Well written with a compelling and humourous storyline and well developed characters that I loved. I really liked the idea of people being born with gifts and that the magic could be used to conquer against discrimination of society, and I also liked that the anti-hero trope was utilised as it is one of my favourites. I couldn't put it down and I look forward to reading more in the series.

*Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for supplying a copy of this e-book in return for an honest review.*
This was an interesting young adult tale that uses magic to explore the struggle of defending a society that discriminates against you. The plot is more interesting through the use of an anti-hero, snarky average guy living in New York -- Conrad -- who just happened to live with a condition that makes him only partially gifted. This ensures he always has to live a double life to escape persecution - even by the very authority he works for. Perhaps unsurprisingly I was less interested in the fighting scenes and that dragged down my overall assessment of the book. But definitely, one to check out for those seeking a different kind of superhero.

The start of a new series, I am looking forward to seeing more from this author and the Worldline he has created. It consists of an interesting riff on the Superhero/Magic User genre. The main protagonist, Conrad, is a member The Watch tasked with protecting mundanes from conflict between magic users. In the world there are mundanes, magic users, magical creatures, and middlings/mudlarks.

Conrad is Middling:
"Only one out of every thirty thousand people is born gifted. Those lucky few can perceive auras, recognize supernatural beings for what they are, cast spells, and imbue their magic into artifacts by enchanting physical items the way batteries store electricity . I could perceive perfectly; casting was another story . I could use stored magic as well as any gifted but could never recharge the metaphysical battery of even the simplest of charms."

Middlings are treated as the red-headed step-childred of the magical world, even worse.:
"As best I could tell, while the gifted appeared roughly once among every thirty thousand humans, the odds of a middling were well north of one in a million. And the smart ones were hiding.
'They’re anathema to many of the traditionalist groups,' Demetrios said , looking at me like I was an infant who needed really simple things explained to him— slowly. 'Some will pay good money for a chance to kill a middling.'"

Conrad attempts to rescue a middling who is being auctioned off at The Traveling Fair, an auction house, sort of a magical Sotheby’s. This is where the plot lines of the novel really take off. There is plenty of action along with a solid foundation for the World the author has built.

**I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for honest review.**

Actual rating: 3.5

Alex Shvartsman presents The Middling Affliction, the first in a new urban fantasy series set in New York. The series follows Conrad Brent, a middling, who is able to see magic, but cannot use magic himself except through the aid of objects and artifacts. Brent is a protector in the Watch, duty-driven to defend the mundane population from ill-intentioned magic practitioners. Being a middling is rare and possesses stigma, so when Brent is found out, he is summarily dismissed. When a bioweapon emerges that transforms the magically gifted into middlings, Brent might have to risk everything to solve the problem.

First and foremost, I found The Middling Affliction to.be entertaining. Dresden Files by way of Supernatural, Conrad is a main character whose smart mouth leads the way. Like the characters in the aforementioned series, Conrad tends to get himself in trouble as well as gain himself loyal friends. Some of the humor didn't always land for me, but that's just the risk an author takes with incorporating humor as a main trait of a perspective character. I did like the varied species and groups that were represented in the story. However, I feel that The Middling Affliction suffered from what many first books to long series do: they spend so much time building the magic, the world, and the rules, that you aren't very invested in the individual characters yet.

I do feel like Shvartsman has created a good start with a lot of room to continue this series, with this book acting effectively as a "pilot" type book. There is a lot of potential here and I hope that readers will be willing to continue the series and allow it to build. After all, it's rarely the "pilot" episode that is the best in the series, and I look forward to seeing Conrad's universe play out.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Conrad is an interesting take on the anti-hero trope. Abrasive, grumpy and dishonest it truly felt like we’re not truly supposed to like this character and despite that, there is something inexplicably loveable about him.

The world building started out strong, blending between the fantasy aspects and New York City, and the plot is full of twists and turns. Its peppered with references to comic book characters and for me that is a lot what this felt like, fast paced and exciting like a superhero film, without requiring much brain power to read. I polished it off in a couple of hours. The narrative was amusing and serious in turns, underpinned with strong Rick Riordan vibes. Definitely recommend.

The Middling Affliction is the first book in Alex Shvartsman's The Conradverse Chronicles series. This urban-fantasy novel hits stores on May 31, 2022. The publisher CAEZIK SF and Fantasy made an early galley available to me in exchange for an honest review.

