Academy of Outcasts is in stores tomorrow, and available in eBook, Kindle Unlimited, and audio.
All Oz Carnavon ever wanted was to become a master mage.
Except, to do so requires the natural gifts or wealth necessary to secure an appointment to one of the prestigious magical academies in the Core City at the center of the seven realms. Oz had neither.
He was born without magical talent, serving in the elemental plane of fire, a nightmarish hellscape of treacherous lava and vicious monsters, where life is cheap, and escape is rare. But Carnavons never give up.
When Oz fakes his death to get out of his family’s contract and crosses the Nexus gate to sneak into the Core, everything seems to be going according to plan… Until he gets blamed for an assassination attempt on the fire realm’s ambassador.
Now, Oz must become a fugitive in a vast magical city, while trying to earn a place among the magical academies which have nothing but disdain for his kind. And the clock is ticking, because in one week, the most dangerous wizard in the realm of fire is coming to track him down and drag him back to hell.
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This was a really fun story to write. It’s my first foray in the Progression Fantasy genre, and it came out really well. In fact I was enjoying myself so much that I went ahead and wrote the second book as soon as I finished the first one. I almost never do that.
Is there anywhere I can get the ebook that will allow me to load it onto a non-Amazon ereader?
I don’t know. I’ve asked the publisher.
Curious to know too. Dozens of us are trying to de-Amazon our ebook purchases 😉
Any updates on this, Larry? I also tried to contact the publisher using their “contact us” form, but they didn’t even see fit to respond.
Yeah, I’d like to know that as well. I won’t be buying any more e- books from Amazon after the changes they have made.
I refuse to buy (although it sounds like a great book) when the only way to purchase the eBook is through Amazon. Larry Correia I’m sure is a successful author and I know he wants to maximize his earnings but how much would he be giving up to also have this book available on a Kobo eReader and a Nook eReader? Dean Koontz has done the same and I’ve have not purchased any of his releases since he went exclusively with Amazon.
In order for it to be on Kindle Unlimited, which it is, it has to be exclusive to Amazon.
And chock up another reason to despise the Kindle business plan. Effective, but sucks for the consumer.
I’m not sure that’s correct, Bryan. There are Baen Books that are available both through the Baen website and Amazon/Kindle.
Amazon/Kindle is a different beast than Kindle Unlimited. Kindle Unlimited is a subscription service where the reader can check out participating books, read them, and return them to get more. In order for a book to participate in Kindle Unlimited, it has to be exclusive to Amazon. Amazon will still sell the book to people who want to own a copy, the book just can’t be available anywhere else. Note, you can add and remove books from participation and there is nothing stopping a publisher from doing that and listing the book for sale through other outlets along with Amazon.
Gotcha. Thanks for the correction. I would never have known!
A little less than halfway through and Trax is already an all-time favorite character for me.
Man, and you just caught me part way through Devastation of Baal.
Time to power through it so I can read this.
Reminds me, @LarryCorreia
Any chance you’ll ever write a Military SciFi with “space marines”?
And I don’t just mean modern armed forces with SciFi aesthetic, I mean actual augmentations
With this book and your Grimnoir books, you’re not averse to MCs that have powers, I don’t really count Saga of The Forgotten Warrior as superpowered by much till the final volume, because I find that Ashok made too much of a point that he was a man of multiple skills
I want outright superhuman fighters, guys who can take actual gunshots and keep going
Also, actually lose limbs and have them replaced….because no offense, all the “Badass Normal” lovers forget just how fragile the human body is and how even a few parts being shut down can ruin things forever
Space Marines aside from being made to be tougher than normal humans, also get cybernetics….okay that’s almost every other human that can afford them and/or be seen as having the priority for them
Okay, I finished it this weekend. Very good read, and I have to say that twist of how you brought it to an end was great and not what I expect at all.
I mean this as the highest compliment when I say the book does not read like anything else I’ve read from you. I mean it like when tell a voice actor their new character sounds nothing like their natural voice.
I’m hooked and can’t wait to get back to the book the world is so alive and new and I need more of it. I reads like you were excited writing it.
Haven’t read it yet, but I remember another post by Larry, noting how he can write in more than one style….or more than “one voice” in a sense
My guess, what carries over? The sheer speed and ability to digest whatever he writes
That’s what I notice about Larry’s writing, it’s super easy to read it all very quickly
Which is what made me think how different the Monster Hunter Memoirs writers sound/feel so different from him….felt like it took longer to digest
Progression Fantasy sometimes delivers on the “progression” part without giving the reader a reason to give a damn about it, but this is not that kind of book. Larry lets us in on the the relevant nuts and bolts of the world — as the genre basically requires — without burying the story in gamey elements and jargon. Even more importantly, he balances thoughtful worldbuilding with characters that are actually interesting to read about, neglecting neither.
Overall, Academy of Outcasts has all the best elements of this genre while avoiding the most common pitfalls. I usually can wait for the audiobook, but I might actually get the sequel in print!
I have finished academy of outcasts, and congratulations Larry, you have created literature cack!
Great book. I read it in about 2 days and already pre-ordered the next in the series. Really like that you’re exploring a different sub-genre. The tone of this was a little different from your other work but kept that distinct “Larry” feel to it. Really cool to explore a whole new world you’ve created here.
Nice, starting this soon.
My only “progressive” series I’ve read are The Cradle by Will Wight (fantastic!!) and A Thousand Li, which is good too but I forget the author.
Looking forward to this
Really liked it. I’ve been describing as “Tyrell Sackett learns magic and swears a lot.” All of which I see as a positive.
Finished it. Fantastic, can’t wait to see where the story goes next, plenty of options for the whole series in a world and magic system that seems great.
You did a fantastic job, Larry. I’ve read a bunch of progressive fantasy novels this year that came out, and this is by far the best one I’ve read this year.
It was super evident you were having a blast writing this, and it’s one of those books where I wanted more, but in a good way. All in all, excellent job.
Also, I’ve been going through your hard magic series and have been loving that series, alongside Saga of the Forgotten warrior, which is also great.
Im on Chapter 37 in Audible so apologies if I spelled the character name wrome but is Nyx Tartarus an ode to Nyx in Travis Bagwell’s Hollow?