A Nightmare of Magic and Madness is the first book in the Chaos of Magic series by Matthew Spizuco. Logan Grenbrook is a mage of the Gen’Dom order and is frequently sent out on various errands for other mages, that is whenever he is not working on his own studies. His mentor Jonathan has requested that he join Magistrate Chudakat in the investigation into what happened to Baron Lamrik and his caravan, something that was violent, sudden and unexpected. Joined by his foster brother Trok they meet up with Chudakat only to promptly discover they are not the only ones investigating Baron Lamrik. A Penkali guardian named Kareena was tasked with tracing the Baron’s smuggling operation and is now looking into his mysterious disappearance and possible death. Despite Logan’s distrust and misgivings they end up banding together to investigate the mysterious event. As they follow the trail they end up learning more than they ever expected about what it is they were facing and in the process about each other as well.
This was a pretty great read in terms of the actual story as I felt myself drawn right in from the get go and was seriously anticipating what was going to happen next. The tension and build up was just right to keep me drawn in and waiting. I can also honestly say that I did not expect the ending, at least not until way too close to said ending. The amount of twists and turns that the story takes is rather interesting and not what I was expecting from the beginning. There were a few things that played out close to what I was expecting but a lot of it was not even close. It definitely kept me right on the edge up until the end. The characters were also pretty cool and I felt like I got to know them decently well, more so Logan than the others but all of them pretty good overall. They were incredibly realistic and believable and I liked them both as characters and as a group. It does feel remarkably similar to other stories with a similar theme and concept but I will admit that this one was still good despite that. The story didn’t feel over done or overly cliched which is hard to do with this type of story. My one real issue with the story was honestly the formatting as the paragraph breaks were really weird and in odd places, frequently the middle of a sentence. I don’t know if this was just because I was reading an unproofed ebook or what but I would recommend checking this out. This book gets four out of five stars from me.
I would classify this book as an adult fantasy novel and would think it holds the most appeal to adult readers who enjoy the fantasy genre. However, the violence it does contain is not overly graphic or gruesome and there are minimal adult references so I would think that it could be read and enjoyed by teenagers as well. It was an enjoyable read and I would definitely read more of the series so I hope you will consider trying it out. If you do feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. This book was acquired through the Reedsy Discovery program and you can also find a copy of my review there.