This is definitely a slow burn type of book. Democryos, the main character, is the Master Voider at the Citadel, the place where voiders (aka people who can enter the void and manipulate it) are taught their art. He answers to the king that is fighting a war and wants more and more voiders. Then, in the middle of the night his much younger and beautiful wife leaves Dem. He then goes on a journey to find her with an assassin and an effulgent (a priest). He finds much more than just his estranged wife on the journey, including evidence of all that he holds dear is completely different than he knew. The character growth is solid and the plot is good, even if it is a little slow at times.

Starts as a bit of a slow burner but evolves into a solid fantasy read. One of the best I can remover reading. The author has a fabulous imagination and the story was both impressive and inventive. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the arc.

While unlikable characters aren't a problem for me, the main character of this book is impossible. I couldn't get into the story because I couldn't get into his mind. He's egotistical, privileged and the disdain he has for his wife, who we are constantly reminded is a whore, makes him impossible to sympathize with.

The worldbuilding is interesting and the magic system is creative but the writing left me rereading pieces over and over. It wasn't clear.

The author's choice to portray his women as flat stereotypes with very little character development made this book a slog to get through. Maybe the next book will be better but I'm not anticipating reading it.

I'm giving it 2 stars for the magic system.

Such an imaginative, mysterious, and well-detailed world, I find myself already hoping for book 2 of this new fantasy series from D.M. Wozniak. I immediately connected with the main character Dem and found all of the characters to be well-developed. The characters experience a good amount of growth through the story and the villain is a great foil to Dem himself. They kept me guessing as they slowly revealed themselves through the plot situations that occurred. If I had to pick a favorite, I'd go with Blythe as I found him and his religion to be fascinating. I'm very impressed with the world building which was seamless throughout the story.

The whole book has a great flow to it by slowly introducing new places and people to create a whole picture and the plot delves into some deep topics that make you think like betrayal, drug addiction, trust, and regret. SO much happens in this story! I mean, I was hooked from the first chapter but the pacing is just right. This is even more impressive when looking at the reveals because BIG stuff happens. The world created here is totally different by the end of the book and watching the characters respond as they learn more was interesting.

For me though, I'm most impressed by and interested in the magic system. The indivisibles that make up this world and the void where you manipulate them is truly unique to other fantasies I've read and I loved it. I'd say this aspect has me most excited about the next book in the series. My one critique, and it's a small one, is I wish the ending hadn't been a cliff-hanger. I'm already sold, I want to read book 2, so I'm not really a fan of endings that just drop off BUT even though I'm complaining (probably because I just wanted more of it) I'm definitely keeping my eyes open for the next in this series. Definitely recommend this one to any fantasy reader.


Note: I received a free Kindle edition of this book via NetGalley in exchange for the honest review above. I would like to thank NetGalley and the author D. M. Wozniak for the opportunity to do so.

Language-wise, I really think it is easily comprehensible. But due to the fact how this novel is quite slow in building the tension - there is no element of surprise. I tried reading a few more chapters because of all this 'void' element that seems to be good attention-seeking material, but then, that's it. It is hard to keep reading them without feeling curious.

Too bad, this book looks promising though.

Probably unpopular opinion here, but I’m very sorry to say that this book in the end wasn’t for me.
It has one of the best starts I ever read but unfortunately I lost interest half way through the book.
I started to not caring about the story, about the characters, about the adventure.
It has nothing too complicated to understand but after the middle of the book the all fast-pace it had at the beginning died down.

Epic style dark fantasy .
Wonderful ride , great well thought out plot and characters.
Book 1 of a hopefully plentiful series.

I had a love and hate relationship with this book that mixed between the plot and story line. Magic seems to be a hit or miss for me most of the time, and this one kept me in the middle.

oid magic has to be carefully taught and managed, and Master Voider Democryos sends a student into the war-torn countryside each year to work that magic. Lady Marine, his wife and former student, leaves him for a mysterious voider. Obsessed with his missing wife, Democryos sets out on a quest into the countryside to search for her. The King sends Chemeline, a member of his harem, to comfort Democryos. He also interacts with Blythe, who leads worshipers of the "Unnamed," as well as Colu, the wounded soldier with a patch over one eye. Together, they discover the means to understand voidance itself.

