Yesterday's Spacemage

The Spacemage Chronicle #1

by Timothy Ellis

Pirates and Slavers Beware, the Space Mage is coming for you!

All Thorn wanted, was to be a Battle Mage.

He had the talent, and his whole future was before him.

On the day of Choosing, he finds things don't always go as planned. Suddenly Thorn's life is thrown into fast forward, and he finds himself in a world not of his own choosing.

In a world of spaceships and blasters, instead of horses and swords, Thorn needs to adapt and survive, make new allies, and rediscover that although nothing is familiar, he's still a Mage, and pirates and slavers beware.

Yesterday is history, and today he's become, Yesterday's Spacemage.

The Spacemage Chronicle
1. Yesterday's Spacemage
2. Today's Spacemage *forthcoming Apr/May 18*
3. *forthcoming*

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Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Space, Magic, Space Opera, Fiction, Audiobook

242 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 22, 2018

About the author

#1 UK Best Selling Superhero/Metaphysical SFF/Cyberpunk 2023
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(New info added at the bottom, in response to feedback and reviews.)

Timothy Ellis lives on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia; where he constantly battles with his cat for possession of his desk chair, Daleks do guard duty, and he keeps his sonic screwdriver next to his lightsaber and wand. Now there is a female Doctor Who, he eagerly awaits the sound of the Tardis materializing in his house.

He has spent his life reading and watching science fiction and fantasy, and has been playing Space Genre computer games since he used to be smuggled in to play the original text Star Trek game on a university mainframe, long before the PC or Apple appeared. Since 2004, he's written game guides for the Egosoft X Universe series, culminating in two versions of the X3 Handbook. He has also designed major mods for the various games, and dozens of mini mods.

He has been a farm worker, Antique Dealer, Computer Programmer, Systems Analyst, Operations Manager of a small retail chain, and Retail Store Owner. He is now a full time author, who still does Spiritual Healer and helper work.

After leaving behind the corporate and business worlds, he was opened to his Spiritual gifts. Now a Feng Shui Master, Feng Shui led him to Buddhism, Karma, the Tao, and back to western spiritualism. Since 2006 he has been writing spiritual articles and helping people via spiritual forums and Facebook Groups. His spiritual books include "Personal Healing Using Basic Meditation", "Life Harmony, Feng Shui in Plain English", '101 Tips for the John of God Brazil Experience', and "The Wisdom of the Ages is available for the price of asking a question" series of 8 books. His own spiritual healing led him to writing novels.

His first novel, 'Hero at Large', spawning the long running 'The Hunter Imperium' universe, brings together his love of the space genre, magic, spirituality, and cats. Now 10 series long, the universe covers 3 galaxies, 4100 years, and as at Dragon Imperative, 62 Novels, 7 shorts, and 2 companion books. There are 7 main entrance points across 10 series: Hero at Large, Admiral of Gaia, Yesterday's Spacemage, Crossover, Midshipman Spacemage, Old Magic, and Dragon Rider. Alternate entrance points if you don't need backstory first, are Adrift and Mage King, although Dragon Rider has 3 books before it about the dragons.

If you wish to be kept up to date with new releases and information in The Hunter Legacy Universe series, subscribe here: http://eepurl.com/bqMgVz, and follow on Amazon, Goodreads, or BookBub.

The fastest way to find out about a new release is my Facebook group/page, which get advance warning about 2-4 days before release, and again when the book is uploaded to Kindle; and my email list which goes out as soon as I have an Amazon page for the new book. Bookbub will let you know about 3-4 days after I remember to tell them.

I normally will release in advance of the specified release date whenever possible, so if you are a Kindle Unlimited reader, you will want another method to be notified of the actual release date, so you can read on day 1.

Reviews

[Dean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unsatisfying (spoilers ahead)

The book started off with promise as many of Mr Ellis's books do but after a promising time twist the protagonist seemed to turn into a apathetic emo voyeur who did whatever the aggressive female secondary characters told him to with no real opinion of his own. The battles had no real tension after the first couple as it was clear the protagonist would suddenly gain whatever power he needed when he was told to save the day. Not a good book at all.

[Steven Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Could have been a good book.

The beginning of the book felt rushed, but then settled into a more comfortable pace. The middle of the book was well written and I really liked where the story was going. Then came one of the worst endings ever. It didn't fit the story, and left me feeling angry. If you like being strung along and then cheated in the end read this book.

[Lukas Lovas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've enjoyed reading this book a lot.

The beginning is rushed, and for a good reason. I appreciate the need to establish the main characters background, but there's also no point in making us care about characters/places that will have no impact on the rest of the book. So the beginning feels rushed - but it's OK.

