It follows James as he seeks first to master the art of magic then to uncover the reason why he had been brought to this strange new world where armies are on the move and gods meddle in the affairs of men.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

The Unsuspecting Mage is the first book in The Morcyth Saga, a new epic fantasy series by Brian S. Pratt. It begins a journey in which James must descover the secret behind his being brought to the world where he now finds himself.

From the Author

Why did I decide to write The Morcyth Saga? I suppose the main reason was due to the many series which were currently popular at the time. Series that in the beginning grabbed hold of me and wouldn't let go, but then over time began to lose momentum in a mire of subplots and overlong descriptive paragraphs which I found myself skipping. When I realized I was skipping pages at a time to pass through a subplot that didn't really move the story along to get to the what I would consider the `good points' (action, adventure, actually seeing the main characters) I figured I could do better.

So I set out to write a series in which the reader followed the main character 90% of the time, action or points of interest were in every chapter, and descriptive content was down to a minimum. As a reader I knew I could create my own visualization of surroundings and figured others could to. I mean, do you really need me to go in depth as to what a teenage boy's room looks like? Doesn't `messy boy's room' bring up an instant visual? Stuff like that is what I mean. Certainly there are those who prefer grand descriptive content and a myriad of plots that takes a notepad to keep track of. To them I would say The Morcyth Saga is not for you.

As to the story itself, I was a role player decades ago in high school. And I got to thinking about how interesting it would be should a gamer be thrust into a world in which his gaming experiences could help him thrive. After all, if you take a person from our world and thrust them into a world of magic, wouldn't it be helpful to select someone who would be more amenable to the prospect of magic? Perhaps one whose very interests were along those lines? That was how James came into being, a high school senior who loves creating and then running his friends through his creation.

The Morcyth Saga and The Broken Key Trilogy are both written along gaming lines. The Morcyth Saga is about a gamer that is thrust into a world of magic while The Broken Key is written in role playing style.If you have never read one of my books before, I would suggest checking out the excerpts before you buy so you can make sure you like it.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B001A40H0I
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Brian S. Pratt; 3rd edition (May 19, 2008)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 19, 2008
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 623 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 473 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #4,650 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #18 in Fantasy Adventure Fiction
- #86 in Epic Fantasy (Kindle Store)
- #245 in Paranormal & Urban Fantasy (Kindle Store)

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4.2 2,086 ratings

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Brian S Pratt

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Brian S. Pratt currently lives in Southeast Oklahoma, USA. He currently has several series out including The Morcyth Saga, The Broken Key Trilogy, The Adventurer's Guild and more. His books have sold cumulatively over a hundred thousand copies, both paperbacks and eBook formats. Far and above, his biggest seller continues to be The Morcyth Saga and its follow-up series, Travail of The Dark Mage.

If you have questions for Brian S. Pratt, or you wish to connect with other readers, visit his Facebook Fan Page at:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Brian-S-Pratt/201078599932329?ref=hl

Email: bp47474@aol.com

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4.2 out of 5

2,086 global ratings

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Michael E. Myers

Captivating Storytelling

Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2024

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The Unsuspecting Mage, book 1 of the Morcyth series, is a fascinating tale of a young man, James, who has found himself in a world where magic is real. James is no longer a role-playing teenager, who enjoys reading about fantasy, but he has been transported into one dangerous situation after another in a strange land where heroic action is a daily occurrence in order to survive. Pratts’ characters come to life as each scene takes the reader into a fascinating world full of adventure and good story telling. This book is highly recommended. I’m already on chapter 2 of book 2 in this 7-book series, and I can hardly wait to read the next big adventure that James stumbles into.

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Ajay S.

Wonderful series, but not without its flaws

Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2015

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I stumbled upon the Morcyth Saga's first book when I saw an ad on a social media site for a free copy of the ebook. Hard to argue with free, so I gave it a shot. I have since finished reading all seven books in the series, and feel like I can review the series with confidence. Its worth noting that I believe reviewing the entire series is more relevant, as I think most readers are going to want to keep reading.

