My Experience with Mystic by Garrett Robinson

It’s time for Nightblade pt. 2 as I continue to spiral deeper into Garrett Robinson’s Underrealm.

Mystic continues where Nightblade left off. Now escaped from the perils of the city, Loren continues her journey to become a famous thief of legend—the Nightblade. But war is brewing in the nine lands, and a conflict to span the ages has risen once again. Together with her companions, Gem and Annis, Loren continues her flight from her enemies on her way to make a fortune if she can find a buyer for her precious cargo.

While Nightblade hinted at a larger world, Mystic begins to dive into it. The story expands the lore and magic. We learn about the order of the Mystics, get a more complete view of the magic systems within Underrealm, and explore new regions of Robinson’s secondary world. The voice of the series is consistent and is reminiscent of the classic fantasy style. And the story is paced with the appropriate amount of action and adventure.

I warmed to Loren a bit more in this story, but not without several dozen “No! Why would you do that?!” moments. Gem is becoming a more interesting character, and grumpy-due-to-withdrawals Xain is far more interesting than the normal Xain we meet in book one.

When I talked about the previous installment, I mentioned that Nightblade felt incomplete with such a hard cliffhanger. I think the story is meant to feel episodic, but making one story out of Nightblade and Mystic would have satisfied me more. The second book answers many of the questions I expected the first novel to answer, and it feels like Loren really begins to embody the Nightblade at the end of Mystic. But since the first book is technically free, it’s easy to forgive.

Because this book feels more like a continuation of the previous story than its own story, my opinion of the Nightblade saga remains unchanged: it’s a fun adventure, worth diving into if you’re looking for a story with a Salvatore, Weis & Hickman, or Goodkind tone. And you can read book one for free by going here: https://underrealm.net/).

*Full Disclosure — I work for the publisher. I wasn't paid to review this book. It was on my TBR list from before I worked for the publisher.*