The book itself is well written. It has a heavy emphasis on the evils of slavery and rape, which is something most of us (I hope) can get behind, and along the lines, it explores how a magic user might funcion in an interstellar society. I loved that the magic seems rather logical in some ways, and modern understanding of sciences enhances it. Enjoyable, fun, and short. The ending is also great in that if you want to continue the series, you can (book 2 continues seamlessly), but there is no cliffhanger so the book can stand on its own too.

[Frank Bertino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pirates And Slavers Beware The Mage

I really like when evil gets smacked down by good. I hate slavers or any situation where someone controls another. Hence, I very much enjoyed Thorn sticking it to the pirates and slavers. Thorn is a compelling, intriguing character who feels real. I hope more books follow as I would like to see Thorn in action again.

[Ptdog · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, so I read this author's books because he tells interesting stories well, including this one. I gave it 3 stars because I'm tired of his homophobia in his male characters or in subtext. This just may be the last time I read one of his stories. I'm going to think on it.

[Wanda binz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story

This is a great story. The characters are well written and have as real personality you can relate to. Enjoy

[David Halim]

Good and different.

It is a great book. Interesting to see a someone unfamiliar with technology. What their motivations would be if they are thrust into the future. Nice misteryous ending. Would love to see where it would go if there comes a sequel. Love the magic and technology combination.

[Jasper Zweedijk · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bagger

[Red Tide · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting

This is a really good and unusual story. The action drives the characters and only the main character can be seen to grow. But that's enough for me. The other characters are stock characters for this storyline. They fit well enough and that a!ways makes it easier for me to read.

The basic premise is awesome, even though the writing doesn't support it as well as it might. The story moves along at a good pace this universe unfolds naturally. There is a lot of sadness and violence which is unavoidable when characters are enslaved. The shallow relationships and breezy dialogue for me highlighted the main character's loneliness.

The political and societal background is simplistic but has just enough depth on which to hang the story. The story rests on sensitivity to horrors that are often background noise in science fiction. I think that that together with the fast pace might make it a good read.

I am not sure that I will read the sequel because I am not sure where the story can go from here.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't expect it, but I'm finding that I really like these kind of books. This series has a lot of the same components as Glynn Stewart's Starships Mage series while not really borrowing anything much from those books, just magic in a spaceship filled universe. I think the authors in both series do an excellent job of using magic as an integral part of the story without overshadowing the rest of the universe, and this makes for an excellent story with plenty of action to keep just about anyone on the edge of their chair wondering where the story is going next. Will most definitely be reading more in this series.

[Melissa Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty decent read. I think this could have been a solid 5 stars with a bit of a push to the MC. I loved the idea of Magic and space mixing and the MC's jumps were timed well. It just seemed to me that there was no purpose for Thorn. He didn't really feel a need to do much of anything. Oh, don't get me wrong, he did plenty that was heroic and cool. But, he had no plan, drive or that extra something that a man with a mission has. Still, great book that was enjoyable from front to back and I am excited to read the next book.

[Ty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read!

I very much enjoyed this read! It has good character development, lots of conflict, and the revenge they exact is quite satisfying. Read this!

[Hesperjan Bladewick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tim.....Awesome

This was a great read and I hope the author will make it a trilogy....main character can always update the "note" at the end of each book. Hope to read more soon.

[M. Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well Done!

I'm not big on statements but this book is excellent. I particularly like the competence shown as Thorn's ability increases. I'm sincerely hoping for a trilogy.
Thank you for a great time.

[Grant Merrifield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book

Wish I could read the next five the now.
Great story line,knew how to use a sword.
Should have had an axe.

[Te Kee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rousing fun read

Interesting and enjoyable start to finish. I could not put down until I finished. Hope there will be more, thank you. 😺

[Gareth Otton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a lot of fun, however, it was constantly tiptoeing the line of becoming absolute garbage.

The story of Thorn, a mage in training from the dark ages being transported through time to a future where no one does magic anymore and technology rules was a really fun concept to explore. And for the most part, it was obvious that the author was having a lot of fun exploring said concept. I say that because 90% of this book is a pure wish-fulfilment fantasy. It's only really a story in the vaguest sense of the word.

Where this worked for the novel was that it was a lot of fun. Whenever given the chance, Timothy Ellis almost always chose a path for his characters that put a smile on my face, no matter how unrealistic.

The caveat to all this is that by the end of the novel a few things were starting to grate on me.

The first was a fairly strong anti-male message that was littered throughout this book. With the exception of the protagonist, every man in the book was either a rapist or was an apologist for a rapist. On the one hand, I think this was done to set up straw men targets for the protagonists to do what they wanted to without alienated the reader. However, on the other hand, it got really heavy-handed and got in the way of the rest of the novel.

