Read History

2026 | Score: 1.5

This was so so boring. The magic system felt like it was being made up by the author as the story went along and the power balancing felt terrible because of this. On top of all the characters being incredibly one dimensional as well as dumb people, the concept itself of someone with a ton of knowledge isn’t very fun, and reminded me of all the negatives of The Captain by Will Wight.

Format: Kindle

Days: 9

Date: 8/9/2026 -> 8/18/2026

Summary (Spoilers)

The Faded Lands
D. E. Sherman
Keiran: The Eternal Mage #1

The Faded Lands Summary

Keiran, a 2,000+ year old archmage, feels his soul awaken in his new body. He went through a huge ritual at the end of his past life to ensure that when his spirit was reincarnated, after it hit a certain mana threshold it would awaken all his past memories. In doing this he basically steals the body of the 3 year old boy Gravin. Keiran figures out he is the youngest child of a family living in a small village. The strangest thing is that there does not seem to be any ambient mana in the environment/air. In his past life in the Night Vale, Keiran was used to mana being everywhere but here the only mana is what people can generate on their own.

Keiran begins the process of trying to keep his newly awakened persona a secret and create a mana crystal to store mana so he can eventually “ignite” his core, allowing it to generate 20x mana. His sister Senica and his parents are hard to fool though and he does not do a good job of acting like a three year old boy. He also is trying to figure out the strange political / magic situation. Every night all the villagers (About 200) go and put their mana in a “draw stone” which they are told will power a barrier to keep monsters out, but Keiran can sense there is no barrier. The leader of the village, Lord Noctra, is clearly lying to them and using the mana for something else.

Eventually Keiran empowers his core, although he makes Senica and his mother suspicious in the process. His dad confronts him and he reveals he is not Gravin, but Keiran. His family takes this way too well considering he stole their son's life. Eventually all his mana tampering is noticed and Noctra takes his dad in for questioning, and Keiran scries and sees him use a sleep spell on his father and say he is going to sell him off somewhere else. Keiran and his mother need to save him so Keiran makes a mana crystal, breaks into where the draw stones are kept and steals all the village's mana. He takes his mother and sister and they fly after his father, catching and saving him.

They hide out in the wild for a bit, eventually Noctra’s assistant shows up and Keiran kills her. They go back to town and Keiran kills Noctra while he sleeps, then tries to get enough evidence to prove to the village Noctra was lying to them about the barrier. He convinces the new village council who he is and they say they will put him on house arrest even though he is the most powerful person here. He agrees since he wants to help them and figure out if the mage cabal Noctra was in debt to come looking. He begins working on advancing his core again and training some new students, but they get interrupted when a group comes to attack them. Keiran kills two mages and then imprison some warriors he tortures for information. This is too much for the locals so they tell him to leave. He packs up his stuff and heads for the nearest big town (He is still only 4 and the size of a child). THE END.