Author: Scotto Moore
Publisher: Tor.com
Released: January 11, 2021
Received: NetGalley

Ready Player One meets fantasy in Scotto Moore’s Battle of the Linguist Mages. So if you loved the vibes of that novel, but wanted to see it taken in a slightly different direction, then I would seriously consider checking this one out.

Isobel has become famous for her VR and gaming abilities. More specifically, she’s famous for playing Sparkle Dungeon. In this game, one has to master vocal spells in order to succeed and master them she has.

Unfortunately, this fame has made Isobel a target of sorts – and not for the reasons you might expect. She’s about to find herself knee-deep in a real fight to protect the planet. Who could have seen that coming?

I went into Battle of the Linguist Mages with high hopes. I fully expected (and hoped) to be blown off my feet. And while I did enjoy the read, I can’t pretend that it was my favorite. Still, I don’t regret reading it.

I loved the premise of Battle of the Linguist Mages but felt that it fell short in the character development department. It was a fight to care about Isobel and everything she was working so hard towards…which is a shame, because again – I wanted to like it all.

Otherwise, I did enjoy the story. I love how creative the world is and all of the events that were thrown in our direction. I wasn’t expecting too many surprises, but I was wrong there! That kept the novel interesting enough for me to happily read through to the end.

I’m not going to lie; there were times where Sparkle Dungeon and its descriptions had me cracking up. The idea of it all was too vivid in my mind for me to easily let go of, and that gave me a lot of amusement. So thank you, Scotto Moore, for putting a smile on this face.

Thanks to Tor.com and #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.