This novel started out strong for me. I liked what Shvartsman put into his worldbuilding; he seamlessly blends modern New York City with fantasy elements to create an exciting and fun setting. His protagonist Conrad Brent was also initially likeable. For the first few chapters, I was pulled into the story.

However, I was not a big fan of the heavy use of comic book references. Holding iconic characters like Batman and Rorschach as comparisons for your main character really sets up a no-win situation. They both bring up very distinct images that leave the protagonist in an unfair light. The various Star Wars, zombie and vampire TV shows and movies, and other sci-fi references were not really needed. The reliance on winks and nods to other properties that the author likes seemed too much of a service to fanboys. As a fanboy myself, I found they did more harm than good.

Also, the inspiration for the character of Bradley Holcomb was instantly obvious to me. If his professional resume wasn't enough, his way of speaking and choices of certain phrases were the clinchers. Again, my having a strong opinion of this individual immediately took me out of the narrative.

If the author had stuck to the original spirit, I think I would have been along for the long ride.

A great premise and a fun take on magic in the modern world. Gave me a sense of playing Shadowrun back in the day. Conrad was a fun character to follow even if he was sometimes upstaged by his companions and foes. Some of the characterizations were a bit trop-ish and unflattering, but I enjoyed the overall pace. It's a fun, fast read.

I loved the interesting take on the anti hero trope with humorous moments and a grumpy main character. I did really enjoy the world building for it being an urban fantasy, the world was very well realized with magical creatures hiding in plain sight. Overall, a very fun and enjoyable read.

I wanted to like The Middling Affliction more than I did. Shvartsman sets up a series with this one in an urban fantasy world full of magical people and creatures hiding in plain sight among the mundanes. The main character Conrad Brent is a middling, someone gifted with the natural ability to perceive magic but not to use it. Brent is part of The Watch (which gave me strong Pratchett vibes every time I read it) a group of magical enforcers who protect the aforementioned mundanes. His middling status is a secret Brent uses to keep everyone at arms length lest they discover his secret. Brent is perhaps overconfident, which comes back to bite him hard. Despite a fun start and a steady ramp up of excitement, the last third of the book seemed to run out of steam for me.

Strong Terry Pratchett flavor with notes of Rick Riordan and a hint of Seanan McGuire.

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. There were some humorous moments, and many pop culture references to ground the urban fantasy setting. The story kept me interested, although the world spanning settings missed out some of the metaphorical magic that Shvartsman imbued on NYC. It was still an enjoyable read, overall.

Nathan Fillion fans, Conrad Brent may be your next favorite character!

The Middling Affliction introduces an amusing cast of characters and takes readers on a fun, worldwide adventure. The novel's protagonist, Conrad Brent, is a member of a volunteer organization called the Watch. As the member of the Watch assigned to Brooklyn, NY, he is in charge of keeping "the gifted" (people and other beings that possess magic) from picking on "the mundanes" (normal humans who have no idea that magic exists) in his borough. This job doesn't pay the bills however, so he moonlights as a private investigator/exterminator, helping his clients figure out what arcane creatures or objects are causing them problems.

Conrad is different than his Watch counterparts though. Though he can see the gifted for what they are, he does not possess any magic of his own. In their world, he is called a middling, a label that is very dangerous to have as many of the gifted want to rid the world of middlings. This affliction makes working at the Watch a little difficult for Conrad as he must keep his coworkers from knowing that he is a middling. He fares fine for the most part though due to his street smarts, magically imbued items, sarcastic quips, and plucky plans.

This book was a very enjoyable read. It was very fast paced and I was never bored. The world building was great and had a different feel than a lot of the urban fantasy books that I've read in the past. The characters were witty and quirky making them all pretty loveable. The only issue I had with the book was that the beginning felt a little disjointed. The worldbuilding in those first few chapters was good and necessary, but it felt like Conrad was doing side quests instead of discovering the main conflict of the book. Despite the disjointed start, this book was an incredibly fun read and I will definitely recommend this book to others.

I'm looking forward to book 2!

Disclaimers upfront: I got this via Netgalley (at no charge) for review, and I know the author slightly online. We're on the same writers' forum, and he's written me several very encouraging rejection notes for stories I've submitted to his Unidentified Funny Objects anthologies. I get a strong impression that he's a decent guy. I don't think any of this has influenced my review.

