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The Soul's Aspect (The Aspect Volume I Book 1) Kindle Edition

4.5 out of 5 stars 75 ratings

Winner of the Fantasy Fellowship Indie Spotlight Book of the Year award (2023)

A debut coming-of-age fantasy in the tradition of
The Poppy War, The Name of the Wind, Realm of the Elderlings and The Shadow of What Was Lost.

A healer forced to become a killer for an empire that would grind his country to dust.

Kehlem, the sickly son of a widowed physician, has devoted his life to learning his father’s craft. Wanting to finally step out of his father’s shadow, he embarks on a project of his own, seeking out the help of Themia, the town's newly arrived Alchemist and a rare wielder of magic.

But Themia has secrets of her own, secrets carried from the heart of the empire itself, secrets that would steal Kehlem away from his home and into the empire’s Academy for magic users.

The Isale Academy beckons, but can Kehlem survive the academy and its brutal regime? And if so, what would he have to become?

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From the Publisher

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"If you like books with a magic school setting, but maybe with a slightly darker undertone, this is a definite recommendation!" - Dominish Books
"The story is astounding and gripping" -
Books8thing Blog

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09CHDP5MZ
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ ; 1st edition (August 16, 2021)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 16, 2021
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 7.7 MB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 364 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 out of 5 stars 75 ratings

About the author

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Mark Holloway
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UK Based adult fantasy indie author - follow me @markholloway.author on instagram

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
75 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers praise the book's enchanting writing style, with one noting its realistic portrayal of friendships. Moreover, the story features amazing twists and is filled with rich emotion, while the characters receive positive feedback. Additionally, customers find the book to be a tremendous value for money.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

9 customers mention "Writing style"9 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the writing style of the book, describing it as enchanting and not poorly executed, with one customer noting the author's inclusion of tender male friendships.

"...It still gives you new romance, and the prospect of love and growing up, but to me the heartbreak and death just rang as more real than some..." Read more

"...Not poorly written, but almost comically cliche. Then the ending came along, and it was not what I was expecting...." Read more

"...With his distinctive writing style, Mark steadily and subtly crafts an interesting story with fantastic characters in which he weaves themes of..." Read more

"...the tagline had me presuming a certain storyline, the crafty way the author composed this along with his smooth prose made this story a delight to..." Read more

8 customers mention "Twists"8 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the book's twists and turns, with one customer describing it as a thought-provoking medium-paced coming-of-age fantasy.

"...This novel is first person, so of course you root for Kehlem, but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have some bad in him too...." Read more

"...With his distinctive writing style, Mark steadily and subtly crafts an interesting story with fantastic characters in which he weaves themes of..." Read more

"...This starts off as a calm and collected coming of age story, turns into an academia story with new friendships and some bullying, to something dark..." Read more

"...It's a very unique take on the dark fantasy, even though it starts with a well-known fantasy tropes but then the author creates something totally..." Read more

6 customers mention "Value for money"6 positive0 negative

Customers find the book to be a tremendous value, with one mentioning it kept them engaged throughout.

"...This book is a crazy, gut-punching ride. With the sequel around the corner, everyone should do themselves a favor and pick this book up. Like now...." Read more

"...(and admit it, you watched Shadow and Bone unironically), then it's worth a look." Read more

"...progression of plot and character development and as a result, has a tremendous and emotionally devastating (in a good way) impact on the..." Read more

"This book is a really great read! It kept me engaged all the way through with the memorable characters, wonderful writing style and the amazing..." Read more

3 customers mention "Character development"3 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the character development in the book.

"...Then, the author even makes the main character multilayered, no one is innocent...." Read more

"...Mark steadily and subtly crafts an interesting story with fantastic characters in which he weaves themes of identity, friendship, consequences of..." Read more

"...It kept me engaged all the way through with the memorable characters, wonderful writing style and the amazing twists and turns in the story...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2022
    This is book 1 of The Aspect series and book 2 is just about to release in May! I grabbed this digitally while it was on sale to buddy read it, and weirdly we did not discuss the book a single time (I’m really bad at buddy reads). I wish we had, because I really enjoyed this!

    This novel is like a more-adult version of a coming of age story, with all the typical nostalgia you’d want to feel from one. It still gives you new romance, and the prospect of love and growing up, but to me the heartbreak and death just rang as more real than some others.

    This is not your typical magic or wizards in a giant castle story. And although there is also three best friends, it’s nothing like the one that you might think I’m describing. This novel’s best feature is the characters. The author pens some of the most realistic, and heartwarming (and heart-wrenching), friendships I think I’ve ever read. I’m particularly impressed with the fact that the author didn’t shy away from tender male friendships. The kind where your friends care if you succeed, care if you’re sick, care if you’re hurt. The kind where they show love and affection because you’re their friend. I feel like this is often something authors shy away from.

