Mark of the Fool is the first book in the series with the same name written by J.M. Clarke.
Blurb
The gods chose him. He said no.
After his parents died, Alex Roth had one desire: become a wizard. Through hard work, he was accepted into the University of Generasi, the world’s greatest academy of wizardry...
Fate, however, had another plan.
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.
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.
There’s one small problem. The Mark insists on preventing the Fool from learning and casting spells, while enhancing skills outside of divinity, combat, and spellcraft…
…that is, unless he learns to exploit the hell out of it.
Review
Feels great to have found another progression fantasy series that hit just the right spot for me. The main character's choice to run away from the prophecy and see to his own needs (and that of his sister and friends) was a nice hook to start the story. This might eventually turn out to be just a part of a grand plan of the prophecy itself, still it was good to see this difference from the usual trope.
And then there were the thrilling action scenes, the world slowly opening up, the magical academy and all the lessons, wonderful cast of characters and familiars. The tone was light hearted despite the dangers. The academy instructors being competent and helpful was another plus point in my book. To top it all were the slice-of-life scenes, which I prefer over series that focus just on action. Of course, this series goes a bit overboard on this aspect. I still finished four long books in about five days, but I can see how some readers would drop the series.
The magic system was interesting, with a variety of choice available. It was nice to see non-magical parts being given importance as well! I enjoyed Alex having to come up with workarounds due to his Mark, especially the weaponization of potions. Though, I wondered why other wizards didn't already use them or at least learn from him. Some of his rich friends could easily arm themselves with such potions instead of borrowing from him. And that extends to other options like wizard staff, armor, golems and so on. They are rich, so why aren't they making effective use of their inheritance? To be fair, some did have retainers, familiars and golems, but it felt a bit odd that they didn't maximize their options.
Writing was easy to follow. Given the large cast of characters, I wish they each got POV chapters instead of just some of them. This is an ongoing webserial and the published books don't really have a separate arc on their own. I found the third book a bit dragging, especially as the events promised at the end of the second one were fulfilled in the fourth book! I did enjoy the tournament arc, but it took me a while to realize the plot switch.
Overall, I'd highly recommend the series to those who enjoy progression fantasy, magical academy and slice-of-life.