Awakening Horde

Shieldwall Academy, Book 1

By: M Zaugg

Narrated by: J.S. Arquin

Against all odds, a defiant street rat takes on a ruthless empire.

Pax, a cunning street rat without a class, navigates life in a city constantly threatened by monstrous beast waves. He's dedicated to keeping his crew safe and fed, especially after his family vanished without a trace. But when his best friend is captured, Pax risks it all—even his freedom—on the eve of the Awakening.

Caught and thrust into the Astan Empire's war machine, Pax must adapt to survive the perils of the empire's elite mage academy. While struggling to harness the forbidden magic surging within him, he must avoid the attention of corrupt leaders determined to snuff out any hint of rebellion and maintain their iron grip on power.

With ancient secrets, and long-lost spells at stake, can Pax triumph against his foes, defeat fearsome monsters, and secure a future for himself and his crew?

©2023 Misty Zaugg (P)2023 Misty Zaugg

alright book.

decent story, the main character is a little annoying but the story's alright. worlds interesting but the magic restrictions feel off.

Loved the story

Once the story got to our main character I loved it. I want to know how Pax is going to make it through the school year

Street rats go to magic school

In a world with four-element magic, street rat Pax awakens a forgotten fifth element in the government enforced RPG Class draft. He's shipped off to magic school, where any deviation from the norm is Very Bad News, and has to disguise his magic to keep from getting caught. His closest allies are a himbo fire mage and cautious water mage.

If you've been craving a magic school story that actually focuses on how magic works and what happens in classes, this is a great choice. Pax quickly learns to hide system notifications until he pulls them up, so the LitRPG elements don't interrupt scenes.

Students are sorted by their elements as well as combat and support based on their power levels. There's also a wide social/wealth range, so there are some scenes of bullying but not as much as many school based stories. Pax makes more friends than enemies.

There is some monster fighting throughout and the awesome cover art does eventually pay off.

The narration is nothing exciting but it does the job. The two best friend characters have distinct voices, along with a few other characters. Some voices are reused for similar characters but it only got confusing for two "floaty noble girl" characters. I'm pretty sure they were two different characters, at least.

A few gripes: The prologue chapters are heavy combat without context, which I found off-putting. Most character descriptions include what mix of human-elf-dwarf they appear to be, but this never really matters in this book. Some repetitive word/phrases. I look forward to reading future books in this series and from this author.

A good start!

The story is fairly basic. Street kids has unknown magic and all the problems that come from being in a crumbling corrupt society. The performance was done very well and had a nice verity of voices. The only problem I had was the time jump at the start of the book. It kept distracting me from the rest of the story while I tried fitting the future character with the 16 year old version. I will be interested in seeing where the story goes.

Odd choices

The author made some of the characters so unlikeable and I don't understand why. It wouldn't change the story to make them reasonable but instead the other characters are fine with a char that hates everyone.