There is a lot of worldbuilding, from the inherited ability to manipulate voidstones in the voiders, to the Effulgents, hairless cultists that preach the use of voidstones is evil. The nature of magic and the voidstones is fascinating, as is the eventual revelation of the "empowered," who can manipulate the axion of the series title. That is the ultimate power, and involves the axiondrive, which had once upon a time powered a starship the size of a citadel.

In addition to the main story are several side stories that eventually weave into the main plot. Once they all pull together, the story picks up its pace and is a fantastic ride. Dem has his prejudices challenged as the story progresses, and the teachings of both the voiders and the Effulgents interweave. Some of their shocking discoveries are easily guessed if you read enough about magic and fantasy novels, but the horror that they feel is very real, and they deal with it appropriately. None of the characters mentioned are there for no reason, and the hints at a larger world and universe are really tantalizing. I wished there was more about Chemeline's background and culture, but large parts of it actually aren't explained. Maybe in future books, it'll play a larger part.

While the main story is wrapped up fairly neatly, we get a bit of exposition after the fact in the mysterious voider's journal, as well as the chilling They're coming at the end. This is book one of the series, so that hook will absolutely get dealt with.

3.5 stars rounded up to four stars. This is a difficult book to rate because I loved, liked, and disliked "The Indivisible and the Void."

"Loved"' it because even though it's quite a long book, I enjoyed it enough to get through it relatively quickly. Being able to get through a 500+ page book in such a short time is often the biggest testament to me on the overall enjoyableness of the book. It had satisfactory characters, an interesting magic system, and adventures that were divided into separate parts that made the plot easy to follow.

"The Indivisible and the Void" has a pretty complex magic system. Main character Master Voider Democryos is the head of the university that teaches students to enter the void and use voidstones. The void is comparable to the space between atoms and the user that is touching the voidstone can enter it to work magic. However, voidstones themselves are limited and the ability to use them is hereditary. The language used to describe this system gets a bit muddled throughout the story. Every time a new character is introduced, the system (and the current problem the characters are facing) is rehashed for the new character to understand. This is especially true about the ending. One character needed to be caught up on the story at the very end- as the rest of characters filled him in, his comments were along the lines of "What?! No way! I don't understand... what?" -- the whole scene was completely unnecessary, long, and could have been summed up in a better way.  

I wish that the female characters were portrayed with more dimension. The story starts off with Dem chasing after his wife after finding out that she has left because she was having an affair. It's hard to talk about her character without giving away too much of the book, but she was very different from how she was portrayed and it made her character a bit unbelievable. The other main female character had a lot of potential but also needed a bit more background information in order to less two dimensional. I look forward to seeing how the author builds these characters in book 2.

The author has done a great job weaving in so many different aspects of life into this richly told story. Religion plays a big part of the story and the way that it is used to advance the plot was unique and very different from any other fantasy I've read. There really is a lot going on in this series that makes for a great start to this series. Thank you Netgalley and  D.M. Wozniak for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Indivisible and the Void isn't adventurous but one of internal human conflict represented through Democryos and his journey with the most unexpected companions. His actions and decisions will keep you hooked until the last page and raise inevitable questions. I just cannot wait for the next part to be released.

The journey of Democryos starts from the loss of his young love but winds up into a destiny he didn't see for himself, a fate that leads towards help and perhaps impending doom?! Following him was worth the ride. The only let down for me (hence four stars) is the moments of Void dreaming which though ties the story in one, breaks from anxious, peak moments of excitement like a whiplash on a roller coaster. To add to it we see many grey morale characters and a let down of a villain.

Though the ending suits the first book precisely to fit the next book release, I highly advice the readers to keep their expectations in check about a high riding climax.

After seeing this book on netgalley, it came one of my most anticipated book of the year. It's quite slow at the beginning, but I went with it either way.

