Alex Maher's The Hedge Wizard: A Progression Fantasy, Book One
OH... So That's the Difference Between Progression and Straight Up LitRPG
So in the dim, dark, distant past of ohh… Say… January or February of this year it came to my attention that I kept hearing about a new genre (or maybe sub-genre?) of books called “Progression.” I was interested. A lot of these books sounded really good. But where to start? Someone suggested Alex Maher’s The Hedge Wizard. It was someone I trust, so I ran off to Amazon and managed to find it on Kindle Unlimited. I then promptly added it to my queue and waited months to read it.
Waiting was, admittedly, not my smartest move, but I’m past it now. So let’s just move on.
Something I really, really love is a book that doesn’t take itself too seriously. The main character, the hedge wizard in a book named The Hedge Wizard is named Hump. Yup, you read that right. Hump. Just like the thing in Igor’s back in Young Frankenstein. His best friend’s name is Bud. I love it. I can kick my feet up by the fire (or just stick them out the window. It is July after all.) and read this thing with a can of coke in my other hand. It doesn’t get much better than that.
About halfway through page one, we learn that Hump was an apprentice, only his Master just died. Sucks to be him. It’s always best to be where the arrow isn’t. Shoulda zigged. Zagged instead. Sayonara, guy.
Anyway…
Hump has no family. I find this to make sense as I would probably disappear in shame if I were to ever name my child Hump. But with no family, and no money, and no way to make a buck other than risking his life as a hedge wizard, young Hump makes his way toward a new formed Dungeon in search of fame and fortune. Or at least fortune. His motto is “Go where the money is.” I knew I liked this kid for a reason.
And Hump is very much a “kid” in the same vein where I would call a high school or college student a “kid”. He’s not really a child and he’s been through some things, but he’s not exactly super savvy and world wise. Nor is he overly confident. He is sometimes flat out scared. I’d be scared doing a lot of what he needs to do as well. When there are hordes of bad guys after you and not many people on your side, it can be a wee bit nervous making. He’s got guts though, in the sense that courage is the ability to fight through fear.
Hump is, to his own surprise and chagrin, pretty good at building relationships with those around him. Not just Bud, but a cast of characters that he gathers around himself and forms a party with. Bud has, apparently, seen some betrayal at some time in his life and doesn’t necessarily trust anyone right away. This is known in some circles as “displaying intelligence.” He does manage to find a good group of people to hang out with though, at least once he gets his head together.
Things don’t always go right for our intrepid hero either. Whether it’s being denied entry into the Adventurer’s Guild or not being able to find an inn when he needs one, he has what he refers to as “wizard’s luck.” Apparently, wizards are not beloved by the pantheon of the Hedge Wizard universe because they originally learned to do magic by copying the gifts the gods gave to their Chosen without actually being Chosen. I can see where that might be a problem.
And it’s possible that there might be at least one person he misjudges. I’m not going to say who and I’m not going to say how, but it’s a pretty amazing misstep. His reaction when he finds out he made a mistake is pretty pointed though. Hump is a guy who can make mistakes and learn from them.
The action sequences in the book are masterfully done. I don’t know what, if anything, Maher wrote before he wrote The Hedge Wizard, but he writes fantasy battles with all the evidence of having a practiced hand. The fights were intense, believable and easy to follow. I had my blood pumping. I could really picture the battle scenes the way they would like on the big screen. It was impressive.
I’m also guess that Maher has at least read a little horror. I’m further guessing that he enjoyed it. There are some aspects of The Hedge Wizard that read like they come out of Stephen King’s nightmares. I loved it. They were disturbing, disgusting and an amazing amount of fun once you got over how shocking they were. The horrifying parts were totally plausible though, even if I was taken aback at first. And they work as a way to not only put the enemy over as being a bad guy but as being a valid motivation for the heroes to fight even harder than they had been.
I counted at least three different magic systems in The Hedge Wizard. That’s a lot of stuff going on but it works. Maher had a plan here and he carried it out flawlessly. There is a zero percent chance that he didn’t do it on purpose. There is the way the hedge wizards do things. In the Dungeons & Dragons parlance that would be referred to as arcane magic. There is the magic of the Chosen given to the by the gods. In D&D that would be referred to as divine magic, although a lot of the effects produced by Chosen magic don’t necessarily square with something you’d expect to see out of a cleric in a D&D game. And the way necromancy works makes it feel a little different than hedge wizard magic, both in effects and methods. Maher handles it all smoothly though.
As for the difference between Progression and a more formal LitRPG like Dan Sugralinov’s Disgardium or Tao Wong’s The System Apocalypse, it’s basically a matter of formality. There is leveling of a sort but it’s a lot less formal. There are definitely new abilities learned and that’s really where the Progression comes in. It’s a little more loose and free flowing and feels more like it could take place off of a computer screen. I’ll be keeping an eye on this author, this series and this genre in the future. I really enjoyed this one.
Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Adventurer’s Medallions
The Hedge Wizard: A Progression Fantasy Book One
Alex Maher
Aethon Books, 2022
The Hedge Wizard: A Progression Fantasy Book One is available for purchase at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon I get a small percentage at no additional cost to you.
I think a child might simplify a name and not even remember that it's not a nickname.
OTOH, that would mean his name was probably Humphrey.