    This first book kind of reads like it could be its own prequel to a revenge series, and one of the things I like the most about it is that the villains are not clear practically the entire time. There are outside factors that hinder the reader from making the call on who is and isn’t bad. There’s your standard school bullying as well, but that doesn’t always make someone the villain. Then, the author even makes the main character multilayered, no one is innocent. This novel is first person, so of course you root for Kehlem, but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have some bad in him too.

    This book is a crazy, gut-punching ride. With the sequel around the corner, everyone should do themselves a favor and pick this book up. Like now. Right now. Order the sequel too, you’ll want it anyway. Absolutely worth your time, effort, or money to read.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2021
    There's not much else to say without spoilers. It starts off as one of the most boiler plate fantasy novels I've ever read. Not poorly written, but almost comically cliche. Then the ending came along, and it was not what I was expecting. I almost got glimpses of Robin Hobb in the last few chapters. If you're the sort of person who's not scared away by genre cliches (and admit it, you watched Shadow and Bone unironically), then it's worth a look.
    One person found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2023
    Mark Holloway's debut novel The Soul's Aspect was Fantasy Fellowship's indie book choice for January. And what a fantastic choice that was to start your indie reading year!

    Reading the Soul's Aspect was a unique experience and it was a challenge to distil my thoughts and emotions about this book. The Soul's Aspect is an intriguing, complex, thought-provoking medium-paced coming-of-age fantasy. It is simultaneously subtle and filled to the brim with a richness of emotion. With his distinctive writing style, Mark steadily and subtly crafts an interesting story with fantastic characters in which he weaves themes of identity, friendship, consequences of one's actions and (although I'm hesitant to apply this 19th-century concept to a fantasy book) even (radical) nationalism.

    As I've already mentioned, all of the above is masterfully written and subtly woven into the story. The reader is aware, but not overwhelmed until the author (and the plot) decide that the time has come for those themes to step to the forefront. This whole process feels organic, a natural progression of plot and character development and as a result, has a tremendous and emotionally devastating (in a good way) impact on the reader.

    The Soul's Aspect was a 5 ⭐ read for me and I cannot praise this book and the author enough. It was an immensely enjoyable and extremely well-written read and at times a fascinating emotional rollercoaster. I wholeheartedly recommend it and encourage you to check out the rest of the Aspect series. I hear that the 2nd book is another exquisitely written emotional devastation and I am here for it!
  • Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2024
    As an apprentice physician, Kehlem wishes he could become a medic Aspector, a person able to pull energy from the spirit world to heal others. Little does he know he actually does have the potential to do it even though it has been suppressed. When an Aspector comes to visit his town, Kehlem will have no choice but to start on the path to become an Aspector, for better or worse.

    This starts off as a calm and collected coming of age story, turns into an academia story with new friendships and some bullying, to something dark and unexpected. While the tagline had me presuming a certain storyline, the crafty way the author composed this along with his smooth prose made this story a delight to read. There are so many reveals, twists and turns, heart-filled moments, and a dash of romance making this a book sure to appeal to all types of fantasy readers.

Top reviews from other countries

  • Luke
    5.0 out of 5 stars I loved this book and will be purchasing the second immediately!
    Reviewed in Australia on July 5, 2022
    This book was not what I expected at all. I went in fairly blind and had only heard that it was dark… so I was constantly expecting it to be so. What I got instead was a pleasant surprise.

    The Soul’s Aspect is in a sense a coming off age novel written in first person perspective (which I’ll admit I do not have much experience reading). It is paced very slow, which usually draws me out of a story, but with this one I found the writing to be so well done and so simple that I came to quickly care for the main character and was invested in the rest of the story because of that early ground work.

    There are plot twists, a fun little romance or two woven in, and lots and lots of hard magic. I won’t spoil the story but as mentioned above I had heard it was a dark book… throughout 80% I would say it is quite cosy, but for that last 20%…. Oh boy did shit hit the fan. And I mean real bad…

    I loved this book and will be purchasing the second immediately!
  • Natalie
    5.0 out of 5 stars I will never stop recommending this book.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 4, 2022
    “The only person who can give you confidence is yourself. If you don’t back yourself, no one else will.”

    *minor spoilers I try to keep everything as vague as possible*

    I will never stop recommending this book to anyone who listens. If you are looking for a cosy coming of age story filled with purity and innocence that will also rip your heart out and damage you emotionally, then read this book.

    As innocent as this book is if you are triggered easily I would recommend looking more into the trigger warnings. it does get very dark at points. TW: parent death, drugging, attempted murder, murder (which is dark to say the least) and torutre.

    The story starts in a small town where we are introduced to Kehlem our main protagonist and a small cast of supporting characters, the story reads from his POV in first person. The first person POV was an excellent choice here, we really get an insight into Kehlem’s mind and experience his teenage innocence. We also get a great look into the relationships he’s building with people though-out the story and this get’s the reader invested in a good portion of the of the characters.

