Title: Made From Magic
Subtitle: An Avonridge Novel
Author: M. B. Nasdeo
Publisher: Reading Glass Books
ISBN: 979-8894791463
Pages: 412
Genre: Fantasy / Fiction
Reviewer: Subhrajit Saha
Hollywood Book Reviews
Suppose you are an average office goer with no such color in your life. The supreme in the office is not so cooperative with you and you have no one in your personal life to gossip about it. In between all these if someone comes and out of nowhere informs you that you are the next ruler of an anonymous kingdom how would you react to that? The protagonist of M. B. Nasdeo’s book Made From Magic, faces exactly something similar to that.
Marissa, a thirty-seven-year-old woman lives with her cat Merlin. One day at an event suddenly a few people started treating her like a princess. Obviously, it was very astonishing to her, and she felt she must be part of their well-planned prank. Somehow, she got a vibe that she would like to explore those pranksters. After a few moments she finds herself in front of Balvindor, a dragon of Avonridge. She loved the world she got into and learned they were not what she was thinking about them. In addition to that, somehow, she is actually a Princess. The next day the Queen of the Avonridge empire died, and Marissa had no other option to play the role of Queen of the state.
The journey which started from apparently a joke becomes very serious. Marissa had to fight the neighboring Kingdom to save Avonridge, a deadly dragon, or sometimes she even had to fight with herself to make sure what she is experiencing is a reality or just a prank. In the journey of Marissa, she explores herself as much as she explores her empire. There are fascinating plotlines, jaw dropping fights between the Kingdom, a tale of women empowerment, a few fascinating subplots, numerous interesting characters as well as some creatures like Balvindor and so on.
There are plenty of interesting points to discuss on Nasdeo’ book, starting from its well fleshed character writing, especially the character of Alice and Marissa, some predestined connection, like Queen’s dying at a particular age or the process of choosing the real one, the most possible way to make the people happy, showing war cannot be a long term solution, ego can destroy anybody, even the is the most powerful in the world etc.
Nasdeo showed an example of how a protagonist could be illustrated, like Marissa having empathy for not only her own people, but rather she was sympathetic for the enemy soldiers as well. Above all dignity defines your character and on that note Marissa did not allow anybody to play with that and yet was in reach of everyone in her Kingdom. Along with being an emotional person, she was sharp, though she had no previous experience of leading a war, yet she tried her best to lead the Avonridge army. The mixed attributes make her character special. In addition to that a few more notable characters which helped to make a perfect balance in the story were, Camille for her mysterious layered tone, King Blackburn for his egoism, Sir Erick for his one shaded yet interesting activities, Ruth for her innocent yet smart mindset which helped Marissa from the beginning, and last but not the least the Dragon Balvindor and Merlin the pet cat.
The story offers a lot and Marissa getting introduced to the throne of Avonridge is the initial step of that. Overall, the fascinating backdrop, mouthwatering action adventure of her journey, good character writing and many more things make the readers feel it is a short story when it is indeed a long novel. M. B. Nasdeo delivers a beautifully written story about unlocking inner strength, confronting hidden histories, and stepping into a power that’s been waiting all along. For the geek of fantasy fiction, Nasdeo’s book is a must read one.