Mage
The Wilds reclaim all things. Humanity shelters within their ever-dying cities. Mages and Archons create the only path forward.
While Tala is still burdened with an overly large debt, she needs to balance repayment with learning opportunities and surviving the arcanous creatures increasingly focused on her. Additionally, she must explore her newly acquired magical items, investigate a potentially lethal source of consumable power, and get back home with the caravan, trusting her defensive magics to keep her whole.
She has found that the world is bigger than she ever imagined, and what she had thought was the peak of power is only the beginning of her journey as a Mage.
-Goodreads
Title: Mage
Series: Millennial Mage #2
Author: J.L. Mullins
Page Count: 505
Genre: Fantasy / Young Adult
Rating: 4.5/5.0
Date Read: March 9th, 2025
Opening
My adventure through the Millennial Mage series by J.L. Mullins began in 2023 when I added book #1 Mageling to my personal SPFBO-9 TBR list. I enjoyed that read enough that I knew I would look to continue the series eventually.
Fast forward to March of 2025 and I finally got around to book #2 Mage. Honestly one of my only hang ups I had with book one was how young it read (the protagonist is young which is often a struggle for me) and this was seemed to progress from that a bit which allowed me to settle in and truly enjoy the time with book two.
Pacing
The pacing of the series in general is very smooth and quick. I would categorize the length of these books as middle of the road personally with them falling around 500 pages or there about. As much fun as I had with book one, I was able to focus and connect with book two even more. Now this could potentially be a timing thing as I am very much a mood reader. But the characters and story just allowed me to get intrenched very easily.
As with book one, I went with the audiobook version of Mage again. The narration by Tess Irondale continues to be a great performance. There are a lot of characters in these stories yet she does a wonderful job in giving each of them not only their own voice but their own character or feeling.
World Building
The Wilds are quickly becoming a very memorable world as I progress through this series. This world includes heavy magic as well as many fantastical creatures and perhaps gods. As our protagonist continues to come into her own, she seems to constantly be venturing away of the safety in numbers and get herself into trouble. For us readers though this makes some very entertaining adventure to experience!
I have to mention not only do we have a lot of variety within this world whether is out in the open Wilds or within the cities and towns, but it goes beyond that. I had such a great time visualizing these locations along the way. The author and narrator are really painting a picture of adventure with this story.
Character Development
The Wilds are quickly becoming a very memorable world as I progress through this series. This world includes heavy magic as well as many fantastical creatures and perhaps gods. As our protagonist continues to come into her own, she seems to constantly be venturing away of the safety in numbers and get herself into trouble. For us readers though this makes some very entertaining adventure to experience!
I have to mention not only do we have a lot of variety within this world whether is out in the open Wilds or within the cities and towns, but it goes beyond that. I had such a great time visualizing these locations along the way. The author and narrator are really painting a picture of adventure with this story.
Closing
Mage has rejuvenated my interest in this series so much that I have a feeling I will be knocking out at least a couple more of these reads yet in 2025. I see that the ninth installment is scheduled to release in April of this year so I certainly have some catching up to do with the Millennial Mage.
I would recommend this series to readers of fantasy looking for smooth easy reading with excellent world building, plenty of exciting adventure and a right magical world.
Scoring
Pacing 4.75 / 5.0
Worldbuilding 4.0 / 5.0
Character Development 4.25 / 5.0