Finally, there were Thorn's powers. I'm a huge fan of overpowered characters in general and have never bought into the so-called 'Superman' problem where a character becomes 'too powerful' to be interesting. I think that's just an excuse for when a lazy writer isn't creative enough to come up with conflict to drive the story. That being said, a character always needs somewhere to grow in order to be interesting and Thorn came dangerously close to being a fully formed 'Gary Stu' right out of the box. This robbed every scene of tension as Thorn has a 'Batman's utility belt' of magic to always save the day and pretty easily most of the time.

As a one-off, this book is a barrel of fun. It always flirted with being a bit too much but held it together enough for 4 stars. I'm immediately going to be jumping into the next book in this series, but I'll admit to being a little trepidatious because, after this novel, the author's going to have to be really creative to give Thorn something he needs to actually work towards so he can progress and grow as a character.

[Rohit Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

A genuinely entertaining start and I enjoyed the authors to-the-point writing style. Then he rather obviously starts trying to live out some deep, insecure, male-fantasies in every scene. Tried to ignore it, but it’s so constant I began to feel sorry for the sexually-frustrated teenage years that spawned this writing. If you can look past it, you are luckier than I. Lastly, slavery and rape is evil but prostitution is apparently wonderful. He goes out of his way to make the prostitute act as if she loves every minute of it. Puke.

[Wolfgarr · Rating 4 out of 5]

This 3 book series was pretty good. Would def recommend it to anyone who enjoys Science fiction with a taste of magic. While there were some parts in the latter books (Book 3) that pushed a few of my buttons, they are not so bad as to detract from the overall story.

This type of story (science fiction) is one genre that i really enjoy. The fact that it is a combination science/magic just made it all that much better. It is a shame that such a combination is rare.

[Craig Becker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Predictable

MAGES IN SPACE.. SPACE.... SPACE!!!! Kind of a wet dream sort of book. No real tension, no real drama, no real character development. Good potato chip book. Prob read the next if it's free.

[Wade Kakoschke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another frustrating book for me to review because I have very mixed thoughts.

Yesterday's Spacemage has an intriguing premise that I really liked. The protagonist is a bit too powerful for my liking, eliminating a lot of tension, but the concept of a magic-wielder from the past having to connect with a new form of magic in the future is very cool.

What I didn't enjoy was the objectification of the female characters. Virtually every woman in the story is repeatedly getting naked, forcibly or otherwise. This fact is emphasised over and over, the author even mentioning times when a female character had been naked, when it’s not relevant to the scene. There’s a character who actively wants the protagonist to see her naked all the time, even though she’s a lesbian. Sometimes, it's a necessary (or, at the very least, additive) element of the plot, but mostly it feels like a boyish fantasy.

Rape is treated too casually. The characters obviously view it as a terrible thing, but it's written as though it’s just a thing that happens. There are conversations that basically come off like, “By the way, that character was raped.” “Oh, well, I won’t tell her that you told me.” It’s very off-putting.

In summary, the author’s writing style is fine, not drawing too much attention to itself. The plot is interesting and original enough to have maintained my interest. However, the handling of female characters was horrendous and enough to stop me from pursuing this series further.

[Dayton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I Loved The Ending

A lot of reviewers will say they did not enjoy the ending. I can see why some would hold that opinion. To me, it made a lot of sense. It felt like an appropriate ending to the insane — and short — adventuring life of the main character. I hope the sequels don’t squander it.

I really liked the book, but you may have noticed a three-star rating. A few key things bothered me throughout the book. For one: the dreaded comma. You’ll notice very frequent misplaced commas. At first, my brain was adding pauses for every one (which caused me a few chuckles). I had to learn to ignore them.

My second problem: for nearly all of the novel, Thorn (the main character) was in no danger. He was basically a Mech in ancient Egypt. Only a few scant pages yielded any danger. It took most tension away.

But. Yesterday’s Spacemage isn’t really about mortal danger. It’s more about the beginning of a godlike entity. It’s about the start of his moral struggles while he hones his abilities. If the sequels continue in the same path, I will happily read them all.

In the end, I recommend this books. It’s worth the time and very enjoyable.

