On the Shoulders of Titans (Arcane Ascension Book 2)

This was an entertaining book, following in spirit the first one of the series.As usual, there is a huge depth in theory and the story as I realized coming from the first book, is not shallow. On the contrary there is a lot to it and quite a lot of things happen.While the story is rich, the narration is a bit dry, probably not spending enough time on our protagonists themselves to make it deeper. Not too many hard choices so far, the progression is quite linear in a sense. I am sure many readers prefer it that way, simple and entertaining, however I kinda wanted a little bit more depth.The protagonists are likeable but as I said, shallow, since faaaar too little of their background becomes known. Please go deeper next time, I think it’s worth it. Make it a 5 book series or 6 it doesn’t matter. More depth would add some uniqueness and we would bond with the characters more.Corin is given more time and it’s nice that some peculiarities are explored there, but as I said there is room for more!! His character could be deeper.I dare to admit that I find it a bit excessive how Corin and his band manage to face such powerful adversaries so early in their growth and live relatively unscathed. This part could have been toned down a bit in favor of realism, he he.The action and the pace is good and you will enjoy reading this book - I have had no need to push myself to read more, on the contrary I enjoy reading the depth of the magic system presented and the story progression. This is the main reason (along with the interesting story) I give 4 stars on this and I gladly recommend this to litrpg fans

On The Shoulders Of Titans is the second book in the Arcane Ascension series by Andrew Rowe.This book improved sufficiently over its predecessor, especially in regards to world building and the more structured explanations into their mana system. I enjoyed learning more thoroughly of each of the core attunements, even managing to stumble onto a few more obscure references.Derek's abilities as a SoulSword are amazing and I certainly wouldn't turn down what essentially equates to a harem of talking swords. Then there's Sera's new advancement towards Invoker, with similar limitations and near equal measures of intense power. Finally, a certain favorite of mine is found in our dear Jin, his Mesmer abilities are both hilarious and terribly pragmatic. I would enjoy seeing what he's further capable of. Hopefully this next book, in an entirely different part of the world will touch on more fantastically interesting attunements available, and the ones their hoping to build.The intense political intrigue, mired in religious zealous, that coats their country's inhabitants and has influenced this story thus far only added further flavor and managed to improve it as a whole. I hope to further understand the intricacies of the individual countries and their populations is this journey to improve overall citizen safety and satisfaction. I think it's more likely that none of the factions in similar situations as Tristan are correct, and that Pre-Attunement Era Sorcery will come to matter more. Much in the same context that we have not truly touched on Keras' origins, and the world outside their continent.I still find fault in the degree with which we have even touched on Corin's childhood, and Magnus' treatment of him, or rather lack thereof. This is certainly a core component of his character, and eventual growth. It stymies me to not yet know more. That Tristan so easily dismisses his abuse, and in concert with Sera's revelations of Tristan's hidden nature. I find myself concerned whether he is a more sly version of Magnus, or if this is some form of coping mechanism?I do however enjoy the cast of characters that are slowly becoming our main characters. Outside of their group I'm most interested in discovering Professor Vellum and Meltlake's individual secrets. Hopefully those will be divulged in the future.

good book

This second volume seemed to drag in places. The characters spend less time in school and more time trying to buff up for future battles. Their efforts to figure out what is going on do eventually bear fruit, but I wasn't thrilled with the aims of any of the factions, and I could see significant problems with the one Tristan belongs to. I do plan to keep reading, but I'm less excited about it than I was at the end of the first book.

