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The Magestics
Bergonia, once a place where humans and beings of magic lived together, has become a land where magic is outlawed and those who use or support it have been exiled. Creatures of magic are long gone and have become nothing but forgotten tales. Humans now control a land, divided into Five Kingdoms, and ruled in peace without magic. That is all about to change as a great evil threatens to return to Bergonia with a rising army bent on war. Young Semaj, a farmer’s son, loves his quiet life with his five childhood friends. As they enter their final year of school, Semaj and his friend’s lives are about to change forever when a mysterious stranger arrives seeking their help as their home is suddenly invaded by something that shouldn’t exist. The worlds of human and magic start to collide when Semaj and his friends are instantly forced upon a quest to discover the Chosen One and find those known as The Magestics. Together, only they can stop this coming evil and save all of Bergonia.
634 pages, Paperback
Published November 11, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 14, 2024
*DNF after 50 pages*
Picked this book up at a local farmers market and while James is clearly a great in person story teller (his excitement alone got me to purchase this and another book from him), he is lacking in written story telling. Honestly, this book needs an editor more than anything. Tons of grammar errors and dialogue that never felt right hinders this book from the get go. While the classic fantasy storylines are there, good ideas can only get you so far. There are moments that work but not enough to make me overlook the bigger issues.
Picked this book up at a local farmers market and while James is clearly a great in person story teller (his excitement alone got me to purchase this and another book from him), he is lacking in written story telling. Honestly, this book needs an editor more than anything. Tons of grammar errors and dialogue that never felt right hinders this book from the get go. While the classic fantasy storylines are there, good ideas can only get you so far. There are moments that work but not enough to make me overlook the bigger issues.
September 15, 2025
I like the story. There is just a lot of different characters to keep track of.
July 23, 2023
**Reviews are for readers, not authors**
If you’re looking for a riveting debut fantasy novel, filled with intriguing characters and unique magic, keep looking. I wouldn’t recommend this book. In an objective/technical sense, this is poorly written. “The Magestics” is a shining example of the importance of competent editors and honest beta readers and what happens when you don't employ them.
We first have to address that the Bergonia Saga is a blatant self insert fantasy novel. While some may not care, I was constantly distracted by the real world connections to this story, constantly distracted with how the author was apparently unable or unwilling to create entirely original characters who weren't based on him and his family/friends. James W Berg named his world (Bergonia) after his last name, named his main character after himself (Semaj is James spelled backwards), named his Gandalf/Dumbledore architype after his partner (Essej is Jesse spelled backwards), the examples abound. This just feels lazy and breaks immersion.
This book doesn't seem to be sure who its audience is. The main characters ages and the attempted "coming of age" plot would make you believe this wants to be a YA novel, while the childish writing style and untrained voice of the author scream middle grade adventure, and the mere size of the novel suggests the author was aiming for an adult audience who enjoys long high fantasies. The novel ultimately settles in the realm of an aimless, frustrating read that doesn't know what it wants to say or convey.
The writing style/author's voice scream untrained amateur; “Never show, only tell” seems to be the author’s motto. The heavy exposition tells us the history of Bergonia in large chunks, often interrupting the flow of the story. Clunky prose and poor grammar made the reading experience legitimately painful most of the time. And the typos. Oh God, the typos. They somehow got worse as the book progressed. “Feinted” instead of “fainted,” “ladder” instead of “latter”… Even if the author had just been able to hire a line editor to catch mistakes, it would have made this marginally better.
Berg struggles with dialogue. None of his characters speak to each other in a way that can be described as natural. Subtly is nonexistent in Bergona. The dialogue is often used as a poor expository device; characters outright state feelins, emotions, thoughts, and more. The dialogue tags often make no sense and do not match the energy of the conversation. We are constantly told that characters scream and shout, even when it doesn't make sense for them to do so. Berg must tell you exactly how his characters say things instead of letting the situation or intensity of their words imply how the words are conveyed. Em-dashes are never used and ellipses used rarely, making for some incredibly weird dialogue. At any given time, we may be interacting with up to 8-9 different characters, none of whom have a distinct personality other than the traits we are explicitly told about but never display.
The world building is nonsensical, messy, and often downright contradictory. I think the author was just coming up with things on the fly half the time. Everything we learn about Bergonia and its history comes in painful exposition dumps that stops whatever momentum James was able to build. You’d think the worldwide magic ban would pose more of a problem than it does, but there’s always loopholes and exceptions for why spells are being flung left and right. There’s a difference between “magic” (the spells are mixed up English words, no original language was created here) and Magesti (the nature magic the Magestics can wield). What that real difference happens to be is beyond me and the author. The plot is just 4 groups MacGuffin hunting and none of the hunts are interesting. The biggest crime is how bland everything is. This is just a run-of-the-mill fantasy world with no distinct cultures, basic creatures, and a poor magic system.
