Dark Apprentice by Val Neil was a fun read. I liked both Medea and Nikolai as characters and enjoyed their interactions. The story kept me interested from start to finish and I ended Book One keen to find out what would happen next. This was a fantasy tale with a good dose of humour. At times I despaired over the characters' bad decisions and misunderstandings, but part of the fun was in seeing where those misconceptions would take them. I would definitely be interested to keep reading in this series. Dark Apprentice gets a solid four-stars from me.

I received a digital ARC from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

I really wanted to like this one. The cover got me interested! The description sounded like a great fantasy read. Unfortunately I had to DNF around 30% I just couldn’t get into this one. I really tried but it was just not for me. Felt slow and the world building didn’t make much sense to me. I could see some people liking this book a lot! Just not me.

I LOVED this book. and nikolai too, he was such an interesting character to get into, to see a different logic than most people, i could see why his action would make sense to him, he's always thinking in the extreme, no in between. at the same time, he felt very immature in how to deal with people, deal with life in general because he was too impulsive, he's probably gonna learn to be smarter and become even more viciously dangerous, i'm excited for the next book
i loved medea, how she was conflicted to teach him, being so done with her apprentices and knows they will always try to kill her but despite that will try again to be a good teacher with some modified rules for herself. I love how even after a thousands of years living she still misunderstand people and isnt the great sage. it was quite nice to see such a powerful autistic character, i also love that doesn't give up on nikolai and stay on her words even if hes doing every mistakes possible
their relationship is interesting, they're very different and nikolai had the tendency to believe everyone will have the same thought as him which is wrong of course, and made him in situation he could have easily avoided if only he had the ability to listen just a little more.their banter was very funny it could look ridiculous sometimes but in a good way.
honestly everytime a psychopathic character is mentioned i'm always careful of where it is going and it's the first time i have seen a correct representation, i really enjoyed reading it and love the plot too i will definitely read the next one, i want more of nikolai and medea

I REALLY loved this writing style and the way this book was set up. I did not, however, like Nikolai. He made it INCREDIBLY difficult to get through this novel. Medea was my favorite, although I despised her at first. Nikolai is the textbook definition of tool and I typically love morally gray characters. Set in post-war Ireland in a world where magic is almost completely died out...this was in my ranks to be a top book for me in 2021. Nikolai just made it really difficult to get through the first half of the book. Overall, I'd read another book in this series/universe.

I was lucky enough to receive and EARC of this book from NetGalley so thank you to NetGalley.

Firstly, this book was simply amazing. The dark academic, cottage core and whimsical vibes were immaculate which makes this perfect for a autumn/fall read in my opinion..

In this book we have two main characters, Nikolai and Medea. Nikolai is a wizard who has an unhealthy obsession with becoming the greatest Dark Arts wizard ever. Medea is the oldest living magi who has immense powers. Medea use to take on apprentices to teach them, but that soon changed after they began to try to kill her. Nikolai wants to escape from his current teacher and convince Medea to teach him.

Now while that is the basic plot of the book, the story is so much bigger. The world building and explanation of the magic system is honestly some of the best I have ever read - and as a fantasy reader I read quite a bit. I found myself becoming annoyed with Nikolai as he is a crazy psychopath but I could not stop reading to see if Medea would ever see his true colours.

I will admit the only part of the book that was a bit tedious was the continuous training sequences but because of how interesting the magic system is I didn’t find myself caring too much of the repetitiveness of these scenes.

I loved the world building and the magic system as it includes things from across the world like Aztec and Viking myths and rituals which I found fascinating. While some aspects of the magic reminded me of Harry Potter I am simply putting that down to it being the only other series where magic users wield wands and the spells are in Latin-esque language. Besides that the magic was amazing to read.

The ending was quite a shock to me, something that I was entirely expecting to happen but I am definitely intrigued enough that I will be picking up the next book in the series once it comes out.

I received this book as an eARC from Netgalley. All opinions are my own!

Nikolai just wants to learn dark magic. Is that really so much to ask? Medea just wants to rid her life of dark wizards in training. Is that really so much to ask?

Just the premise of this book had me hooked, and I must say that it certainly did not disappoint! If you are like me and love morally grey characters, you are going to have a great time with this book! Nikolai is the epitome of morally grey, and not only that, but his and Medea's relationship is so quirky that it's never boring.

