In this unique and fascinating new fantasy novel, readers enter a world where magic is returning after a centuries-long absence. Professor Adrienne Imlay has a great academic career, but her secret shamanic abilities have to be hidden at all times, but her entanglement with Philidor Magnus, an inventor with secrets, will draw her into a deadly plot that will force her to confront her abilities and the underside of her familiar community. With a cast of complex and fascinating characters and some incredible magical systems in the detailed worldbuilding, readers will love the attention to detail that Evans includes in the first book of their new fantasy series. Adrienne, Philidor, and the other characters are the star of this novel, and readers will love seeing how the narrative evolves over the course of the novel. Their relationships with each other and with magic are also particularly unique, and readers will appreciate the depth of worldbuilding present in this fascinating new novel. Intriguing, intense, and with a great mystery and criminal element in this novel, readers will really enjoy the first book in this new series and the possible adventures and opportunities in store for Adrienne and others in her orbit.

This is a great read for fans of the Emily Wilde's series.

The main character, Adrienne, is very studious and does all in the name of research and science. She has dedicated her life to it and has a very logical approach to problems and her own feelings. Being a highly emotional person, I always find these kinds of characters so cozy for me to read about. Recently there has been a rift in her world that allows a portal to another dimension, and now demons are surfacing all over the world.

The world building is absolutely magical and vivid. It has a sort of 1930s steam punk feeling to it which is different than most fantasy books.

The mystery was fun, for some people it might be obvious and for others it might go right over your head.

This book also touches on interesting topics of religion and politics; it dives into the fact that religion has played a huge role in politics for centuries. It also dives into the expectation and double standards of women in society.

I can't wait to continue the next book in this series; and I hope that Albert will play a bigger role in the next one. I adored him!

I liked this book! It was so fun and I love a good magical book. It was so entertaining and it kept me intrigued. I really liked the magic and school mix combination. I enjoyed this!!

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complimentary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

Demons running rampant, colleagues disappearing, and experiments involving magic, Professor Adrienne has her hands full. Just days after her lab neighbor goes missing and a demon is seen running around a department store, Adrienne finds herself acquainted with Philidor Magnus, an obsessive inventor, eager to bring magic back for a special machine that can create anything. Instead of exciting magic experiments, Adrienne finds herself in more danger than she thought she could be in.

The magic in this was more of a scientific system which is always a breath of fresh air as well as makes me feel really dumb sometimes. I’ll admit, I don’t think I understand all the technical philosophy of this book, but I was able to grasp the other concepts and I was really hoping for more. The worldbuilding felt like it could have been explained in a better way or expanded on more. There wasn’t much to the relationships in this and I really felt like the FMC could have been replaced by anyone else and the plot wouldn’t have changed.

The first 50% was super slow and it wasn’t until 50% that the readers met Philidor Magnus. Being in the blur I would have thought he would be the MMC, but I’m not sure I can call him that. It didn’t feel like he was important enough to the story. The last 15% or so was definitely my favorite as things were being revealed. I really enjoyed the twist of it all which is why this is a 3 star rather than a 2. Had there been a little more backstory to everything instead of the slightly less important reveals just being matter of factly said, it would have been a pretty good story.

(3.5 ⭐ - ARC) I really enjoyed the story and the steampunk/Arcane magical science vibes of this book, but it definitely needs more editing. I'm having a hard time summarizing my thoughts so I'll break it down a bit:

Characters - I really love our MC, Adrienne, a dedicated scientist who is essentially studying the niche equivalent of magic theoretical physics. Her life is formulaic and mundane and she's content with that - until her niche abilities are suddenly very sought after by some powerful people. She has her work and her handful of acquaintances, and couldn't be bothered by socializing or wearing corsets or courting a man. It's not until she finds someone who is as deeply dedicated to research as she is where her interests are piqued, though that doesn't change who she is. She's just a huge nerd (kind of reminded me of Bones or Elizabeth Zott), love that about her and enjoyed reading her POV.
"To me, a man was just a waste of time. Not that I was completely devoid of experience in this area. I had tried a few things during my second year of college , more out of scientific curiosity than lust. I had concluded that sex was a complicated, uncomfortable, slimy business, much less interesting than what we were led to believe. No comparison with the exhilarating thrill of research or the sharp pleasure of discovery."
Some other characters were fun, but a lot were introduced and we don't get to see enough development or spend enough time with each one to see their impact.

