This sounded promising, but it just didn’t hit the post – I got to almost 75% but I just realized I didn’t care. The story reads as Dresden Files Lite, and while I have no problems with this if it was good, this just tried to do so much and it didn’t work. So many different plotlines, including big epic fights within the first third that feels like it should be a finale, there are developments in story and relationships that would have had so much more impact if it had happened much later in the story – or even a sequel – as we just don’t care enough yet. There are tons of pop culture references every page you turn, and sass in every bit of dialogue, and then a cringy joke for flavour. I think this would have been much better if the scope had been narrowed down for the first book, just take place in New York, establish the world and our main character, learn to love him and give him something reasonable to fight.

Conrad Brent is a member of The Watch in New York City. The Watch keeps the lid on bad magic users, giants, werewolves, and the like who cause problems. But Conrad has a big secret, he is a middling which means that he can see magic, he just can't do it himself. And middlings are targets for all sorts of cults, sects, and various zealots. So he uses amulets and other devices to mimic the powers he lacks. Problems arise when Conrad and his friend Herc rescue a middling and they gets exposed to a gas that removes Herc's magic. Tracking down the dastardly villain exposes Conrad as a middling, but it needs to be done. Can Conrad, Willodean, and the crew he creates come up with a plan to save the world? Read and find out in this fun, snarky urban fantasy!

2.5 stars.
This should have been rollicking great fun with all its magic, sorcerers, magical objects, fantastical beings, and those without any magic, middlings. And how teams of sorcerers must protect regular humans from nefarious, magical threats.

Main character Conrad is a smart aleck, has been lying for years about his middling status, but is also terrific at dispatching magical threats. When he’s found out, in the course of protecting another middling, he must work hard to protect the planet while dealing with the repercussions of his lies to his former team.

I found the tone of the story, as narrated by Conrad, initially amusing and enjoyable, but the more time I spent with him, the less I cared about him. Also, my concern about the threats to everyone diminished the further I read.
I had high hopes for this book, but it did not work for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and to CAEZIK SF & Fantasy for this ARC in exchange for my review.

Actual rating: 2.5

This started out as an interesting urban fantasy with the potential for comicbook quality in terms of an interesting premise for a superhero story and the flashiness and action that comes with it. Unfortunately, while the story is quite action-packed and spectacular in its displays of magic, there never seemed to be a real hook to the story both in terms of plot and characters. The characters are very one-dimensional and emotionless, and the plot, while having a general direction, was unevenly paced with some portions feeling more like afterthoughts than intentional parts of the story. Since this is set in modern times, there are a lot of pop culture references which didn't quite land for me and sometimes felt a bit cringey.

I thought this was conceptually strong and could have done great as a graphic novel, video game, or even animated series, especially given the very episodic structure of the story, but this book overall fell flat for me. It kept me mildly entertained all throughout, but never invested enough to find out what happens next. I still think it has a fantastic cover though.

I really liked the world building in this book, it was in fact excellent and the author had woven it to neatly with the plot that it just added so much extra to the story. I personally love worlds with wizards, werewolves and vampires so obviously I was really excited to read this! The characters were very likable and honestly a great read overall.

a fun lighthearted read, with a diverse range of characters and some interesting plot twists. overall, character development felt a bit rushed and hollow so hoping in book two to explore in more depth. loved the world building but again felt like some relationship were unnecessary. 3.75 stars rounded up

(I originally marked it as could not provide feedback, but I fiddled with my app and got the book to show back up.)

Was the Middling Affliction good? No. In my humble opinion, it is poorly written, poorly paced, and has a huge problem of telling not showing.

Telling not showing can work, don't get me wrong. But when it is constant and leads to important or interesting scenes or interactions getting glossed over in favor of hustling right into the next plot point then it becomes a real problem that undermines the integrity of the narrative as a whole.

The lore is also a bit... wobbly. The justification for prejudice against middlings early on is difficult to buy into (being religious/superstitious), and even later on when the actual reason for it--them having the ability to turn into gods--it still just doesn't logically track. Realistically, sure, I could see prejudice against them, but to the level of "will be murdered almost on sight by basically anyone" just doesn't hold out, especially in a modern day setting where religion influences peoples lives very differently and the presence of magic would further complicate religious devotion. (And, yes, we are told that there are cults and such who prize middlings for rituals, it is told and only sort of shown at the auction.) I can't quite put my finger on why, but the way middlings are thought of and treated just don't quite work for me.