My favorite thing about this book was the kind of representation it offers and such a fresh and unique spin on the fantasy world. While reading the book, I found myself so very annoyed with Nikolai. Why couldn't he understand things like simple human decency and rights? But as I flipped to the author's note and Val Neil explained that Nikolai was written specifically to be a representation of a psychopath, otherwise known as Antisocial Personality Disorder, it changed the whole meaning of the book for me. Not to mention the realistic and well-done way that autistic representation was handled by this book as well.

I had almost wished that the larger plot of magic dying was brought out earlier in this book. But I do also think that seeing the growth of Nikolai and Medea's relationship was such an important part of where this series might be headed that I'm really not mad about seeing this insight into their story!

If you like amazing representation combined with lots of banter and morally grey questions, this is the book for you, my friends!

This is Mistborn and Legacy of Ash had a baby! The protagonist is fun to “watch” and what a twist at the end!

I’ve always loved fantasy books that contain strong women. I loved how this book made me feel. It annoyed me, frustrated me, it even made me want to smash my screen at one point when Nikolai peaked at being such a whiny little ass. Rated it 4 stars because I wasn’t able to find any redeeming qualities from Nikolai as opposed to the opinions of Medea. Really, Medea, don’t let the ass manipulate you.

DA is a fantasy book that doesn’t have romance in it, literally none at all but that’s what makes it even more entertaining. It really tackle the characters of both Medea and Nikolai without being influenced by any love interest.

Definitely a good read!

If Lestat and Louis were Magi (magicians/wizards/ect.) instead of vampires, they'd be just like Nikolai and Medea. Only in this book the more morally inclined character is the master and the psychopathic one is the apprentice. Magic lessons accompanied by bitter life lessons and messy spats of adventure...What's not to like?

Nikolai is a psychopath in the scientific sense. He doesn't have an empathetic bone in his body which means he's had to learn how to fake emotions. Every person either has a strategic purpose to further his goal of becoming the most superior in all fields (plowing women, dark magic, and taking down corrupt governments), or they're discarded as living pieces of rubbish (sometimes discarded to the point of death).

But this characterization is somewhat unreliable and I dare you all to pick up the book and figure out why! Simply, Nikolai is the character we all love to hate, yet nonetheless love. Is this sort of quirky love limited to the reader or do others in the book feel it too?

Now, Medea, his soon-to-be mentor, has her own flaws, but sticks to her own moral code. She is a lover of books and knowledge and applying her knowledge, so much so that she has gained immortality and a vast hoard of mana. Nikolai uses all his cunning tactics to thrust himself upon her. She eventually acquiesces only to gain Nikolai as a very annoying and ungrateful apprentice, constantly using his strategies to gain the upper hand which always results in him getting into messy situations.

The world is well built with a plethora of logical magic rules (herbology, spiritology, conjuring, and summoning). It's not limited to one cultural understanding or one religion, and it has a very realistic center in time and space (post WWII). This alone can plunge you into the world and enjoy the story.

Although I would not say this is a coming of age story, there is real character growth very much relative and complementing to each character's starting traits. It has definitely changed my perspective of the world and people how others are able to navigate in it.

Am I dying to read more? Yes! I can't wait to see what's up for Nikolai and Medea next.

Thank you Netgalley and SFWA for this arc. All opinions in this review are my own.

I want to thank Netgalley, Val Neil, and Living Relic Press for giving me a chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I DNFed this book at 30%. I'm liking the premise of it. This book is great at heavy world-building and characterization. The chemistry between Medea and Nikolai is so great and they are very amusing to read. Their personalities clashed but in a good way.

Nikolai is an intellectual character and I love how manipulative he is. While Medea is also brutal in her own way.

I also love the humor of this book and the amusement it gives me while reading it. I really wanted to like and continue to read further into the book but sometimes the story is a little hard to follow. I'm always having a hard time being fully immersed into the story. Sometimes the words the narrator uses are hard to follow.

That's all my thoughts in this book. Maybe in the near future I'll be rereading this, but for now I think this book is not really meant for me.

Okay, days after receiving the advance copy I come back here to leave my opinion without spoilers.

The book is good to pass the time, unlike many people I loved Medea's (being my favourite) but I agree with the other people: Nikolai is a bit annoying.

He's so eager for power that he shuts himself off, he thinks everyone wants him dead and that's stressful, I hope in the next books his attitude will change.

Points I applaud about the book:

That the characters are not completely good or bad (I am so bored of completely good characters)

Will I continue reading the next books?
Hell yes, because I want to know more about Medea.
The author does a great job of describing the magic of the book, I'm going to sound crazy but I love the character of Medea too much (sorry if I repeat myself).
Val Neil I look forward to the second book.