I was excited to hear about a local queer author writing high fantasy. I was unfortunately let down. I was never given the chance to be immersed in this world because of all the glaring mistakes and poor writing. This book could have potentially been a children’s fantasy if more time had been spent actually making it readable. What we’re left with is not worth the money or time.
If you’re looking for a riveting debut fantasy novel, filled with intriguing characters and unique magic, keep looking. I wouldn’t recommend this book. In an objective/technical sense, this is poorly written. “The Magestics” is a shining example of the importance of competent editors and honest beta readers and what happens when you don't employ them.
We first have to address that the Bergonia Saga is a blatant self insert fantasy novel. While some may not care, I was constantly distracted by the real world connections to this story, constantly distracted with how the author was apparently unable or unwilling to create entirely original characters who weren't based on him and his family/friends. James W Berg named his world (Bergonia) after his last name, named his main character after himself (Semaj is James spelled backwards), named his Gandalf/Dumbledore architype after his partner (Essej is Jesse spelled backwards), the examples abound. This just feels lazy and breaks immersion.
This book doesn't seem to be sure who its audience is. The main characters ages and the attempted "coming of age" plot would make you believe this wants to be a YA novel, while the childish writing style and untrained voice of the author scream middle grade adventure, and the mere size of the novel suggests the author was aiming for an adult audience who enjoys long high fantasies. The novel ultimately settles in the realm of an aimless, frustrating read that doesn't know what it wants to say or convey.
The writing style/author's voice scream untrained amateur; “Never show, only tell” seems to be the author’s motto. The heavy exposition tells us the history of Bergonia in large chunks, often interrupting the flow of the story. Clunky prose and poor grammar made the reading experience legitimately painful most of the time. And the typos. Oh God, the typos. They somehow got worse as the book progressed. “Feinted” instead of “fainted,” “ladder” instead of “latter”… Even if the author had just been able to hire a line editor to catch mistakes, it would have made this marginally better.
Berg struggles with dialogue. None of his characters speak to each other in a way that can be described as natural. Subtly is nonexistent in Bergona. The dialogue is often used as a poor expository device; characters outright state feelins, emotions, thoughts, and more. The dialogue tags often make no sense and do not match the energy of the conversation. We are constantly told that characters scream and shout, even when it doesn't make sense for them to do so. Berg must tell you exactly how his characters say things instead of letting the situation or intensity of their words imply how the words are conveyed. Em-dashes are never used and ellipses used rarely, making for some incredibly weird dialogue. At any given time, we may be interacting with up to 8-9 different characters, none of whom have a distinct personality other than the traits we are explicitly told about but never display.
The world building is nonsensical, messy, and often downright contradictory. I think the author was just coming up with things on the fly half the time. Everything we learn about Bergonia and its history comes in painful exposition dumps that stops whatever momentum James was able to build. You’d think the worldwide magic ban would pose more of a problem than it does, but there’s always loopholes and exceptions for why spells are being flung left and right. There’s a difference between “magic” (the spells are mixed up English words, no original language was created here) and Magesti (the nature magic the Magestics can wield). What that real difference happens to be is beyond me and the author. The plot is just 4 groups MacGuffin hunting and none of the hunts are interesting. The biggest crime is how bland everything is. This is just a run-of-the-mill fantasy world with no distinct cultures, basic creatures, and a poor magic system.
I was excited to hear about a local queer author writing high fantasy. I was unfortunately let down. I was never given the chance to be immersed in this world because of all the glaring mistakes and poor writing. This book could have potentially been a children’s fantasy if more time had been spent actually making it readable. What we’re left with is not worth the money or time.
October 24, 2023
The overall plot and story are good, but to me there is a lot of "telling but not showing." I wish we had a few more moments to "realize" things ourselves or postulate a bit more, but it feels like quite a few things are explained to us directly through dialogue that doesn't feel quite natural. There are some sentences that feel like they were added purely to explain something, but don't feel like they fit the flow of a conversation or match up with how people talk in real life. I also wish there was a bit more description of minor characters to help readers visualize and immerse a bit more. I find myself enjoying the story, but not really being able to fully immerse in it, it just feels a bit flat. Lots of potential here but I ended up reading the book in 1-2 chapter spurts because after a certain amount of time I just got annoyed with certain choices regarding detail, dialogue, etc.
I had the chance to meet James at a local farmers market and he seemed like a great guy, and I wish the series all the success! It just might be a little bit of time before I reach to pick up book 2.
I had the chance to meet James at a local farmers market and he seemed like a great guy, and I wish the series all the success! It just might be a little bit of time before I reach to pick up book 2.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews