Mark of the Fool (Mark of the Fool, #1) (2024)

3.5/5

What could have been an intriguing series opener turned out to be an average outing because of uneven pacing and some unnecessary chapters

The book started out really well with an intriguing premise about how the MC can't use magic DIRECTLY for combat or self-defense and he has to be creative to escape tough situations BUT after 50% or so mark, when the MC gets into the University the pacing got really dull and MC's unique way of Wizardry felt lackluster and pretty much boring.

I'm not saying the writing was bad, the book was well written actually. I just had a problem with the uneven pacing and pages and pages of theoretical explanation of magic.

MC felt like a side character in the team that distracts the target till the main character comes swooping down to save him.

It felt like the author forced himself into a corner by the MC's unique condition that he can't change the narrative and I almost DNFd it but then the author came up with a couple of cool ideas I was very much looking forward to but sadly the author never went to explore that ideas till the end of book 1.

Hopefully, those intriguing ideas will be explored in the sequel which I'm gonna get into.

I'm pissed.

I just spent 15 hours listening to this book, only for it to resolve...absolutely nothing.

There's no story arc. At all. Alex doesn't even make it through his first SEMESTER at wizard school, much less his first year.

It's like reading Harry Potter, except Voldemordt is only mentioned in passing, Draco Malfoy is seen once, and we get to go with Harry to every single one of his classes.

It seriously feels like the author was just like, oh, crap, I guess I should split this up into two books or something.

Clearly a lot of people like this kind of world building without a real plot. If that's you, you'll like this book. For me, I feel like I spent 15 hours waiting for something to happen other than follow a kid studying for class. And I ended up sorely disappointed.

If you like the student goes to a magic school style of story then this is a great book to read. Well written with a nice new plot twist. Enjoyable read. Recommended

I loved this story. I think it did a lot of things well. It wasn't a story that instantly captivated me, but a slow simmer of enjoyment that slowly grew with the story. Something I think fits, because this story had large slice-of-life elements to it.

One of the things I liked the most was that this wasn't a solo adventure where the MC embarks on a journey, goes to magic school and make friends. No he already had friends, he's taking his 10 year old little sister along, his best friend (which he has romantic feelings for) and her three-headed dog that doesn't like him. The feelings are hinted at, and isn't a very big part of the first book but might be in the future. It's also hinted at that it's reciprocated, but the MC has just turned 18 and they grew up together. It's a very classical tale of "young love being too embarrassed to say anything that'd change the status quo".

It would have annoyed me if it was a bigger deal, but as I said it was barely hinted at. And is something I'm looking forward to developing.

One of the things I can complain about, is the vague references to earth stories and memes. This MC isn't one that got teleported to another realm, he's not reincarnated. But certain terms, and stories, sometimes pops up as if the author is giving us a little wink that only me and him, and not the MC, know about. This was slightly annoying because of how beautifully detached the rest of the world is to anything we have here on earth. He counted his experimentation with magic in heartbeats, and not minutes. There were no mention of hours either, tho there was a bell being rung in town. He went and picked up his sister from school depending on the position of the sun. All the creatures and beings in the book were original to the world, and there were no comparisons to earth-creatures that "lived elsewhere on the planet". They didn't even do the "thank god" thing that we do, as they all called their own gods by specific names. It was very consistent, and the ONLY time it broke and winked directly to something from-earth, is when the old headmaster who runs the school made a saying that involves a tiger. And the MC very clearly goes "what's a tiger?". (And wasn't that an interesting mention?)(My theory is that the headmaster was originally from Earth, another nod to the whole "this story isn't about the chosen one")

Another thing I liked, was another typical stereotype of the story that this book circumvented: There were no school bullying. And thank god for that! There were people the MC didn't like, people the MC actively wanted to avoid, and people that butted heads with each other. But there was no instant hate, no instant targeting and bullying.

My only other complaint is that once the MC gets to the magic school part of the story, the little sister kind of vanishes. Sometimes for many chapters at a time. And that was a little bit of a bummer, because her presence very much made this story unique to me. She started popping up a little bit more toward the end, so hopefully that'll continue.

But it says something that those are my two complaints. Author winking at us with insider jokes and the sister not getting enough attention.

It was thoroughly, a very solid book!

I had so much fun with this! Can’t wait to continue the series

So far so good...

