Quest Academy Silvers

This story follows Salvatore as he joins an academy for teens with abilities – these abilities will be used to fight against demon incursions across the world. The story is unique in a few different ways, such as its heavy focus on crafting, it’s use of foresight/future telling to drive the narrative of the story and its world building.

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Starting with the crafting, our main character Salvatore has a few cool things going for him. His backstory as the son of a well known auction house grounds his character and quickly provides a basis for his vast knowledge in equipment, weapons, and more. In fact, I think this part of the story, his ability to evaluate items/equipment, mixed with any sequence where he uses the auction facilities at the Academy, are some of the best parts of the book.

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Further to crafting, the main character develops an ability early in the story that causes him to excel above most others are the academy, and by the sounds of it, beyond anyone in the world so far. This ability is overpowered, but very fun to explore as Salvatore uses it to craft some very cool things. (I’m being vague in this part, because I really don’t want to spoil anything.)

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The characters in the story are well fleshed out, and none so much as Salvatore’s friend and classmate ‘Divinity’. Her abilities allow her to see into the future, which is a very difficult concept to write and flesh out properly. With that said, I thoroughly believe the author did a great job utilizing this ability to advance the plot, explore different potential plots, and delve into the psyche of what it feels like to see potential futures. The ability opens up a lot of potential plot holes, admittedly, BUT I think they are navigated very well and I thought Divinity’s ability was really well handled.

The world building is gradual, but the tidbits we find out about the larger world are interesting.

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If I were to mention some things I didn’t love: the beginning is a bit exposition heavy, and in an 800-page book that meant it went on fairly long. Some of the female character interactions weren’t my favourite, but I certainly didn’t dislike them as much as some others – I actually felt there was a good mix of characters, despite some who immediately fawned over the main character in odd ways – the one steamy scene was unexpected, but it wasn’t poorly written, in my view. Lastly, I felt some of the skill interactions were a bit inconcistent, but I chalk it up to the ‘rule of cool’ and I think it paid off to evoke some cool imagery.

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Overall, I really enjoyed the story. I don’t often read books that are this long, but I found myself returning for more and enjoying what I was reading each time. I would happily recommend this story to anyone looking for an action-lite, crafting heavy, hefty read with interesting characters, fun skills and a lot of potential.

Rating: 4.3