[kuro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a bad read confusing set of magic skill set and char that had no potential of understanding his powers. Yes it goes in detail that he trained but it was no well thought or imagine hopefully in the next book the mc will be able to understand his gifts more. Anble to harness energy from the sun yet not able to make a fire ball? Or even

Not a bad read . Very confusing set of magic skill set and char that had no potential of understanding his powers. Yes it goes in detail that he trained but it had no pure imagination that get your blood flowing. hopefully in the next book the mc will be able to understand his gifts more. Able to harness energy from the sun yet not able to make a fire ball? Or even to control spaceships but have no knowledge of them. Went through two years on a planet that was atleast more advance then his own amd learn nothing ....it just seem a real bad character flaw that bugs me other then that the story is well written and worth a read not a best one but still better than tame my princess jeez

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked it, but what made this 4 stars instead of 5 stars was 3 things.
1) Why on earth didn't the party just fill most of the MC's area with more generators? If he gets power from them to do magic, give him more of it for when it really matters. I realize that would probably make him OP, so you wouldn't want to do that, but GIVE me a reason why it would be a bad idea or wouldn't work
2) The MC alone is why the rest of the party is still alive, considering the extra stuff they had to deal with, even after they had been freed. Despite this, the captain STILL wants him gone? Are you kidding me? That's just plain suicidal. In plenty of other books, people put up with FAR worse for FAR lesser reasons. Yes, I realize she's been mentally scarred, but at some point, your reaction goes a bit overboard to the point of you just being a drama queen.
3) The ending. Let's face it, that was a total WTF, and I didn't know what to make of it.

[Rob Enderle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fun read and I'm already well into the second book. Mage from the past performs at superhuman levels in a tech future. His power set is a bit over the top and he tends to work with a lot of women who are both really attractive but like other women (it sucks to be him for much of the first book). This is kind of an anti-harem adventure and since I'm not o fan of harems (they really make no sense to me) I loved it. He eventually finds a girlfriend but the sex is modest and not over the top so a nice break from the action but not annoying. Overall a quick read hat had enough going on that time flies when you are reading the book Only long-term issue is that he continues to get stronger making finding situations where he can't just magically win almost instantly harder and harder. But little drama, the distinction between good and bad is clear, little angst (which I find annoying), and some decent world building. Enjoyed it a lot.

[Celia Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

A light hearted read with a good message

I was looking for a book with action, not too deep, but still challenged me to wonder, "What if?" Timothy delivered. I've read the reviews about the ending leaving you hanging and I have to disagree. Perhaps it's an age "thing", but I get that a powerful person who is young in their power and experience would seek -- need -- a time of solitude and contemplation after discovering the magnitude of what they might be capable of. In this current time of more, now, MORE, NOW, it's refreshing to read a story that says there is a time when you need to step back and consider who you are and what you stand for.

Besides, I read Mr. Ellis' comments at the end of the book so I KNOW there will be MORE SOON. It's worth the wait while Thorn grows into himself.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun read. Way overpowered MC who is basically a young god or demigod masquerading as a wizard. Throw him in space with a bunch of lesbian hotties with a bone to pick with slavers and you have a decent story. SPOILER ALERT A lot of people didn't like the ending. I thought it wasn't bad, and actually sets up the possibility for a sequel. I think the MC actually jumped to a different time when he was originally found by the slaver (who had been surprised to find someone there). It makes sense since the slavers were there to establish a base, not for slaves, as we were led to believe. A lot of mysteries remain, but that's partly what makes it a fun read. Like, will he try to jump back to his own time? What happens then?

[Kyle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This series feels exactly like watching someone play a video game with all the cheat codes turned on. That shallow pleasure of one-hit killing top level baddies is ALL this book is about. The god-like hero even gets bored himself by how easy it is. The author obviously cannot get enough this trick, and assumes we can't either. I half expected some kind of self awareness about all this at some point. Was this actually some kind of experimental writing exercise, all to be flipped on its head by some plot reversal? Lol, nope. The most interesting thing about this series is how someone gets published using a gimmick that even a high school writing class would've instantly flagged as a problem. That bewilderment actually kept me reading to the end.

[Noodle The Naughty Night Owl · Rating 5 out of 5]

9/10: Fantastic, left me wanting more.

"Thorn, are you ready for a full on war?" "No. But I'm learning as fast as I can."

This first book in a series set in a wider universe of many series was quick to grab my attention. Thorn is young and shows his immaturity to begin with, but he does mature during the first book thankfully (stops perving at naked women in showers!).

The magic worked well in space, and I even enjoyed his first two lives in different time periods, but I loved it when he got to the stars finally.

Things were, things are, and things happen. We make choices, and we live with them. I lived with mine.

Looking forward to the next book in the series.

[jerry smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great story. Editing was good with only a 3 or 4 words left out or left in, And one missed named character. I don't think I caught any misspelled words or bad sentences. I can't spell and made D's in English all through school, But I somehow spot every mistake in a book I'm reading. Spotting a mistake snaps me out of the story and pisses me off. Mr Ellis tells a good story in every way you want. I was happy to have a different tale from the Hunter storyline (even though that is a awesome series). I liked this story of the lonely mage's space odyssey. The book was (dare I say) magical?