Positives

Action - Holy cow, the author of these books is incredibly talented as writing gripping, thrilling action sequences. I typically read to help me fall asleep at night, and on more than one occasion, The Morcyth Saga kept me up way later than I wanted to be, simply because of how exciting the battles were.

Story - When you see the sub-title of the series, "The Morcyth SAGA," this is no exaggeration. I have read many trilogies, series, and other so-called sagas in the past, and where this one excels is in truly living up to its branding. While sometimes I wished the passage of time was a little more clear (sometimes it seems like there's no way anything but months or a year has passed, but you come to find out its been only weeks, or maybe a month), this detail pales in comparison to the sweeping, wonderfully twisting story that spans all seven books. Foreshadowing kind of comes at a premium...you're really just figuring things out as you go along, which only increases the excitement of reading on. Like I alluded to before...you're going to want to read this series from start to finish. The story really does take you to some amazing places and scenarios, and the conclusion of the whole thing was definitely not disappointing!

Characters - This is a category that will also be in the Negatives section of this review...because I think character development has its highs and lows. But, the positives are pretty redeeming. Most of the characters in this series are fairly compelling. The band of friends (and foes, frankly) that James meets through his adventures are pretty cool. I don't know if they rank as some of the most memorable supporting casts of all time, but The Morcyth Saga beats out, in my opinion, a lot of other prominent fantasy series as far as interesting character go.

Negatives

Editing - OK, so this is a pretty polarizing topic. All seven of these books are, in my opinion, poorly edited. There are WAY more grammatical errors than there ever should be in novels of this caliber. I've seen the author comment personally that the books have undergone extensive changes, but the Kindle versions I purchased direct from the Amazon Kindle store are still pretty bad. If you are the type that is not able to look past this problem, reading this books is going to be tough for you. On top of grammatical errors, there are some consistency issues as well. Think, for example, like in a movie...when a character is drinking a Coke, and then a couple frames later is drinking a Pepsi. Little stuff, but hard not to notice. They don't hurt the story, but they can be distracting sometimes. Which leads me to my next issue...

Characters - Or more specifically, "character." Unfortunately, I'm not a fan of James. I mean, for the most part, he's a decent protagonist...but it is incredibly distracting how little sense the actions & thoughts of his character make. Without spoiling anything, I will just say that there is a conflict, regarding violence, that brews within James. It seems like the author means to develop James's character when he writes about it...unfortunately, for a book with this much action (i.e. violence), it all just seems very hypocritical. Furthermore, James seems to be totally transformed by his unsuspected...circumstances. I mean, I understand the whole "when in Rome" proverb...but sometimes its just weird when a character who you know is a late-teenaged boy speaking as if he were some sort of nobleman or something. I don't know...it's hard to quantify, I suppose, but throughout the entire series, something just feels off about him. I will say that it is offset by how engaging his supporting cast is.

Pace - Another polarizing topic. I don't want to tell authors how to do their jobs, and I have to give credit to the author here for creating a pretty great series...but sometimes this book just follows a bizarre pace. Part of me gets it...they're in a world where they have to travel a lot, and all they have are horses. But sometimes, all of the "The group made camp" sections of the book get really repetitive and old.. Furthermore, I think a lot of "fat" like this could be trimmed out, and the whole saga could reasonably fit in to maybe four or five books. Like I said...it wasn't my job to write it, so I have no idea what the intention of the author was, but I would have preferred it to be a little more streamlined sometimes.

All in all, I would consider reading this, and the subsequent six other books in the series, time and money well spent. I really enjoyed my time reading each and every book, despite its flaws...which, I think, makes what Brian Pratt has accomplished here all the more impressive. I'm usually a pretty picky reader, but this one struck a chord with me.

