In a battle of life and death, power had bathed him from an unknown entity, turning his body from clay to fine marble. He was now stronger, tougher, richer with mana and…he’d also transformed in other ways. He towered roughly teen feet tall and looked even more ferocious than the goddess statues in the Cave of the Traveller that the fire-beams in his hands and head had come from. From his creators’ hands, the sculpted form of an invincible, four-armed warrior with sharpened teeth had been born. He’d been crafted of grey clay with a surface carved to imitate intricate, full plate armour adorned with scenes of warriors and monsters among the filigree. Their inn sat at the end of the street—a busy place near the centre of town—and it had been home for Alex and his sister ever since they had been orphaned. Master and Mrs. Lu were kind folks, and he had spent most of his childhood as friends with their daughter, Theresa. Guardsmen have to make sure the youth are on the right path, don’t we?” Paul rose to his full height, puffing out his chest unconsciously. “Anyway, off you go now, if you’re right, this’ll probably get ugly. Oh, and happy birthday, Alexander. Eighteen’s a big number. Keep those coins and try and treat yourself.”

Hello, folks, just to tell ya, chapters 8 to 430 have been published on Kindle and Audible. Chapters 163-260 are removed for publishing! That's up to book 5. Theaudiobook is narrated by Travis Baldree! I struggled often and early to care for the characters or be invested as the story progressed. The action scenes weren't very convincing and I couldn't stand the younger sister. I've read enough books to know that if I feel like dropping around the 25% mark, then I should. The room wasn’t overly large, but it contained weapons and armour that blazed with both mana, and divinity. Though the designs were archaic—there was no plate armour to be seen anywhere, or even anything as advanced as a crossbow—their inner magics would have more than made up for it. Mark of the Fool is a webserial following Alex, a young man on the eve of leaving for the most prestigious wizard university in the world when he is marked as the latest Fool. Deciding that being the token joke character doesn't sound appealing Alex instead escapes to follow his original plan. Joining him are his young sister, Selina, his childhood best friend Theresa, and her pet cerberus Brutus. The initial plot hook is intriguing. A hero that runs? Quite unusual. The first few chapters are engaging, and we can't wait to get into the actual world-building, and fleshing out the mythology of this world...

The Fool—according to all Alex’s teachers—had nothing to offer anyone, save for a nominal but necessary service to the Heroes. Uldar’s Prophecies called those that bore the mantle necessary, but history had suggested otherwise.

It felt like the author forced himself into a corner by the MC's unique condition that he can't change the narrative and I almost DNFd it but then the author came up with a couple of cool ideas I was very much looking forward to but sadly the author never went to explore that ideas till the end of book 1. Interspecies Romance: Considered perfectly normal by most, such as Thundar (a minotaur) and his fox-kin crush. He thought of the first time he’d met Drestra: the Sage had been unheard by everyone around her, and had turned agitated and bitter. He thought of Selina, she’d feared rejection from everyone, including her own brother when her fire affinity was discovered. Rather than die or serve other Heroes like past Fools, he takes a stand, rejects divine decree...and leaves. With his little sister, his childhood friend, and her cerberus, Alex flees for the university, hoping to research the mystery of the Ravener. He’ll make lifelong friends, learn magic from mad wizards, practice alchemy, fight mana vampires, and try to pay tuition. I didn't give it a 5 star rating be ause the characters are poorly developed. They're all just super good at everything and everything just sort of works out despite minor danger. Actually, the more I think about it, the more this seems like a fantasy-themed slice of life than high fantasy adventure.There Are No Therapists: Alex and Selina's parents died in a fire when the children were young, and while they've learnt to cope the trauma is still there, especially for Selina. There’s a lot of words for feelings,” he said. “I’m sure this is all…a lot for you, so I won’t start teaching you them now. You’d like to learn about that kinda stuff, wouldn’t you?”

As it passed, Alex spied what he was looking for: two guardsmen sitting on the side of the fountain. They were bleary-eyed from the night watch, and squinted at Alex as he strolled up as light-footed as a pleased cat. Is…this…right?” Claygon asked, his lower arms gently wrapping around Alex, hugging the young wizard. His grip was powerful, and for a—brief, claustrophobic moment—a little stab of fear went through Alex; Claygon’ arms felt like the earth rising up to consume him. I mean not for today, obviously, but there was yesterday and Firstday so that’s two silver pieces—”Functional Magic: Spells are created from "mana circuits", which behave like their electrical equivalents. It's possible with enough knowledge to replace, remove or alter the functionality of a spell by changing how it's "wired". On his eighteenth birthday, he is Marked by prophecy as one of his kingdom’s five Heroes, chosen to fight the Ravener, his land’s great enemy. But his brand is 'The Fool'. Worst of the marks. The Saint was absent, but the Champion, warrior of Uldar; and the Chosen, leader of the Heroes; were present with the Sage. Along with them was a mysterious member of the fae, known to most as the Guide. I feel like this was trying to be two different stories. Oh and I found the depiction of that ten year old sister suspect at best, at least early on. She has almost no development and seems like a vehicle for problems for the main character to solve more than anything. He rounded the corner onto the street he lived on and his eyes narrowed. The sun was setting: he had spent the day at the magistrate’s office, wading through more paper than he’d ever seen at the church’s school. Then he’d gone to spend time at his parents’ graveside. Now, he was on his way home, planning to break the news of his future plans to the Lu family.