"Thief!" a heavy voice shouted from the door.
That's rich, one of them calling me thief, Veranix Calbert thought. He had only arrived seconds before. He hadn't had a chance to steal anything yet.

This is how Marshall Ryan Maresca introduces us to the world of Maradaine with his debut novel The Thorn of Dentonhill, transporting us to a vibrant and diverse city where powerful mages, university students, assassins and street gangs all call home. Our protagonist is Veranix Calbert, a magic student by day and vigilante by night. When the sun goes down, Veranix ventures out into the streets, disrupting the local drug trade in the hopes of bringing down the notorious crime boss Fenmere, the man who killed Veranix’s father and destroyed his mother’s mind. Folks are saying it is a bit like Harry Potter meets Daredevil or Batman, and while there is some truth to this, Maresca brings his own fresh twist to the classic vigilante story.

Supporting Veranix is a cast of characters: his cousin, Colin (a street captain of the Rose Street Princes); Kaiana, a half-Napa half-Druth staff member; and his friend and roommate Delmin. There's also his Professor Alimen, Veranix's tutor in magic...who is a bit of Dumbledore/Snape rolled into one.

I really enjoyed the world Maresca has created. It’s surprisingly rich, featuring a long and complex history and populated by many cultures. Maradaine feels richly populated by interesting factions, university students, mages, etc. I love forward to reading more stories set in Maradaine.

For fans of: Harry Potter, Batman, Daredevil, Patrick Rothfuss, The Discworld Series. ( )

Really good

I tend to be critical, so 4 stars is a great rating.

There were a few awkward phrases, where a name was repeated more than it should have in the paragraph or the flow of action was a bit unclear. More polishing than editing, really.

This reminds me of a series from 20yrs ago set in Venice.

I will buy the next in the series. Best recommendation I can give. ( )

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Title: The Thorn of Dentonhill
Series: Maradaine #1
Author: Marshall Maresca
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: YA/Fantasy
Pages: 400
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Veranix Calbert is the son of a former gang leader. His father fled the city but when it was discovered that “Veranix” had magical talent, the family returned for just a couple of days to drop the boy off at an academy under his now assumed name. Another gang leader, Willem Fenmere, used those days to kill the father and brain burn the mother with an illegal drug.

Now a young mage, Veranix spends his nights taking out two bit hoods who sell the drug and giving any of their money to local charities. By day he has to be a student full time. In the process of spoiling what he thinks is a huge drug deal, Veranix comes into possession of a magical cape and rope. Using these items, his war against Fenmere escalates, to the point where Fenmere hires professional assassins to kill The Thorn.

It leads to his professor and a young woman who has been helping him all along being kidnapped by some mages who hired Fenmere to import the cape and rope. With the help of his friend and a cousin in a gang and some just plain dumb luck, Veranix rescues everybody, keeps his identity a secret and prevents one of the bad mages from gaining some super serious magic stuff.

Then its back to school and business as usual.

My Thoughts:

I went into this book, and series, with a really bad attitude towards the author. He's currently writing 3!!!!! Maradaine related series, which wasn't real bad, but I'd prefer he writes one series then the next. But what crossed the line was when he intersected two of the series, making it imperative to have read book 1 and 2 of one series and book 1 or 2 of the second series to understand the 3rd book in series one. That pissed me off. So that was my starting point.

I had heard lots of good things though, so I figured I needed to give this guy a chance.

Right off the bat, it's Young Adult. Then the main character Veranix acts like every stupid teenage male you could imagine. He's going after dealers and stealing their take each week? While completely ignoring going after Fenmere? Then, from a student perspective, he's talented, very talented and coasts on that and is one lazy son of a gun instead of working hard. Then when he does go out at night, he does NO planning, no tactics, no strategies, just shoot, hit and run and kind of counts on his natural abilities and acrobat training to get him through. He's a phracking idiot is what he is.

There were 4 distinct places where I almost DNF'd this. I hate stupid characters and Veranix was deliberately written as an angry, rash, stupid young man. Everybody else covers for him and instead of growing up and learning and becoming better, he's just clueless about their sacrifices on his behalf. I became an angry middle aged man reading about this chowderhead!

The story was good though and that is why this got even 2 stars. It is also the reason I'm giving Maresca one more book to turn things around. But if the characters in the next book act just as stupidly, I'll be coming down like a ton of bricks on that and abandon this author like a pile of donkey diarhea.

★★☆☆☆ , ( )

Unfortunately I just couldn't connect to the characters in this book.

Having read and enjoyed A Murder of Mages, I thought I'd swing back and enjoy this first book of Maradaine. But I was disappointed enough to quit at the half-way point. I was deriving no pleasure from the time spent. Veranix's backstory may be appealing, but delivering it in tiny hints is not beneficial. He appears to be a stupid prat whose actions are ill-considered and land him and his associates in trouble every time. I'm not engaged, I'm annoyed. ( )