This is the promising first installment in an urban fantasy series, reminiscent of the Dresden Files. The protagonist isn't a private investigator who's also a wizard, though; he's a member of a vigilante group of wizards who secretly also <i>isn't</i> a wizard. He manages, by projecting a lot of confidence and using a lot of magic items (which he is able to use, but not recharge), to get away with it. That's not entirely plausible, when you step right back and think about it (what with the high price of magic items he repeatedly mentions and the fact that absolutely everyone else who does his job routinely uses spells and can apparently tell the difference), but the story's pace is such that I tended to just accept it and be carried along.

He's something called a "middling," neither mundane nor magically gifted, visually indistinguishable from a Gifted but without any personal ability to cast unaided magic - and also traditionally hated and feared by Gifted, for reasons that are no longer remembered by most people but are revealed in the course of the story. The inciting incident that gets him involved in events is an underground auction of another middling, who turns out to be a young woman who was kidnapped and is being sold probably for vivisection or sacrifice. The protagonist, a born protector, can't be having with that, and sets out to rescue her, which kicks off a whole series of investigations, chases, try-fail cycles, pitched battles, fraught conversations, betrayals and rescues. One of the rescues is pretty much literally a deus ex machina, but since it does turn out to be narratively justified (once behind-the-scenes maneuverings get taken into account) I'll allow it.

I referred to the story above as "promising," because it's solid without, for me, making it all the way to amazing. The author is better known for his short stories (and his humour; much to my relief, he didn't try too hard to make this story humourous, just let the banter happen where it needed to), and for an early novel this is sound in its craft and shows a lot of potential. Let's recall that the first Dresden Files books weren't nearly as good as the later ones.

Please don't think, either, that I'm damning it with faint praise. I enjoyed it, and expect to enjoy future entries in the series even more. And the door is left wide, wide open for more in the series by the ending, which sets up a sequel as strongly as a sequel can be set up, without detracting at all from the completeness of the first volume.

Definitely better than middling.

If you love adventure or are a fan of the Percy Jackson series, this book is for you. Fast paced, super interesting and a great read. Loved it ! Definitely recommend!

Such a good start to a new series!!!

What I liked about it (minor spoilers below):
1. I liked all the world building. Vampire bankers, sword-wielding necromancers, werewolves, wizards, trolls, portals to other time zones and places. What’s not to love?

Within the world, there are also groups of people/creatures, which gets really interesting.

Middlings (aka voids or mudlarks) - can perceive magic but cannot cast it. They can use stored magic in artifacts but cannot recharge the artifact as they have no magic to do so with.

While 1 out of 30,000 are born gifted, 1 out of 1,000,000 are born middlings, and most of them are dead or in hiding because of extreme prejudices in society against them. Thus, our main character Conrad, has a very big secret he is keeping.

The Watch – a volunteer organization of gifted (oops, except Conrad snuck in there!), whose goal is to protect the mundanes, or non-magic folk. They don’t care about squabbles between magic folk vs. magic folk or non-magic folk vs. non-magic folk, they only care about defending the most vulnerable (magic vs. non-magic).

The Cabal – an organization of sorcerers that frequently butts heads with the Watch. We are first introduced to the Cabal when they have their mundane client Bradley Holcomb (a completely hilarious character I can only assume is supposed to be Trump in this world) contact the Watch for assistance with magical interference at one of his construction sites.

The Druids – magical folk who have been trespassing on Holcomb’s construction site and using magic to derail human endeavors of overtaking the area in order to save the land and burial plot of their leader.

In the past, the Cabal drove the Druids out of Britain and Ireland like criminals. For Conrad, he has mixed emotions about their goals: he understands their want to save the land, but at the end of the day, the Watch must protect the mundanes from any magic. Thus, he negotiates peace talks between the Druids and Holcomb.

However, Holcomb doesn’t show up because the Cabal never told him and took the opportunity to try to attack the Druids. Moira and her band of Cabal renegades never had their client’s (Holcomb’s) best interest at heart, they just wanted to hunt down the Druids and kill them.

The Sanctuary - “After the nuclear plant accident made the land around Chernobyl unsafe for humans in the 1980s, a group of magical creatures moved in. Unaffected by radiation, they built a community in a place where they didn’t have to worry about being harassed by humans. More and more creatures flocked to this so-called Sanctuary, and we have no idea how many live there now. Once the radiation level began to subside, humans attempted to return to the area. The inhabitants of the Sanctuary took it upon themselves to keep their territory, by whatever means necessary. Any human found on their land is killed on sight.”

