Read History

2026 | Score: 2.5

Mostly just a pretty boring story. There were definitely a few places around the middle to end of the book where the progression aspect intrigued me and I was curious how far Justin would go, but overall just felt like so little happened. I hated the beginning section where we got the POV of a cognizant baby. It just felt super weird as well as, being a baby, literally nothing could happen so it just tried to shoehorn in worldbuilding and other characters' relationships. Overall, despite decent writing and a couple interesting ideas this was just slow, awkward pacing for an already fairly dull story.

Format: Audible

Days: 4

Date: 3/22/2026 -> 3/26/2026

Summary

Elevation of Mana
Wandering Agent
Elevation of Mana #1
Elevation of Mana Summary

Justin is a college student studying some science tech stuff. While walking home one day he gets trapped in a mysterious forest glade and spends about a month there, trying not to eat or drink the water and fruit, but eventually caves and gives in. He suffers immense pain then is reborn as an elven baby in a elf world, but retains all his young adult memories from Earth.

As a baby he studies the world around him, and tries to learn about the various forms of magic and the elven language. He grows up in a small village led by the village elder, Alea, and the village is called Alea-toll. The world seems to be operating in the hunting-gathering stone age. Justin, now renamed Elian by his elf family, has strong magic, called “Light” by the elves. He has magic like Alea, they can affect the elements and world around them, but nothing living. His father has a music based magic, where he can sing and affect the world. He is especially good at shaping stone. His mother is like a druid, and can make plants grow.

As he grows up he plans to bring this world into the “modern” age. He starts by introducing pottery to his Aunt and she takes up the practice. He trains in his magic and learns how to hunt and fish with the other boys of the village. Elves don’t have children often. When Elian is eight or so a big bear attacks the village and he helps them kills it. One of the only other magically powerful people in the village besides his parents and Alea is a hunter named Lorus, who can do like body enhancement magic. Not much happens besides him getting to know the villagers and continue to master his magic.

Alea is summoned to Ah-tol, the biggest city in the area led by the ancient Ah. As elves age they get more and more powerful, and each elder leads a village, like Alea. She returns and tells them a cold season is coming. They only get winter every 10-30 years on this world. Some Twilight monsters attack the villagers and destroy a lot of their supplies. Elian had tried to introduce meat storage by digging a hole and conjuring ice on the walls. They survive the winter and move on.

Elian finds copper being sold by a wandering merchant and introduces metal working to the world, becoming the premier blacksmith through much trial and error. By this point he is 14ish. Teenager. Him and his father go to a neighboring village to a known copper deposit. On the way their he sees the “valley” he grew up in is a actually a crater, and right at the center of it is a cave he knows that has power emanating from it. A girl in the tribe, Isha is his friend, but he keeps rebuffing her advances because he feels weird since his mental age feels 20 years older. Him, Isha, Rendall (another boy in the village who does not like Elian), and Rendall’s girlfriend go to a cave where they sheltered during the twilight beast attack. They delve deeper, and find an underground forest area, much like the one Justin was trapped in on Earth. They also find Dragon bones. Rendall drinks from the water and almost dies so they rush him home.

Alea and Elian get into a fight, since Alea knew the water was dangerous but told no one. Elian’s mom, who already did not like Alea, tells him that her and his father are both close to being considered elders, and when they do they will leave the village to start their own.

Rendall gained magic from drinking the water and is very strong, but Alea says he only has a few years to live and using the magic will rush that death. He ignores her and keeps using it frivolously. Eventually, Rendall takes a group of children and his lady back to the pool to drink from it and gain power. Elian chases them down and tries to talk Rendall out of this idea, but Rendall attacks him and Elian ends up killing him, but starts a forest fire in the process.

They have a tribe meeting, and Alea banishes Elian, as well as Rendall’s bereaved girlfriend. His mom is furious, and promises him that as soon as possible they will be leaving and he is welcome back then. He agrees, but decides to head to Ah-tol and see what the world has to offer. His trek to the big city is uneventful.

He buys a house for a single copper knife, and sets up a workshop. He hires a young street rat to spread new tech like pottery and woodworking techniques. We get a side scene of the man who sold him the house meeting with Ah, the elder/ancient, and we see that Ah just wants new weaponry. He is violent. Elian also wants to abolish the slave trade in the city. Nothing else really happens. The end.