UPDATE: Amazon has deleted my review there 2 times now and is refusing to post anything I put up automatically--I assume I'm on a list, or they have a bot to auto-deny any review that contains certain buzz words. So if you saw my current review that said "full review on Goodreads" that's why I couldn't post the below review there (they took it down without telling me, then have denied my attempts to repost it with different wording until I dumbed the review down to almost nothing).

Original Book Review (plus update) Below:
I enjoyed the book, but i've grown very pessimistic about books that originate on Royal Road. Almost every other series i've read from Royal Road has started out ok but then devolves into a platform for liberals to push their agenda instead of a fun story to read during down time.

But so far this book hasn't done that, so i'm going to give it 5 stars. If they follow the path of 99% of the authors that get their start on RR, i'll come back and change my review to reflect it--nothing worse than investing in a series to have to abandon it later because it becomes just a place for people to try and force their beliefs on others.

So far it's a decent series though the male MC is being portrayed (yet again) as a blundering incompetent fool, and the female he likes is strong, intelligent, and confident (never wrong about anything). Maybe he grows out of it in the second book, but in the first book he repeatedly screams in terror at things the the female MC shrugs off (in fact, everyone but him reacts better), and it's hard to relate to someone so cowardly.

UPDATE: I've read the second book and it's as good or better imho than the first book. So I changed this review to 5 stars. I hope the series continues to improved and there are some signs in the second book that the male MC is actually making some improvements in his confidence and competence. To be clear, I'm not looking for him to be perfect--just the opposite actually. A character that is always a scaredy-cat, stutters and lacks confidence, etc., is perfect in that he is always just those things. A female MC that is never scared, never makes mistakes, and is never physically or emotionally weak is also perfect--both are unbelievable in their "perfection". Believable characters are not so 1 dimensional, they change over time and hopefully grow for the better. Some of the emotions the female character displayed in book two made her feel MUCH more 2 dimensional and "real". She acted more like a person, less like a perfect robot.

This book is a lot of fun. It's top-tier progression fantasy with lots of magic and monsters, a likeable protagonist with realistic responses and goals, and strong powers but also strong flaws to contend with.

Rating 4.0 stars

This was a good book. Kind of a slow progression story where the MC works hard and slowly gets better. I love those kinds of stories. The MC is Alex. He is just about to turn 18 and then he will get the inheritance his parent left him after they died so he can finally take care of his sister and they could have a good life. He is supposed to go magic academy soon and is life is starting to look up. That is until his 18th birthday when he gets the mark of a hero. Every 100 years in this country a group of 5 people are chosen by the gods to fight an evil that comes up. Each one has different powers to help. The one with magic, the one with divine power, the one with strength, and the chosen who has a little of each of those powers. That is only 4 you say? Good counting. There is one final "hero" in the group. The fool. He is the one that is always overlooked. Everyone looks up to the other heroes and feels bad for the fool. He is still a hero but he usually dies. Everyone says that he still has a role to play but nobody can explain that role. The fool has one great benefit but a lot of limitations. He can learn anything very quickly. This is done by the skill pointing out the best things he did about certain action and allowing him to repeat those actions. The more he does right, the more he is shown, which in turn allows him to grow incredibly fast. The only problem is the skill does not work on anything involving combat, magic or divine skills. When he tries those activities his brain is inundated with all the mistakes he has made instead of the successes causing him to be overwhelmed. This is the worst fate possible for a wanna be mage. He was supposed to be at the Mage academy. He doesn't want to fight evil. If he was one of the other heroes he would do his duty because he was needed but the Fool? He find out that he can still do magic it just takes a lot of concentration to push out all the images the mark sends him. He leaves with his sister and his childhood best friend and escapes the church and goes to the academy as planned. It was a little slow getting there but once there it was an enjoyable read. How he is able to learn thing very quickly and getting over the limitations of his mark. There is a decent amount of action, a very good amount of learning about the magical world and some descent world building. I also very much like the relationships. Overall I was very happy with this story and I am looking forward to the next one.

This book was great! Loved the characters, loved the slice-of-life meets hero story, and I loved the humour. I also like that it's clearly (read as: maybe) a different universe, but there is some bleed-through and references to the real world. Brilliant first instalment, can't wait for the next!

PS. Being narrated by Travis Baldree is also a huge plus.

I went about 25% (160ish pages) on my Kindle before calling it quits. This isn't a bad story, but it's definitely for a younger audience. I've read plenty of YA that I loved, but this won't be one of them.

The premise is an interesting one: A hero from long ago defeated a demon lord of sorts, but evil cannot truly die, it can only be sealed. For about 100 years to be exact. The hero left behind a prophecy/set of powers that chooses five random people who turn 18 on a given day every 100 years. Each of them is given powers representative of D&D archetypes: The champion (fighter), saint (cleric), sage (wizard), chosen (all-rounder multiclass), and the fool (an NPC who tags along, tends the horses, and probably dies tragically to incite the party to greater heights). The fool can't excel at anything combat, magic, or healing related, but has an ability that allows them to learn things at an extraordinary speed. This allows them to be the perfect support for the hero party.

Our main character Alex ends up being, you guessed it, the fool. This disrupts his plans of attending wizard school and taking care of his younger sister after their parents died in a tragic fire four years ago. History shows previous fools tend to die or become maimed nearly every time, so Alex decides to dodge the draft and escape to wizard school instead. Joining him on his escape are his female childhood friend who is a ranger type, his younger sister who seems to roleplay as a wet blanket that just shouts his name over and over while crying anytime anything happens, and his childhood friend's 3-headed cerberus legendary dog.

I struggled often and early to care for the characters or be invested as the story progressed. The action scenes weren't very convincing and I couldn't stand the younger sister. I've read enough books to know that if I feel like dropping around the 25% mark, then I should.

This is probably a fun read for many people and if it sounds interesting to you, then I'd recommend giving it a shot. Just know in advance that it reads very Young Adult and make sure you're okay with that.

This is really good
Fantasy / Chosen by the gods/ refusal of the call/ magical academy / is this curse a blessing?
I grabbed this audiobook because the cover looked good and it's voiced by Travis Baldree and that guy only narrates good books (as far as I know).
This thing turned out to be better than I expected. There is a surprising balance of wisdom derived from life experience and youthful exuberance bubbling from hope and optimism. There are not two things a writer usually has both of.
The writing is good, the plot, the story, the characters are very well done. The pacing is nearly ideal not too fast to miss crucial information, or character development, but quick enough to keep it feeling energized.
I'm also impressed with the world building, and how that's conveyed naturally in passing and not through exposition or cumbersome info dumps.
This book is very enjoyable and I'm impressed with the craft J.M. Clarke used to construct this book in a way that feels like it just grew this way.

Another good book from Royal Road! This one was fun and interesting, it had great narration and not many editorial mistakes that I observed. I read a little on Royal Road and there were few editorial mistakes on there either. The MC is interesting and relatable, the side characters are better than just furniture, there is a wizard school, an ultimate bad guy, and a chosen hero. It is just a fun and interesting read.

I made it to chapter 11. My biggest gripe with this book is the main character has convinced himself he is useless in his part as the fool to help save the world however constantly uses his fool's powers to save himself and his sister. How can a character both disregard their power while constantly using it to save their lives?

That being said, the premise is interesting and perhaps the character becomes less annoying as the book progresses.

This book was a fun ride cool fantasy world monsters and magic and likeable characters and best part is the MMC is not instantly overpowered and he has to work for his power on my way to the next book

This may be a good story, but it is not a good book.

The Good
when

The writing is actually very good. Good enough that it carried me through to the end of the book even I wanted to quit. If you forgive the odd immersion-breaking anachronisms and pop culture references.
The initial plot hook is intriguing. A hero that runs? Quite unusual. The first few chapters are engaging, and we can't wait to get into the actual world-building, and fleshing out the mythology of this world...

The Less Good

It never happens. Instead, we get dumped in Hogwarts. That I kept reading is actually a testament to the quality of the writing because for me, magic school is an instant DNF.
The story literally died right there, and got swapped out for a shapeless slice-of-life tedium of magic system exposition, that I really didn't care for.
The magic system is also ridiculous. It's an unholy mixture of everything available in the subgenre, from wuxia to LitRPG. And because we've forgotten about our original premise, without the context in which it fits (the other marks) the whole "fool's mark" concept just turns into a very dubious convenience.

The Bad

This book has a serious issue with pacing. I hear it's another web serial repackaging. That's no excuse. New format, new rules. Nobody invests 15+ hours without the expectation for _some_ closure.

The Conclusion

Pity, but I'm ending this journey here.

This is actually the start of what I hope to be a very good story. But it’s long with lots (too much?) world building and I still don’t know what the central plot is. There are a few possibilities to choose from and you’d think that with such a long book, the main story arc would be clearer. And the ending was odd. Doesn’t set you up with as much anticipation for the next book as you’d hope.

excellent

I first read this story on RoyalRoad.

This is a very interesting story with detailed crafting and magic. it moves somewhat slowly but it covers a lot of topics in depth.

Comparisons to Harry Potter are inevitable (even the narrative hints at the similarity). But this occupies a true fantasy world, with no Muggles to hide from.

I am very pleased to pay the author for the hours of enjoyment. I will pre-order the next installment as soon as it is available.

This book was a mixed bag for this reader. I finished it wanting to give it a higher mark, but I had to round it down because I couldn't ignore the fact that for large portions of this book, I was either not engaged with what was happening or not following what was happening.

The first issue for me was that this book starts too late, almost like we skipped the introductory chapters. We are introduced to all the main characters as the inciting incident / call to adventure is happening, which means we don't get any time to get to know them before they are off on their journey. This is like starting the Lord of the Rings the day after the Council of Elrond. We would skip all the time getting to know our main characters and building an attachment to them so the stakes wouldn't be that strong. I'm not looking for an intro of the length of what you'd find in Lord of the Rings, but some time getting to know the day-to-day struggles of these characters and what a normal life was like for them before setting off would have made me much more engaged at the start of this story.

After this, the problem I have is one of the story jumping about all over the place like it didn't really know what story it wanted to tell. Maybe it's an epic story of chosen ones ordained by a deity to fight a great evil and save their people. Maybe it's a story of a boy going to a magical school with a handicap that makes him think differently, which in turn makes him shine. Maybe it's a slice-of-life world-building story. Maybe it's an adventure novel. It just doesn't seem to know.

I think a good analogy for a story is to think of the subject matter of each chapter as points on a scatter graph, and the plot driving the story being the line of best fit moving through the chart. Keep your subject matter too close to that line of best fit, and the narrative of the story feels like it is just in service to the plot. Let that subject matter stray too far from that line, the story starts to feel like it's meandering and not going anywhere while it explores lots of unnecessary topics. The best stories cluster close to that line without touching it. This story is just a little too scattered to the point where there are a few too many chapters that just don't seem relevant.

Where it excels, though, is that it lets a love of magic shine through. As a sucker for this, I loved the chapters where the main character is learning magic and advancing his skills. However, this also leads nowhere as the story doesn't so much have an ending as it just stops abruptly.

Overall, I enjoyed this enough to pick up the next book, but I am hoping for something more focused going forward.

** Update 15th April 2024 **

I re-read this book to catch up with the series before reading the newer books, and I enjoyed it a lot more. I think that a lot of the issues I pointed out above are still there, but having read further into the series and knowing where this book will go, it was less of an issue for me this time around.

With that in mind and to give this book the benefit of the doubt, I have bumped the rating of this one up from a 3-star read to a 4. I don't know for sure if my initial impression of it was off or if it genuinely is a story you only appreciate once you get further into it, but this time around, it was definitely worthy of that 4-star status.

I would have given it five stars but for the ending. Which isn't an ending at all. But rather just the author stopping at the end of any other chapter, randomly. And tacking on a mini chapter from the perspective of a side character.

So. No story arc at the end. No climax. And no resulting satisfaction. The only reason this gets such a high score is because up until the non-structured ending, it was a superb YA book.

But it bodes ill for the next books in the series, if that's how poorly each one is closed off.

Closure is important. Feeling like a book has a conclusion - is important.

It's unlikely the author will change. But by God I hope they get their act together. Or it's another promising world building wasted on poor storyline.

Interesting original setting

I enjoyed the premise of the story, a rural teen seeking to be a wizard, orphaned and foiled by an odd blessing, skips out on his destiny to attend h*gwarts. Although I like school better than hogwarts.

I didn't give it a 5 star rating be ause the characters are poorly developed. They're all just super good at everything and everything just sort of works out despite minor danger. Actually, the more I think about it, the more this seems like a fantasy-themed slice of life than high fantasy adventure.

It also reads somewhat like a power-fantasy fanfic. I was expecting a romantic rival for his not-girlfriend-but-sorta-girlfriend. I was expecting plot development for the Mark. It never came. Maybe a third of the book after the halfway point (so most of the second half) felt unnecessary. I was glad for the interesting magic-system building, but I would trade all that in a heartbeat for plot development with the mark and that whole plot.