Obviously, that doesn’t sound in alignment with the Watch’s goals. It’s also where the mastermind behind the most dangerous bioweapon in the book is hiding, so this is kind of an important place.

2. I really liked how complex, morally and otherwise, all the characters were.

Conrad has his own agenda and set of morals, but at the end of the day he is a protector. He is smart, sarcastic, and the ultimate underdog. I had a lot of faith in him as a main character and he didn't let me down.

He describes himself as 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.” So, no wonder I love him!

Willodean, aka the middling Conrad rescues, is snarky and gets Conrad’s jokes, being able to throw them right back at him. She is also calm, cool, and collected when presented with a new situation, but also the first person to befriend a stranger once she has enough information. This side of her personality mixed with her patiently waiting “dark side”, creates a super interesting package and moral dilemma at times.

Dale, is another middling Conrad and Willodean meet in prison. Hmmm, for a rather boring middling, he sure knows a lot about picking locks and tying people up…

I love the “side” of Dale we get to know and everything he teaches Conrad. Honestly, I wanted more of him and really hope he is in the next installments of the series.

Moira, a cabal sorceress and leader of the attack on the Druids previously mentioned. I love Moira even though she is a baddie. She is a fantastic character and is definitely one of the stronger magical-folk in this book. She has sass for days and is always competing with Conrad for bad jokes/lines/pop culture references.

She’s not a great person, but she owns it. At the end of the day, she’s just doing her job and she still banded together with them to escape bad situations and fight with them against magical beings when she was the only one with magic. She is a very complex character and I love this about her. She’ll be back and she’s always going to be in Conrad’s world. If he is Batman, she is definitely Catwoman.

3. A big theme in this book is moral absolutism vs. relativism. The thought of “does the end justify the means?” comes around a lot in this book and adds to the complexity of characters and their thoughts. I really enjoyed watching Conrad think this over, as well as the little places it popped up but wasn’t outright called out.

4. SO MANY POP CULTURE REFERENCES!!! I’m an absolute sucker for these, especially when used in a super cheesy dad joke!!! Batman, Rorschach, Star Wars...the list goes on.

5. I liked the bit of redemption given to middlings.

What I didn’t like about the book:
1. They Donna’d Willodean!

2. I feel like there were a lot of scenes that played out that had very little impact on the larger plot and could have been described more generally than having a full-fledged chapter. Because of how many scenes there were, there was a lot of jumping all over the place and it got hard to follow at times.

As someone who assumes every detail is going to be important later, it was a bit overwhelming trying to keep up with everything sometimes. My kindle highlights are immense.

Assumptions for the rest of the series:
1. The ultimate bad guy is obviously still out there and I don’t think we’ve seen the end of him.
2. Where the hell did Mose (leader of the Watch) go? Where the hell did Dale go? I’m sure they’ll show up when it’s most convenient to Conrad
3. I’m sure Conrad will find his “god” again
4. Moira will be back and even more fabulous
5. Please no more Willodean. At this point, let her be.

Special thank you to NetGalley, CAEZIK SF & Fantasy, and Alex Shvartsman for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. Check out the book May 31!

As soon as I realised the novel was endorsed by no less a writer than Esther Friesner then I wanted the novel. And I was not disappointed. A humorous novel and well plotted that I really enjoyed. I would give it ten stars if I were able, but, alas, I am limited to five. Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for giving me a copy of the book.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC of "The Middling Affliction" by Alex Shvartsman. My opinions are purely my own.

So let's just say this: I have 0 clue what happened. The main plot was mixed in between millions of pop culture references. None of these references were needed and quite frankly, there was so many I almost had to start a counter (10 off the top of my head)

The writing style was great but the references ruined the plot and I wish the rest of the series good luck.

This was an amazing start to a series!

I read this book so fast, in the over spam of an evening to be exact because it was actually that good!!

Conrad is one of the male characters that I actually like! He has a very strong moral code that could rival Batman's, he is resilient, smart, sarcastic but not a complete asshole, which I enjoyed.

The story took a different turn than the one I expected but I can't complain because it was entertaining and I had fun reading!

Having read this book so early before it's release, has it's perks but at the same time I can't wait for the continuation of the series!