Thank you to NetGalley and RB Media for the advanced audio version of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book started out as the rave worthy, sparkle bombing, glittery, gamer, Matrix inspired, sci-fi book of my dreams. Isobel is Queen of the Sparkle Dungeon in the video game that I need in my life. It’s like Minecraft Dungeons with glitter and our main character Isobel is a streaming gamer who gets the opportunity of the lifetime when she’s chosen as a tester for the upcoming Sparkle Dungeon 5. Her opportunity turns into more of a nightmare when the testing turns her into a guinea pig for 108 new power morphemes that cause real world physical symptoms and side effects. After her third session she is offered her dream job with Sparkle Co where she is not only learning secrets of the game but also gets to be a part of the the team for the superstar Jordan Connelly. And from this point on things really get crazy. There are so many things going on in this story. There’s a cult, a crooked politician, VR characters coming into the real world, real world people going into the VR world, transportation, transmutation, and why not sprinkle in a little bit of alien invasion. I always like stories that make it feel like magic is attainable and when they are explaining the studies of linguistics that is behind thes power morphemes, it seems like it’s something that could be possible that just hasn’t been discovered yet. However, about halfway through we shift into some Matrix level shit where not only can these morphemes make things appear out of thin air but can also make people transport. One thing that really bothered me about this book is that with the introduction of every character we get a description with their race and their pronouns. While I completely understand that representation is important, I wish it was brought up organically instead of like a role calla type of situation. It really started to go downhill for me around part 4 when it became really difficult to follow and just felt like Moore was trying to put every single idea ever into this book, including a poorly thought out sapphic romance that is completely inorganic and unbelievable. It also ended up being way too long and drawn out for what the story was trying to convey. Overall this was a disappointment because it is really such a cool concept and had such a strong start.

#battleofthelinguistmages #netgalley

<<This review will be available 1/18 on my podcast What Angela Reads>>

It's with genuine sadness that I report Battle of the Linguist Mages became unreadable (unlistenable in my case) at the 38% mark. Facing yet another massive info dump, and unable to decode any of the minutes-long monologuing about aliens, power morphemes, and the motivations of a miles-long list of secondary characters, I couldn't bring myself to rewind and listen again. Not when the primary mood of the work is "WTF?!", with nearly 11 hours of audio still to go.

Like so many reviewers, I wanted to like this. I studied linguistics in college, am fascinated by language generally, and in my perfect dreamboat world, language mastery would absolutely lead to magical endowment! But in Moore's latest scifi, gamer-centric techno-romp, language as you and I understand it is the last thing on anyone's mind. The magic system is based on a set of gibberish-sounding "power morphemes" taught to humans by -- wait for it! -- punctuation, which is in fact an alien race that found a habitable home in human brains long before our story begins.

There's no use going further into detail about the bonkers plot when Isobel, our main character, leaks charm and charisma like a boat with a hole in the bottom until she's a drowning mess of stereotyping by the 25% mark. Like Ready Player One, the prose relies on telling rather than showing and, as delightful as the Sparkle Dungeon VR game might be, there's significant visual input overload. Good sensory writing relies on all five senses, not just the low-hanging visual fruit. It was... exhausting, if I'm being honest.

Justis Bolding's narration is excellent, particularly given the subpar script she was given. She brings a mask-forward tone to her performance that feels authentic to Isobel's sharp, incisive style of speech and thought. While I'd love to listen to her again, it won't be on the remainder of Battle of the Linguist Mages.

Thank you to NetGalley and RB Media for the advance copy.