This starts off quite slow and I initially struggled to get into the narrative. It does eventually pick up, and as we are taught more about the magic system the plot actually ends up being rather original and gripping.
My largest gripes are the characters and portrayal of women. The main character is just arrogant and unlikeable. His treatment of other people is enough to evidence to demonstrate how much he is in love with himself. He repeatedly reminds us how much of a whore his wife is as she's left him for another man - after the 70th time of being told how whorish she is I just switched off. The other main female character is made out to be the weakest person I've encountered in a book for a long time, despite being an assassin?! Women have more personality traits than a "power-hungry whore" or "weak and feeble abused slaves" - this is high fantasy, it has the potential to feature so many strong female characters, use that potential!!
Overall I did enjoy this, but the main character and descriptions of female characters just tainted it for me. The ending was very solid and I am intrigued to see how the story progresses in the next installment.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

This book had really good twists and kept the reader guessing what might actually be going on behind the scenes. The book reads at time like a fantasy mystery book where the main character follows the clues to try and find his wife and what is really going on. On top of this the magic system is a very interesting concept and includes some interesting powers behind it and how the system works.

This was a very confusing title. I grabbed this one because of the cover but I ended having to read parts over again just to make sure I grasp what was going on. I loved the cover and the premise but when it came to actually reading the story it just wasn't for me. I wished it would have just had more to it and explained things better.

Good book! A little slow at times, but I still enjoyed it :) if you like fantasy books then give it a shot!

This fantasy/sci-fi novel from D.M. Wozniak was certainly unlike anything I’ve ever read before. The book is slow to start and I did hit a wall and stopped reading for a couple of weeks, but once I analyzed why I wasn’t finishing the book I realized that I really enjoyed it and really did want to finish it. So I did, that night. As much as it’s a fantasy/sci-fi novel it is really about religion and I think science. It incorporates magic and intrigue which I really like but it wasn’t overly too fantastical.
The characters were enjoyable main character Democryos was likeable enough but you did get frustrated with him at times but no more so then with Blythe the religious zealot that ultimately befriends Dem and joins him on the journey of finding his wife (who left him from some unknown man). There is really so much to this book that I couldn’t begin to describe the point in a few sentences, I liked the characters, the storyline, the writing style and I am definitely looking forward to the second instalment! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I liked the beginning, this scientist Master Voider playing with indivisibles (I thought atoms the whole time) to change the structure of things around him, the fight between science and religion. I liked that the book starts right in the action and we discover the characters as we go. But that's about it. Dem is a horrible human being that claims to be smart but is so slow to catch or understand the clues around him, Blythe was much more interesting as a character but also very exasperating (as most religious people I guess, speaking from a point a view low people can't understand). Once again female characters are the most beautiful ever (although we get 2 very different types of beauty), don't say much but are oh so brave in the name of love that they happily risk/offer their lives to help or save the main (jerk) character or his quest.
This is a fun book but I'm not impatiently waiting for the next tome.
I received a copy of the book in exchange for an earnest review.

As quite a few fantasy novels, this one starts slow. It’s a very imaginative story and I don’t think I have ever read one quite like it. However, I did find the magic system confusing at times, and I had to go back read over passages. The portrayal of women was very stereotypical, and as a woman, I find it very overdone and boring. The normal fantasy tropes are all there, this isn’t a bad thing as the application of the magic system helps model them into the authors own.

Overall, it was good, definitely a new idea but could’ve been executed slightly better.

This ARC was provided by Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. I was surprised how much I enjoyed the story. Having never read anything by this author, I had no expectations. It’s a mixture of fantasy with a sci-fi bent which, as the title hints, a focus on the philosophy of being.
It was creative and quite original as well thought provoking. MC Dem wakes up one morning to find that his young, beautiful wife has left him in the middle of the night. The story revolves around his search (quest) to find her. He is desperate to understand why. Along the way he encounters others who, for various reasons join up with him. The writing was inventive although the book had a slow start. The characters are portrayed realistically although the 2 major female characters were disappointingly stereotypes. I will definitely be on the lookout for more of the authors books.