The lore also does fantasy racism in a way that isn't very nuanced. It's okay for our main character to be prejudiced to this dumb troll, who is dumb because he is a troll and, in fact, all trolls are stupid, and he should be able to treat this guy like shit and refuse to call him by his actual name even though this guy is literally just doing his job. But it's a real tragedy and unfair for this goblin to have to have had faced prejudice for being a goblin and being female because she's actually really smart, which means she doesn't deserve to be treated poorly. I'm already not a fan of fantasy races being typecast with shallow racial traits (it's boring) but when the narrative also makes vague gestures at "racism bad" without actually critically engaging with racism, even through a fantasy lens, it gets really grating.

But was it entertaining? Sort of. Kind of. For the first 60% of the book, I was chugging along fine. I did not think it was well-written on any account (see above) but there was nothing egregious that made me actively dislike reading it. The story was just interesting enough to keep me engaged while the breakneck pace meant that any part I actively didn't like was over quickly. At the same time, though, there was nothing inherent to the story which made me want to continue.

The characters were serviceable if underwhelming and bland. Conrad was... fine, but he wasn't all that interesting. His constant comparisons of himself to Batman got grating after a while. There were a few character traits of his I found endearing (his awareness of how his trench coat is a bit silly and the love for his car) but there was nothing that made him a memorable character I would say could carry a running series. Perhaps future installments will round him out more.

Willodean's effectiveness as a character was severely undermined by the fact that half of the important conversations with her were summarized. This means that at the end, when Conrad is insisting that Willodean is a good, gentle, kind person, and really wants to save her, as a reader I just did not feel that tension. Sure, I bought that she had those traits, but I did not quite buy the devotion to the point of comparing himself to family that Conrad felt for her.The pace was so breakneck that it left very little time for the characters to develop their relationship together, at least to the level that would require the ending to be believable.

Speaking of the ending... whoo boy.

The ending encapsulates every issue I have with this book. It's too much too fast as as a result is flimsy and unsteady. The power level and scope of the stakes rocket up too fast to actually care about them. The final line literally made me roll my eyes.

Honestly, I think the story covered in the Middling Affliction just doesn't work as the first book in the series. It tries to do too much, too fast, with an underdeveloped world and characters. For the story and world to have been done justice and properly built up, it really should have been stretched over several books which built up to the huge final fights. That way, the characters, relationships, lore, magic system, and the world could have been properly developed.

4 Stars - Fun urban fantasy with plenty of potential

Everybody knows the trope of superhero vigilantes protecting the world secretly, fighting all sorts of villains and supernatural creatures. But what if you are a member of such a vigilante group but actually don't have magic powers - and nobody must ever find out?

This is the basic setup for Alex Shvartsmans's Middling Affliction in which Conrad is fighting for all that is good in New York as a member of the Watch. Conrad is not completely without magic, though - he is a "Middling", meaning he is able to use magical artifacts, but cannot wield magic of his own. Since in the secret world of the gifted (the rest of us are the "Mundane") Middlings are hated with a passion, Conrad has many good reasons for not wanting his secret to come out. This also means that he is constantly lying to his gifted friends and is always in fear of being found out.

Add to this high-stakes setup plenty of action, a lot of it connected that very Middling status and you get a highly entertaining urban fantasy with great potential for many stories to come. There are many secondary characters that felt well realized, surprising twists and great villains. I liked Moira in particular. I also LOVED Willowdean's storyline until quite suddenly I didn't any more. The way her subplot was wrapped up was a rather disappointing and I very much hope that Shvartsman will do a bit more with that storyline in the future.

The writing is very readable, with some humour thrown in here and there, but it is (thankfully) not a "funny" book, as these only very rarely work for me. There are plenty of pop-culture references, from the Simpsons to Star Trek, Stargate and whatnot that will surely appeal to the target reader. I also enjoyed the explorations of Conrad's constant ethical dilemmas. Shvartsman also somehow manages to make the plot to feel surprisingly character-driven in spite of the many many events of cosmic relevance taking place.