9 people found this helpful

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Chepe

Good

Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2023

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For a wimp the hero is adequate but is extremely uptight. I hope he starts thinking of possible consequence of his actions

One person found this helpful

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Side Quest Publications

Good story. Needs proofreading.

Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2013

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I first found this story via Smashwords; as I recall, it was one of two stories used in the Style Guide as an example of proper formatting for submission. (Proper formatting for the title/copyright page, that is.) Now, aside from downloading it and the other example and skimming through the first chapter, and USING it as an example for my own copyright/title page, I really didn't look much at it then.

However, while searching for some other books on Amazon, I came across this title again. As I recognized the name from the style guide, and found both the description of the premise and my memory of that first chapter to be interesting, and since the book was free (always a good way to introduce readers to your world), I decided it was worth downloading straight to my Kindle.

Now, the premise, as I said, was interesting. "Person from our world lands in fantasy world" is hardly an original idea--it's at least as old as one of Mark Twain's works in the 1880's, possibly older--but it's always interesting to see what an author will DO with that idea.
And I, for one, find it refreshingly "realistic" that James, for all his experience reading fantasy novels and making DnD campaigns, does not instantly become an expert in how this new world works. He makes mistakes.
Not only that, but even though it's obvious that this world is supposed to look like a DnD campaign (the job ad, with knowledge of roleplaying games made an added qualification, was my first clue), it's also good to know that things in this world don't work precisely as they would in such campaigns. I rather doubt James' druid had quite the same problem with his "forces of nature" spell that James himself had....

There are, however, problems.

Realism, for one. Yes, it's a fantasy novel, but there is such a thing as being realistic WITHIN the genre.
I have no complaint that the story looks like a DnD campaign. As I said, I found the premise interesting, and it's fairly obvious that it's meant to look like such a campaign. Not only that, but I'm working on a story of my own that's MEANT to look like it came straight from a video RPG... right down to the tutorial at the beginning.
But if I were in James' place, there are a few things, assuming I kept my wits as well as he did, that I would have done differently. That's not to say that my choices would have been BETTER. For instance, I'd been mentally screaming at him since near the beginning to build a compass, while he relied on pure luck to find Trendle; later events proved my choice wouldn't have been that good of an idea. And there's no telling whether, once having built that compass, casting the spell to find the "fastest way" as I would've done (taking terrain into account) would have made any difference over "the shortest way" as he'd done. And having lost the book, I would have wanted to create a spell to retrieve it, if at all possible.

And speaking of the compass, I get that characters in this world don't understand half of what James is talking about. But there are a few things that I would think they should understand. And it isn't exactly clear which part they have trouble understanding.
The moneylender, for instance. He may not recognize the NAME "bank," but he is, as James noted, acting exactly like one. So why would it matter that James was "not from around here," unless it was from confusion over the word itself?
Or the compass? Again, maybe they don't understand the word, but do so few people travel in this world that the very IDEA of having a device to show which direction they're going is a foreign concept? Unless Corbin was merely confused about why, in this particular instance, when they were looking for a person, James would care which direction North was.
Or the sanitation, or lack thereof. Now, I can let the smell and the "unwashed bodies" slide; it seems a fairly common trope, with no real consensus on accuracy or the lack thereof. But why would anyone want to pee in the same source of water that people drink out of? Alternatively, why would anyone want to drink from the same place people peed? That's not just unsanitary, that's GROSS!

Another unrealistic situation: Chapter 25.
Just... no. I can't say why without spoiling things, but let's just say that even in a fantasy novel involving a kid from our world visiting a world of magic, this incident goes beyond bizarre. I can accept "focal points" in our world. I can even accept where one of those focal points might be. It's the specifics of the scene, of how James was introduced to them, that I'm having trouble with. Thank goodness it was only a costume, or it would have been weirder yet.

Most of these (with the exception of the Chap25 incident) are fairly minor, and are not worth bringing down the book's rating.
The next problems, however, are....