"Is there someone just giving out legendary magical swords to children?"* * * * *5 / 5Sufficiently Advanced Magic is one of the best self-published novels and the most amazing example of LitRPG that I have ever had the pleasure to read. Andrew Rowe knows what his readers want: that nostalgic sense of playing an RPG video game - levelling up, discovering new characters, clearing dungeons and developing your party - combined with some fascinating and original world building, and lots of cool fights."I haven't had a decent scrap in a while. Let me get my trouble coat."On the Shoulders of Titans is pretty similar to Sufficiently Advanced Magic in terms of writing, plot structure, magic, and general style. The actual plot is, of course, different; we open with Corin Cadence having received a mysterious message, his sister Sera completely burnt out by magic overuse, betrayed by his sort-of-romantic-interest, and with a sparkling new attunement on his hand. Helpfully, the book begins with a recap of the last weighty tome in case you'd forgotten all of this.Exhausted and battle-weary, Corin and his school buddies settle down with Derek Hartigan and Keras Selyrian to recover and learn some flashy new combat tricks. The core cast of the last book remains similar (and Marissa is still my favourite!) with the exception of Jin and the introduction of a host of new characters including notable standout Sheridan Theas. There's more school, more gods & monsters, more magic, more epic fights, and more of the Spire (though not enough!)."My, my. When someone banters about trading with a visage, I generally presume it to be all sand and no salt"Titans is a natural extension of the first book - maybe it loses a bit of the wow factor that the first book had, maybe it's a touch too long and drags a little in place, maybe it's a bit too cheesy when the characters shout out the names of their moves in the middle of a fight and the banter is ridiculous. There's also a couple of weird plot points where something is mentioned a couple of times and then just gets forgotten about. But I loved it. I tore through this 750 page door stopper in five days (I was going to get the audiobook because I loved the narration of the first book, but I was just too eager to get my hands on the sequel to wait) and was entertained for every minute of it.The intrigue, the drama, the school "missions", the fights that are won and lost, the totally overpowered nature of everyone - Arcane Ascension is a series with a clear vision and it is executed really, really well. I can't wait for the next one!

Overall enjoyable read. The action scenes are very well written and easily invisioned. The time in the spire and outdoors is always really interesting and definitely feels like a vibrant setting you want to explore. The characters continue to have great dialogue and there's answers to the intrigue from the first book. However, as the main character is still in training a great majority of the time is found in the magic school setting and I found myself feeling less pressed for time to read the book because comparatively classes were less of a page turner than understanding a continent wide conspiracy. On the other hand, this just shows how good the author is that i want to find out more about this fictional world.

The story, world and magic system is fantastically layered and well thought out, but the biggest downfall of this book in my opinion is two specific characters. Sera might have spent almost this entire book wounded, but she was somehow still far too strong by comparison to corin, and made even more so at the end. Corin is so annoyingly weak in direct combat that its not even funny and honestly had me skipping fight scenes he was involved in if it didn't have an innovated element, like the exams. I can accept sera being strong, but corins sheer weakness has lasted far too long, and my hope that his second attunement would counter that drawback was short-lived, instead making him somewhat less autonomous in being linked directly to the envisages. I feel like his character deserves a powerful direct combat attunement that could work in tandem with his other powers, I was hoping that his second ability would've been something along the lines of ascendant shaper, and it could synergies with enchantment by adding magic effects to phantasmal items or making items that generated phantasmal armour or blades. This series has a lot of potential though, if only those two characters weren't so disappointing.

Admittedly I bought this book straight away and if you haven't already bought the first book by them both at the same time.This book is set in the same universe though not currently crossing over (much) with the authors other series set in the same universe so don't worry about needing to read those as well, though I suspect if you enjoy the books you probably will.It's a rarity for its treatment of gender identity topics as normal in a way that is organic to the books, it's neither heavy handed with the topic or a particular focus of the books and honestly that's refreshing.Aside from that it's a generally light-hearted book that deals with some at times heavy topics and is a mainly character driven, has an interesting magic system that is intriguing and is a great follow up to the first book, developing characters and theirs relationships while progressing and establishing the plot for what I hope and is definitely planned to be a much larger series.I really enjoyed it.

This sequel fails to live up to the first in the series. The series main strength is the dynamic and interesting universe mechanics but instead of being a backdrop to a story they are front and centre for a second book running.They truly do make up an interesting world which would work out brilliantly if at times we could be shown and not told. The majority of the book ends up being either the main character speculating over the workings of magic or discussing it with their friends.The story beats, instead of being the focus, end up as a distraction, awkwardly placed in between long monologuing sections. The plot is engaging but far too little progress is made for my liking due to the slow pace of the book.