I am very happy I stumbled upon this and will definitely keep an eye out for any sequels. Highly recommended.

I have received an advance review copy via NetGalley and voluntarily provide my honest opinion. Thank you very much!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an e-arc for this book.

I went into reading The Middling Affliction expecting a fun urban fantasy story, and in some aspects my expectations were met. The world building in particular was interesting and the plot had interesting concepts that were often well executed on a scene to scene basis. However as a whole novel this potential seemed wasted.

Initially I loved Conrad’s character, and he was primed to be a favourite of mine (considering the characters I usually enjoy) however as the story progressed, and particularly in the second half, he lacked much development; with the plot demanding rapid jumps between scenes and locations. Willodean was a character I really enjoyed however her arc felt particularly rushed and almost purposeless by then end. Besides these main two, many other characters provided fun interactions but on the whole had little depth.

I feel these issues can largely be attributed to the poor pacing of the novel. The pace is frantic, and messy. Huge plot reveals and information which appeared to be setting up plot lines were solved within the timeframe of a chapter. The second half of the book particularly provides an information overload in which there was no time to process the significant things happening in the book before the next plot point is introduced and dealt with in similar fashion.

Additionally I found issue with a lot of the humour and the overall tone of the book. I feel as though I understand what tone the author was trying to achieve with the large focus on comedy in this story, however the jokes rarely landed for me. Going beyond simply not being funny to me, as at some points I felt uncomfortable rather than amused, and personally found a lot of the humour here to be out of touch. Making it abundantly clear that I most likely wasn’t the target demographic for this book.

Overall The Middling Affliction is a fun story with some extremely cool concepts and ideas and a world I would love to see explored more thoroughly. It had a strong start with its main character Conrad being great to begin with, however for me, the story fell apart as the poor pacing rushed past many points for development and depth, and favouring humour that had me pushing myself through sections of the story, craving the great character moments and plot points that unfortunately couldn’t outweigh the negative aspects for me.

Diverse of characters, amazing world setting, lots of humour! But, it all felt *too* much. I found myself getting really exhausted before the end.

This book has a breakneck-pace plot, a diverse cast of characters, and an interesting world.. The Middling Affliction started off strong with an interesting take on the unlikely/anti hero trope. Grumpy, abrasive, and dishonest, our hero Conrad Brent wasn’t exactly likable, but then it doesn’t seem as if he was supposed to be.

If you love adventure this book is for you. Fast paced, super interesting and a great read.. Tnank you Netgalley for the copy

Now this book was truly not what i expected going in. I vaguely remember the summary from when i got the copy a few months ago and I went in thinking this was just vigilantes in NYC with magic.

What I got wrong was that this was much much much more. This is an Urban Fantasy that takes place in NYC, about magic beings protecting humans or mundanes as they are called in the novel, from magic, and being meaning them harm. It follows one man in particular that is head of the Watch in the borough of Brooklyn. He is not like most magical beings, as he is a Middling, a magic user who has no magic of their own but can see magic around them and use magical objects. His kind are usually hunted and killed. When he get word that another being like him is up for auction at a fair, he rushes to save her and sets off a cascade of events that threaten the entire magical community of NYC.

The characters of this novel and their relationship were the highlight. This novel was also fun and adventurous, and never took itself too seriously. I only wish the stakes were a little higher and the magic and how it works was more prevalent. I will look forward to the sequel and where this story goes.

TL;DR

The Middling Affliction by Alex Shvartsman is a wonderful opening to the Conradverse Chronicles. This urban fantasy dives right into a deep mystery of Shvartsman’s world, and its main character, Conrad Brent, will never be the same. Recommended.

Disclaimer: The publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Any and all opinions that follow are mine alone.

Review: The Middling Affliction by Alex Shvartsman

I love Urban Fantasy. When done right, it balances the best of fantasy and mystery to become something more. I like the detective fiction, and I enjoy the fantastical elements inserted into the story. But the first person narration makes or breaks the story. The main character has to be likeable yet flawed. Superman would make a terrible urban fantasy narrator. Typically, the narrators that I enjoy are snarky, hard-boiled types. Conrad Brent in Alex Shvartsman’s The Middling Affliction fits this mold exactly while maintaining his own independent creation. He’s not a Dresden copycat or a re-skinned Alex Verus, but he can stand shoulder to shoulder with them. Though, he’s the only one who can’t do magic, and if his secret ever got out, he could be hunted for sport by other magicians. Conrad’s world is dangerous, big, and waiting to be explored.

