Gift of the Unmage by Alma Alexander

When approached with the Worldweavers series by Alma Alexander, I was rather excited to start reading them as the world sounded super exciting.

Who knew you’d be a true weaver?

Great things have been expected of Thea, the seventh child of two seventh children. Now, with Cheveyo, a mage, Thea has begun to weave herself a new magical identity, infused with elements of the original worlds. But back home, Thea keeps her abilities hidden and attends the Wandless Academy, the one school on Earth for those who have no apparent magical talent. It is there that Thea realizes that her enemies are hungrier and more dangerous than she knew. What’s more, her greatest strength may be the powerlessness she has resisted for so long.

Gift of the Unmage starts out with Thea, the seventh child of two seventh children, having issues with working any sort of magic. Issues so profound for both her and her family that she is sent off to various tutors to try and help awaken her magic in various ways. In a world where most of the population has magic of some kind, she is looked upon as sort of an outcast, a “Magdim” – one with no magical abilities whatsoever.

I have to say that the story dragged a bit for the entire first half of the book. I kept wondering to myself when I would see any sort of plot advancement and almost put the book down a few times. Alexander is a bit too descriptive for my tastes, as I don’t need pages of how the surroundings look.

That said, once you get to the halfway mark of Gift of the Unmage the story picks up quite a bit; we learn why Thea hasn’t been able to do magic and the world starts to get pretty amazing. At this point I couldn’t put the book down. I was literally stealing any time I could (even at work! lol) to find out what happens. Thea finds out just how special she is and how much danger she is in, which I would love to explain but I don’t wish to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t read it yet.

Even though the first half of the book was super slow I found the world and its characters to be very unique, and that is something you don’t find very often anymore. Gift of the Unmage is incredibly written and filled with wonderful characters that you grow to love and want to know more about.  The one thing I didn’t like was something that happened in the ending that I really don’t wish to spoil, but I feel that the author could have written it better.  All in all this book is a must read for the young adult wanting a magical world with great characters.

Read Order:
Gift of the Unmage
Spellspasm
Cybermage

Also reviewed by:
Dragons Heroes and Wizards
Blogcritics Review