I feel like this was trying to be two different stories. Oh and I found the depiction of that ten year old sister suspect at best, at least early on. She has almost no development and seems like a vehicle for problems for the main character to solve more than anything.

Anyway, I think I'll wait for an in depth review before grabbing the second book, slated for January 2023, I think.

Ultimately, I'm glad I read it, but also glad I skimmed past the several chapters worth of the main character's thoughts and feelings which leant little if anything to the story.

3 out of 5.

I could not finish this book. It was so nonsensical in how it is set up that I could not figure out if it was worth continuing or not... well, I chose not. The idea is fascinating in a fantasy world of a hero who isn't truly needed per say. However, the main character learned how to get around the fool's mark, was cool, but the plot was sooooo slow, and even in the beginning-ish of the book, the world in general didn't care what was happening to this little country out in the middle of nowhere, so it leads you to believe from the beginning that this story really isn't important enough to keep my attention.

This is just a tad odd.

But in a good way. Some books have a smooth flow where you go through three hundred pages in one sitting without realizing it. Some are ponderous taking right pages to describe a tree, looking at you Steven King. This meanders about giving it a laid back feeling. It has wonderfully formed characters with a ton of growth potential. The world building is a bit lacking, but I think that is a deliberate choice to focus the reader. All in all, this is great.

Good book I was afraid when they got to school it was going to be too slow but they skip over alot of the mundane bits and really show off alot of characters the begining of the book and the end of the book are very different story wise but it not half bad 4.5 stars

The premise of this novel was extremely interesting, and I really enjoyed both the initial core group of characters as well as group of friends he made along the way. The challenges that are put before the main character and how he finds ways to adapt and overcome them add to the reader's experience. Its also a new take on how different experiences can make significant differences for people, and that you never know what someone might be dealing with.
The interplay between the main character Alex, and his sister are both endearing and amusing.
The world itself, and the different species of beings added a lot of layers to the book, while also being extremely inclusive. The main characters come from a tiny backwoods village, and when exposed to all of these other types of people, their only emotions are awe and wonder.
I am excited to see where the series goes, the growth and development of the characters and their interpersonal relationships, and to learn more about the history of Alex's homeland and the other nations and worlds that are evidently out there.

4.5 Stars

While it didn't rev my engine fully, I never wanted to pause reading. There're a lot of decent aspects to this fantasy. While the world-building is a little derivative, (elves, dwarfs, etc.), enough new creatures and magics have been introduced to make it interesting.

Alex is a relatable and sympathetic protagonist. In fact, most of the characters are nice, which is a relief for me after a grim-dark burn-out. But what makes this book outstanding, at least for me, is the core gimmick. The way Alex gains power is totally new and has enough complexity and challenge that it is elevated to fascinating. I just love these rules-based mechanisms.

The author is clearly talented. The writing, dialogue and ideas are all good. But the pacing after they reach the wizard school is terrible to an extend that almost made me dnf. Following our MC get stronger and better the same way (hard work and a cheat sheet called the Mark) is just boring. All of the characters are robots that just work, work, work. There are no stakes since the Mark will make sure that the MC will overcome everything and, unsurprisingly, a universty and perfect recall is a perfect match. Boring.

Mark of the Fool oversells its premise. There's nothing foolish or bad about the mark.

Fantastic!

This is one of three best books I’ve read in a while. It has some academy elements, some progression, and some cultivation. The MC is not overpowered. In fact, he’s got a unique mark that makes certain things more difficult and others easier.

The prose is well-written. The characters relatable. The plot intriguing. The magic system fascinating. I love the references to our own world and culture.

هذي ويب نوفل مستمرة فيها أكثر من ٦٨٠ تشابتر حتى الآن.
الكتاب ينتهي في تشابتر ٧٥ فجأه بدون اي نهاية مرضية او تسكير لأي خيوط فتحها الكاتب.
وحسيتها slice of life زيادة عن اللزوم.

بعطيها بريك لفترة وبرجع لها مستقبلا

A new adventure begins! There’s a lot of potential with the magic system. Started with very fast pacing then slowed down considerably for the latter half of the book. Plot and character development is very good. Looking forward to the next one!

Look, I'm not gonna go ahead and claim that this is the new Shakespeare or anything, but what this is, is a ton of fun. I'm a sucker for books that feel like the author had a great time writing them, and this certainly qualifies. Maybe not the highest art but full of absolute joy. Engaging, funny, and surprisingly heartwarming. Definitely worth a read or listen.