In a world where some people can do magic, ignorance would be bliss. Not knowing about the magical community would be a blessing. But what if one knew about the magical community, could see auras and creatures, but not perform any magic themselves? That person would be at an extreme disadvantage. All the knowledge, none of the power. This is where Conrad Brent finds himself. He’s what’s known as a middling. He knows magic is real, can see magical creatures, and can even use magical devices, but he is incapable of performing any magic on his own. Even worse, middlings are loathed, despised, even hunted, by other magical users. Conrad, however, has learned to hide his inability to perform magic so well that he works for the Watch, a quasi-law enforcement agency for magical beings. The Watch protects the non-magical from the magical, but it does not intervene in beefs between magicians. Brent’s borough is Brooklyn, and he’s the line in the sand between the normies and the magical world. He even has an apprentice that he’s training. Brent relies on his wits and constant deception to survive.

The Middling Affliction begins with Conrad acting as animal control for a supernatural creature. During the job, he learns that the Traveling Fair is coming to New York. This magical auction house is selling a middling. That’s right, they’re selling a human being. Conrad begins to scheme how to save the middling. When his attempt to purchase the middling fails, he recruits help to break into the corporation that bought the female middling. During the rescue, Conrad’s help gets infected with something that prevents him from doing magic. In other words, the corporation has invented a weapon to reduce magic users to middlings. Soon, Conrad gets outed as a middling to the Watch. Due to past performance, he’s allowed to leave. But he knows that a target has been put on his back. So, Conrad’s got a lot going on. In addition to surviving, he’s got to find the cure to help return magic to the afflicted. Hopefully by finding the cure, he can figure out why he’s unable to do magic. Can Conrad find a cure? Can he survive his secret being outed into the world?

The Middling Affliction is a first person point of view (POV) book that follows Conrad Brent. It’s a linear story with settings bouncing from New York to Bern to Chernobyl. Yes, that Chernobyl in Ukraine. The book rests on Conrad Brent. Do you like him or not? Well, I did. He’s likable, smart, a little too snarky, paranoid, and slow on the uptake. His POV is an excellent introduction to Shvartsman’s world.

Mysteries

This is the first book in an ongoing series (hopefully). Shvartsman could have dragged out the mystery of what exactly it means to be a middling. However, he doesn’t. The book dives right into the main mystery, which surprised me. When discovering the secret of being a middling, Conrad’s universe expands, and more questions arise than are answered. This made me interested to see where Shvartsman plans to take the series. There’s a mythological cosmos here that begs to be explored.

Pacing

While the reader learns early on the overall plot, it takes some time to get going. The first third of the book feels a bit disjointed. It feels like Conrad’s on some side quests. Once the story lines converge, the pacing feels more sure. It’s worth sticking with it.

Conclusion

Alex Shvartsman’s The Middling Affliction takes a bit to find its footing, but when it does, it takes off. Conrad Brent is a likeable narrator who has to navigate a dangerous magical world. Shvartsman’s world begs to be explored to see more magical creatures, more vampires, more wizards, and more middlings. I’m looking forward to Conrad’s future adventures.

The Middling Affliction by Alex Shvartsman is available from CAEZIK Science Fiction & Fantasy on May 31st, 2022.

Urban fantasy has been a favorite niche genre ever since I discovered it. The entire concept of our world, but ✨magic✨ just hooks me.

This is the story of a world where mythological beings, magic users, and regular humans all live together, but there is a part of humanity that can sense magic, but can’t wield it. Conrad Brent is one of those, which makes his job as a member of a magical freelance police force a bit difficult. Things get even more difficult when he tries to rescue someone like him. And the secrets he’s used to build his life start to crumble around him.

There were a lot of great things about this story. The world was pretty well established, with very few info dumps. The pace is quick and easy to follow. The characters were interesting and distinct. Conrad’s sense of humor is engaging and relatable. Although all the pop culture references got a little much after a while and are going to date the novel.

