Read History
2026 | Score: 2
An incredibly painful one to get through. What makes it worse is the author has some talent, the writing is passable and the progression system has some promise, but everything put together was just bad. The biggest issue is this book was twice as long as it should have been. I actually found myself mildly interested at points in the back half. If the same amount of content got properly edited and trimmed down it could be an ok read. A couple of small things that bothered me a ton: constantly calling Cyra / Professor Maharaini and the stupid switch between the two / internal debate that was brought up way way way too often. Then the fact that this felt like an anti drinking ad? We see Cam’s POV as a kid, then it skips forward a few years and he is a young adult, but in that time we skipped he got addicted to drinking, and that will get brought up every paragraph for the rest of the book. Both of these issues (and it happens with other aspects) is just the author basically repeated the same sentences 50 times and it wastes space, gets more and more annoying, and distracts from the story. Overall, there are much better books that cover the same stuff.
Format: Audible
Days: 9
Date: 4/28/2026 -> 5/7/2026
Summary
Blood of a Novice
Davis Ashura
The Eternal Ephemera #1
Blood of a Novice Summary
Cam Folde sees two sages fight when he is 5 years old. Sage is one of the highest advancement levels before you reach divinity. Seeing this fight inspires him or something. Fast forward to him as a teenager, and him and his group of friends Tern, Jordyl, and Lylia, “dive a pathway” together. Pathways are kind of like magical dungeons that help people advance in the world of Ephemera. In the pathway they meet a Crown named Cyra. She helps them escape and says it was stupid for some “neophites” to enter a pathway alone. Before they can leave an ephemeral wind kills Tern and injures Cam. Luckily, Master Winder (One of the sages Cam saw fight a long time ago), is there and helps heal Cam by making him take Plasminia as his primary tang.
Ephemera is the magical stuff that makes up the world, and by processing and refining it you can progress from Neophite > Novice > Acolyte > Adept > Glory > Crown > Sage > Divinity. There are 4 “tangs”, Kinestia (Body), Synapsia (Mind), Sinestra? (Spirit), and Plasminia (No one really knows). Taking Plasminia makes Cam incredibly weak and he can’t do much on his own, yet still somehow grows super tall and muscular. Cam falls into drinking because he is depressed (His father and older brother are the town drunks), but his sister helps pull him to sobriety after a couple years.
Cam gets the opportunity to dive an Adept pathway, which is one of the only things that can help him. He goes with their teacher from the town (Travers), and his friends Jordyl and Lylia. He enters the pathway and an Awakened Squirrel named Honor helps him break down a fruit and get his other 3 tangs to novice. Honor dies by helping him do this. Cam exits the portal and they return to Travers, but just outside town are attacked and Lylia is killed by “Rakshasa” wolves. Rakshasas are those who choose to advance their ephemeral advancement by stealing it from other living things, they are evil. Shortly after this Cam get bullied out of town by everyone calling him a drunk and a curse.
On the road he meets Pan, an awakened Panda who is headed to the city of Nexus to join the Ephemeral academy. While they travel Master Winder shows up and asks Cam what happened. He offers to sponsor them and teleports them to the academy. Most of the students are nobles, who are rich and look down on country folk (Cam’s country accent is a talking point for half the book). They join Light Squad with Avdija?, Jade, and Weld. Light Squad (or Squad Screwup) is the only non noble born / sponsored squad in the academy. Their professors are an Awakened Turtle (Professor Chivane), Cyra (The woman from Cam’s first pathway), Professor Gray (Who knows genuinely everything), and Professor Wyrm. They begin to learn and advance.
Cam works extra hard because he starts so far behind his classmates, and ends up becoming the most advanced one of them. Weld is annoying and Cam really dislikes him. They face various tests such as lancing (destroying) fake boils. Boils are like summoning stones for Rakshasas? Throughout the year Light Squad learns to work as a team and Cam becomes their leader due to his strategic mind. They beat a test called “The Unwinnable” and are the best squad in history. Master Winder comes and takes them out into the world to lance a real boil, and they succeed. They get challenged by the Nobles who don’t like losing and beat them.
Their success leads to a noble, Card Wulver, joining their squad. At first they don’t like him but then he becomes their friend. Towards the end of the year, Master Winder takes them to a big engagement with a bunch of forces on both sides. Cam advances to Acolyte and him and Cyra lance the boil. Overall, Cam becomes the greatest student the academy has ever seen and everyone loves him, and he pulls his squad along with him. THE END.