Dynamicist

by Lee Hunt

1 out of 5

Synopsis

Would it kill you to create something genuinely new?

In Robert's world, it used to. Supernatural vengeance for invention is now a thing of the past.

Young, optimistic, quick of mind and quick to act, Robert thinks being invited to the New School is an invitation to change the world. But change is difficult when there is no history of innovation.

He is initially successful in his studies, but nothing is as simple as he naively imagines. His classmates confuse and frustrate him. One is a drunk, while another two constantly stalk him. Is it for love or something more sinister?

Robert's optimism is further tested by protestors who circle the campus, decrying the newly invented breed of grain. They claim it is poison and that the New School should be punished by Nimrheal, the god who formerly murdered inventors. Robert suspects foreign business influences are behind the protests, but he quickly finds that investigating their cause is dangerous.

Robert's most difficult challenges are his unresolved childhood issues. His mother died while he was a child. Robert's formative helplessness and inability to remember her face projects into a powerful and blinding protectiveness towards all women. When a campus assault pushes Robert over the edge, his hopes of even staying at the New School are jeopardized. He cannot aspire to change the world if he does not even know himself.

At the same time as Robert struggles on campus, a powerful, ruthless and emotionally closed man known only as the Lonely Wizard journeys across an empty wilderness to return home. As Robert and the Lonely Wizard move closer together, Robert finds that instead of entering a golden era of invention, he may instead be on the brink of a cold war and an endless, unchanging dark age.

Review

Robert lives in a world where magic is a science, and he is on his way to greatness.

I received a free audiobook copy in exchange for an honest review.

I thought the narrator did a great job, and he had a very listenable voice.

I also liked the concept of magic being math-based and the logical approach to it. I was excited to see how the world would develop, etc.

After reading the synopsis, I was under the impression that this would follow Robert through his time at the New School, which I was all for.

Unfortunately, I didn't get that far.

Apart from a brief interview, the first three hours (a whole quarter of the audiobook), I was being talked at about grain futures, and the impossibility of it not changing over time.

We are talked at about farmers and grain merchants, and their squabbles and issues.

Now, I'm part of the farming community, and I always love when it's included in fantasy worlds.

In fact, as long as people are invested and passionate about anything, no matter how "dull"; I'm there for the ride.

Unfortunately, Robert isn't passionate about anything. But as our narrator, he still takes everything apart, atom by atom, and explains it with a certain disinterest and superiority.

I get that this is just Robert's personality, this is how he processes the world, but I couldn't get invested.

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