The downsides are that there’s an inconsistent tone and treatment of action scenes. Some the author describes in depth and some get glossed over with one or two sentences. And this story tried to introduce a lot. Like, a lot. This gave me the feeling of a NaNoWriMo novel where every single idea ended up in the final draft. If everything that got introduced in this novel returns in a sequel, I will be very impressed. Also, I have never been a huge fan of blatant sequel hooks. To be honest, if the story had ended four paragraphs earlier, it would have been a much stronger ending for me.

Many thanks to CAEZIK SF & Fantasy and NetGalley for this ARC!

A (very) fast-paced urban fantasy book with funny characters and an enjoyable plotline.
Overall I enjoyed the humor, puns, comedic scenes and general writing style.
At times, however, it was a bit too much for me and I would've preferred a more serious tone or a bit more depth when it comes to important topics within the book.

The pacing was fast. Break-neck-speed kind of fast. While I generally do enjoy books with a faster pacing, in this case I was a bit put-off because of the structure of the plot. Somehow I couldn't get rid of the feeling that this book would've been better if it were a short story collection set in the urban fantasy world.

Overall I would recommend it if you enjoy urban fantasy mixed with LOTS of humor and don't mind if there isn't too much depth.

The book was interesting and had a fun take on magic in the modern world. Shvartsman has created a world with a lot of potential.

The book was interesting and really amazing. Only confusing thing about this book was how exactly midlings use magic. It was really refreshing to see the main character to know the rules and seeing how it's viewed from that point of view, and for the main character of the book to be the protector already and not getting to that point and trying to figure out the rules and be into the unknown, plus the sarcasm helped a lot.

Thank you CAEZIK SF & Fantasy and Net Galley for the advance copy of this novel.

I am giving this book a one star as I unfortunaely had to DNF it. I feel that while the description sounded intriguing to me, I really couldn't get into it. I think this novel is just not for me and my preference in books.

I will reccomend this book to those who enjoy anti-hero stories and stories with comic/tv show and movie references.

"In a secret world filled with superheroes and supervillains, I was the magical Batman: a grumpy and possibly somewhat unhinged vigilante with no special powers, who relied on his gadgets to keep up with the super-Joneses."

This caper included just about everything under the sun: heists, jail breaks, entertaining frenemy dynamics, and an encyclopedia's worth of magical creatures and powers to be explored. Even though there's too much for the book to give each portion its due, I flew through the story. I absolutely wanted to see Conrad's relationships with other characters get more attention. The book hurtles the reader from a fight to a chase to a dangerous predicament in nearly every chapter. Character relationships get left behind, but the book is never dull, not even for a second.

I hope that the sequel locks onto a rivalry or a friendship or an enmity and lets that dynamic drive the story a bit more. And I can't wait to for Moira to reappear with her shadiness and Kindness.

The Middling Affliction is set in a world where some people can manipulate magic (the "gifted"), and others can't (the "mundanes"). A dedicated group of Gifted, human and other, takes responsibility for protecting mundanes from monsters and certain Gifted who might persecute them. The Watch is a volunteer group, and Conrad Brent's assignment is to protect the "normal" folks in Brooklyn.

However, Conrad is only impersonating being gifted; he uses magical charms and objects, which he can perceive, but he can't create spells or imbue objects with magic. Technically,
Conrad is a Middling, something anathema to the Gifted, which is the reason he is dissembling. His true outsider status may have given rise to his snarky retorts and all-around "grumpy" (his own word) nature.

Conrad's character can seem bad-tempered, but I found the resemblance to Harry Dresden, a protector with a pure heart, to be closer to his real personality. The inevitable happens in this urban fantasy when Conrad's true status is revealed, but before this he has successfully overpowered supernatural beings and brokered a truce between a rich land developer and Druids who have a sacred place on the property destined to become a theme park.

He also saves another Middling who was going to be sold at an auction -- thus a nod to the oppression facing those seen as "not us." Together, they flee from the close-minded Cabal, which takes pleasure in killing Middlings, in a fast-paced series of chases, battles, betrayals, reversals and rescues.

As the first in a series, author Alex Shvartsman has created a world with much potential -- and a second installment is now available. This first installment has its own rapid momentum leading to closure while nimbly keeping around certain malevolent dangers.

I received a free copy of this book from CAEZIK SF & Fantasy via BookSirens. This is an honest review.