The Outcast Mage

• Author: Annabel Campbell
• Genre: Fantasy
• Publication Date: January 28, 2025
• Publisher: Orbit
• Series: The Shattered Lands #1

Thank you to Orbit and Oliver Wehner for sending me a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In the glass city of Amoria, magic is everything. And Naila, a student at the city’s legendary academy, is running out of time to prove she can control hers. If she fails, she’ll be forced into exile, relegated to a life of persecution with the other magic less hollows—or worse, be consumed by her own power.

When a tragic incident further threatens her place at the academy, Naila is saved by Haelius Akana, the most powerful living mage. Finding in Naila a kindred spirit, Haelius stakes his position at the academy on teaching her to harness her abilities. But Haelius has many enemies, and they would love nothing more than to see Naila fail. Trapped in the deadly schemes of Amoria’s elite, Naila must dig deep to discover the truth of her powers or watch the city she loves descend into civil war.

For there is violence on the wind, and greater powers are at work. Ones who could use her powers for good … or destroy everything she’s ever known.

I am a sucker for series, and this series starter sounded really good. There’s always something fun about discovering a new author whose writing I enjoy. And that’s exactly what happened with this book.

From the start, Campbell captured my attention with her clear yet simple writing style and a strong first chapter. The story is told through multiple POVs, giving readers a good understanding of the different levels of the complex magic and political systems in place. It was an enjoyable read, and I especially appreciated the way readers are given the space and time to gain a good understanding of the society and magic system. 

In the beginning, the book is paced a lot slower to introduce all of the details and major players in a way that isn’t overwhelming and uses a lot of showing instead of telling. Although it took me a little bit to get fully into the story itself, I was more than happy to wait it out since I was intrigued more and more as I read. And once I had a good grasp on the world and a good portion of its moving parts, the pace sped up and made the rest of the reading feel like a breeze. 

To start with, the story is told through several different viewpoints, and they were all so different that I never found myself flipping back to see which character is narrating the chapter. The story starts with Naila, a teenager with magic, but she can’t figure out the basics of controlling her magic, and she’s worried about the consequences—exile, a life of persecution, or being burned up by her own magic. And she can’t access her power at all. She’s saved from expulsion from the academy by the most powerful mage in the country offering to stake his own position as a teacher against his ability to teach her how to access her magic. Under the wing of Haelius Akana, she really blooms as a person, and for Naila, this is an uncomfortable change. For a girl who doesn’t know anything about her roots, but has managed to get by on her own thus far. 

Larinne is a Senate member, and through her chapters we get to see a lot of the political maneuvering and posturing that is going on in the book. In addition, her sister is a Justice, working under Oriven, offering us even more behind the scenes information. There’s a low-key hum of *something* between Larinne and Haelius, and I really enjoyed seeing how those two interacted. She comes off a little straight-laced initially, but once I got to know who she really was, I grew to like her chapters more and more over the course of the book.

Entonin is a priest from Ellath, where mages have been hunted for centuries, being viewed as heretical. Yet he winds up in Amoria just as everything kicks off. He’s ostensibly there to gather information, but his presence isn’t quite welcomed in Amoria. His own chapters offer a view into what is going on outside of the country, and sort of gets pulled into all the action.

There are so many subgenres of fantasy, and this one falls directly into political fantasy. Despite all of the politics we’ve been dealing with here in the US, I enjoyed this book as an escape since the political aspects of the book are different than the ones in the news. Campbell gives the readers time to really understand the setting and the magic, as well as the characters themselves—the mages are all titled “Lieno,” so it was a little confusing at first to see a different word in place of the usual first name, but it only threw me off at the very beginning, and I figured it out by chapter 2. 

Overall, this was a strong series starter, and it has me extra intrigued about what is coming in the next book. There’s a huge cliffhanger and twist at the end of the book, leaving me already yearning for the next book. However, I’m more than happy to wait until the next book is all ready to go. Each of the characters has a distinct voice, and there’s even one surprise POV chapter from another major character, but this is strictly a spoiler-free blog so I can’t say anything else about it other than make sure to pay attention. There’s also classism, both between the mages and regular humans, as well as between the mages themselves, since coming from an established magical family puts a mage at the top of the heap, and Naila, who can’t tap into her magic and doesn’t know anything about her parents falls dangerously close to the bottom of the social heap.You’d probably like this one if you like: political fantasy (ex. Richard Swan or George RR Martin), complex but fantastic world-building, and only a light dash of romance that never overshadows the story itself.

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