1 ★

Alex Verus runs a magic shop where he sells real magic. He tries to stay away from the rest of the mages because of different incidents in his past. However, this does not protect him from getting into a conflict between good and evil. Alex is a psychic - a rare kind of mage, who can see the near future. This ability is highly in demand and can cost him his life…

At the beginning I liked the writing style and Alex as a character. He is very sarcastic, but also – and this is partly due to his abilities – arrogant and presumptuous. These character traits were entertaining at first, but they became quite annoying in the long run. I was also annoyed at the repeated hints about something in his past, but none of it gets explained further. Only relatively late in the story, Alex’ (of course very dramatic) past gets revealed, but at that point I wasn't interested anymore.

The magic system is divided into white mages and black mages. Black mages are absolutely evil and enjoy hurting others. But the white mages are not much better either – both sides just want power. Since no one is "good", I found it difficult to take a side and root for someone. Because no matter how you turn it, you can only lose… The group of black mages appeared repeatedly and chased Alex, while he repeatedly fled successfully. That got annoying fast. In general, not much happens in the story. The plot takes place in too many different locations and many events remain unrelated and were therefore unnecessary.

Alex is always in danger because he is hunted by other mages, but for a very, very long time he is unaware of why they do it. Since this reason is also withheld from the reader, it’s a constant cat-and-mouse game, a back and forth without a superior goal or a plan. The suspense is there, but it is more of a stumbling forward – the feeling of threat doesn’t set in. Since the same thing often happens without getting new information, I quickly got bored.

But what totally ruined the suspense was Alex's ability to look into the future. By knowing what will happen next, he is able to escape from everything or at least change situations in his favor. This never led to any real conflict or danger. Unfortunately, this quickly made the story boring and annoying.

The ability to look into the future is pretty cool. Unfortunately, it was used so often that any suspense was killed. In addition to that, a lot is repeated and none of the characters were very likeable. Overall, I found the book rather boring and partly annoying.