First, I have two more unrealistic situations: Chapter 20, in which James buys fruit from the orchard. We go through paragraphs of narrative referring to the one man as "the man," never once in narrative or dialogue giving us his name, but when James and Miko turn to leave, the narrative refers to him (I assume him, and not one of the other men) as "Hemdal."
Or when James has to leave his horse behind in Bearn. Okay, he doesn't know much about horses. But I find it rather odd that the horse was never once mentioned again, not in dialogue nor in narrative. Not even mentioned in passing. Not so much as an "I wish I still had that horse" when Perrilin told him James and Miko couldn't keep up with only one horse (a horse James had STOLEN, I might add).

I've grouped those two in with the major problems for one particular reason. I don't know if they're simply unrealistic incidents, or if the author himself forgot about them.
If the author forgot, then they belong with the following proofreading issues, which ARE the reason I only give the story three stars.

Now for the rest:
The story's written in present tense. An unusual choice, perhaps, but not technically a WRONG choice. And unlike another freebie on my Kindle, it did not distract from the story (even though that's the ONLY problem I've found with that other freebie; go figure). However, the narrative occasionally lapses into past tense for no clear reason, sometimes mid-sentence.
We also have repetition: "Miko silently vows silently to himself" Or the narrative stating that it was a "far larger group than they had anticipated" followed very soon by James saying it is a "far larger group than I anticipated"
And the story is riddled with grammatical errors that completely change the meaning of the sentence: For instance, "They're mad because I brought one of them in and was executed" (The Warden's doing good for a dead man. ;) Though I don't know why the town would have executed HIM when he'd brought in one of the bandits.) Or "his eyes begin watering and can barely breathe"...um, his eyes could barely breathe? Okay, so your eyes need air, too, but still....
And there's others that I can't even guess at.

Tamie Wiggins
Side Quest Publications
Author of Rite of Passage

8 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Good

Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2023

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I truly enjoyed this book however I didn't like how the popular jock died - I don't see the connection and don't understand he was bought to the crazy world but I loved the characters so far

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Jorge Prieto

¡Me encantó!

Reviewed in Mexico on November 23, 2016

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Confieso que lo empecé a leer con algo de escepticismo pero conforme se fue desarrollándose la historia me fui metiendo más y más en el libro.

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Richard James Wozniak

If you love fantasy and you're not the norm you'll love it!!!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 23, 2014

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I've seen a lot of bad reviews on here, and I am a little shocked. It takes me 3 chapters to like a book if I don't I put it down. I've read David eddings, Raymond e feist, Robert Jordan, Dalgish, many more.
Brian captured me in the first chapter and I read the whole series, loved every minute of it. Read the broken key trilogy, and the adventurers guild. I think he has come leaps and bounds since his first book. You need to give a chance don't go In there expecting eddings or feist's they are different writers. If you want to read a story with a snippets from our world to the fantasy world, you will love this book.

I loved it and would recommend it to anyone with a creative imagination!

2 people found this helpful

cristina contilli

Un romanzo d'avventura e di formazione tra fantasy e storico...

Reviewed in Italy on January 6, 2013

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Un romanzo d'avventura e di formazione tra fantasy e storico... con una protagonista femminile che non si perde d'animo di fronte ai peggiori imprevisti e pericoli...

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David Ramsey

Five Stars

Reviewed in Australia on February 7, 2015

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So good that I bought the whole series.

Andrew D. Poole

Brian S Pratt is such a good read. No great amount of concentration required

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 1, 2015

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For anyone who grew up playing D&D, Brian S Pratt is such a good read. No great amount of concentration required, just good old fashioned, fun to read, fast moving fantasy fiction. All that cost the final star was the occasional annoying habit of switching into the wrong tense during the narrative. That aside, a thoroughly good read.

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The Unsuspecting Mage (The Morcyth Saga Book 1) Kindle Edition

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