World - we are introduced to a large world that has many places, cultures, political strife, religions, differing tech, and war. And then there's magic or "the Power", which isn't well understood, and even other planes where magical creatures like demons, jinn, and unicorns preside. It's hard to get the full picture from a short book, but it felt like a rich lore is there ready to be explored. It maybe needs to be called a bit in this first introduction, though, to focus more on building where the story takes place.

Writing - another reviewer said this was translated from French, and it is self published, so what is here is impressive. I do think it needs more help in terms of editing, though. There are misused words, repeated paragraphs that seem like rewrites that weren't deleted, and other various typos. I think with some more serious polish, it would be a great read

From the author's blog, it emerges that this book was translated (by the author) from French, and it badly needs an editor to get it into smooth English. Not only do we get a full collection of all the usual editing issues, but the verb tenses are frequently off, and there are a great many mangled idioms (with missing or substituted prepositions, missing words, and singular and plural sometimes swapped round). I'm used to seeing books where the author uses simple past instead of past perfect tense; I seldom see one where it's also the other way round, as here. There's also a whole passage of three or four paragraphs copied and pasted into the wrong place at one point, which is nothing to do with being translated or the author (probably) not having English as a first language; it's just careless proofreading.

Usual disclaimer: I had a pre-publication version from Netgalley, and there's some chance that there will be more editing before publication. (At the very least, I hope someone will run a spellcheck, because it needs one.) However, given that there's so much work to do, I'm confident that it still won't be in good shape when published. I mention these things in my reviews because they bother me, and if they bother you, you probably want to know that they're present; I know they don't bother everyone.

The start of the story is slowed by too many initially unconnected subplots with no clear overall plot question to resolve. We get the MC's flashbacks to her difficult childhood; a visiting scholar from a distant place that most local people distrust; an incubus (who, at one point, refers to himself as a succubus) who's dropped through a rift; disappearing academics; the MC's hiding of her status as a shaman. Switching back and forth between these means that none of them progress very fast, and there's not much sense of forward momentum until at least halfway through the book, when the supposedly intelligent main character chooses to go with a man who has more red flags than a May Day parade, without telling anyone where she's going or with whom. This despite the fact that two people with similar knowledge to her have already disappeared in unexplained circumstances.

And then she goes with another dodgy guy, and accepts a drink from him. I don't appreciate stupid female characters, especially when they're supposed to be intelligent.

On the upside, this is a magic-as-technology book, which I enjoy; that's why I picked it up. The worldbuilding isn't in great depth, but it's adequate. There is a bit of "Aerith and Bob" (where made-up fantasy names are mixed with familiar names from our world), but there are several different ethnicities in the city and, giving the benefit of the doubt, maybe that's the reason and the author has worked it all out carefully. The magical terminology is suitably arcane, and sounds like real technical jargon.

I was engaged enough to finish the book, without ever wanting to put it down and read something else, so that's something. And despite her narrow life, poor choices and determination not to get involved in the plot until it intersected with her academic interests, I did like Adrienne and want her to emerge as a winner, even if it wasn't clear exactly what that would look like. But she is always reactive more than proactive, and ends up having to be rescued from several situations she should have been smart enough not to get into in the first place, and between that and the non-idiomatic English, I won't be picking up the sequel or adding it to my recommendation list.

Fundamental Magics was so good to read. I couldn't stop reading this book from the first time I pick it up. I totally recommend everyone to read this book as fast as they can because it's really good.