    The characters are brilliant, very loveable and well fleshed out. You can’t help but like them and they are so very relatable that I really was hoping for the best for most of them. There are some people who I don’t care for and now was I meant to, they are not good people.

    The way the plot played out was different to most of what I have read before, for around the first 70% ish this is such a heartwarming book, and to be honest there were points I did think this isn’t really matching up to the synopsis. Something must be coming right? Then chaos. The last 30% of this book is a rollercoaster and I urge anyone who may have be slightly confused like I was in the first part to keep reading, the hard work done there really pays off here, and my heart was destroyed to the point where I actually messaged the author and just asked “why”?

    We have a magic system in this world and I thought it was very interesting how it worked, it’s actually up there as one of my faves. I don’t want to go into too much detail because the way the magic develops and how we discover more about it is very well done and I don’t want to ruin that for anyone.

    The way we are given information though-out the book on not just the magic system but the world building, the history is perfectly done. No big info dumps, we learn as Kehlem learn’s and we have all these threads that keep tying together though-out the book until at the end it all make sense. The journey of learning feel very natural and information isn’t just thrown in for the sake of it, everything is relevant.

    At just over 300 pages this is a great read for any fantasy fan, I’d even recommend this to people looking to get into fantasy. I was lucky enough to have book 2 sent to me as an ARC which was brilliant because I wanted to drive straight back into this world and see what happened to this characters because I love them so much.
    Customer image
    Natalie
    5.0 out of 5 stars
    I will never stop recommending this book.

    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 4, 2022
    “The only person who can give you confidence is yourself. If you don’t back yourself, no one else will.”

    *minor spoilers I try to keep everything as vague as possible*

    I will never stop recommending this book to anyone who listens. If you are looking for a cosy coming of age story filled with purity and innocence that will also rip your heart out and damage you emotionally, then read this book.

    As innocent as this book is if you are triggered easily I would recommend looking more into the trigger warnings. it does get very dark at points. TW: parent death, drugging, attempted murder, murder (which is dark to say the least) and torutre.

    The story starts in a small town where we are introduced to Kehlem our main protagonist and a small cast of supporting characters, the story reads from his POV in first person. The first person POV was an excellent choice here, we really get an insight into Kehlem’s mind and experience his teenage innocence. We also get a great look into the relationships he’s building with people though-out the story and this get’s the reader invested in a good portion of the of the characters.

    The characters are brilliant, very loveable and well fleshed out. You can’t help but like them and they are so very relatable that I really was hoping for the best for most of them. There are some people who I don’t care for and now was I meant to, they are not good people.

    The way the plot played out was different to most of what I have read before, for around the first 70% ish this is such a heartwarming book, and to be honest there were points I did think this isn’t really matching up to the synopsis. Something must be coming right? Then chaos. The last 30% of this book is a rollercoaster and I urge anyone who may have be slightly confused like I was in the first part to keep reading, the hard work done there really pays off here, and my heart was destroyed to the point where I actually messaged the author and just asked “why”?

    We have a magic system in this world and I thought it was very interesting how it worked, it’s actually up there as one of my faves. I don’t want to go into too much detail because the way the magic develops and how we discover more about it is very well done and I don’t want to ruin that for anyone.

    The way we are given information though-out the book on not just the magic system but the world building, the history is perfectly done. No big info dumps, we learn as Kehlem learn’s and we have all these threads that keep tying together though-out the book until at the end it all make sense. The journey of learning feel very natural and information isn’t just thrown in for the sake of it, everything is relevant.

    At just over 300 pages this is a great read for any fantasy fan, I’d even recommend this to people looking to get into fantasy. I was lucky enough to have book 2 sent to me as an ARC which was brilliant because I wanted to drive straight back into this world and see what happened to this characters because I love them so much.
    Images in this review
    Customer image
  • Kris Marchesi
    4.0 out of 5 stars The Soul’s Aspect Review
    Reviewed in Australia on February 28, 2022
    The Souls Aspect - Mark Holloway

    16 year old Kehlem lives a simple life, apprenticing for his father in the art of healing. Wanting to learn more about his craft he starts asking questions, of healing and more importantly of the Aspect.

    His father tries to deter him away from the topic of the Aspecters; those who can read, feel and manipulate the in between world of energy known as the Aspect. In doing so, his father only makes him more curious. An aspecter comes to town and offers to help with a project he is working on, in doing so uncovers the truth.

    Kehlem is whisked away to the empires academy for magic users, looked down upon for his age and his race, will he survive the teachings and make it to the other side?

    This was a decent coming of age story touching on love, friendships and realizing our parents are just like us. Human (well for the most part). I really liked the friendship dynamic in this first installment, it felt authentic and had me smiling along when the band of brothers worked something out or were mucking around. I also think the author did a good job of keeping the reader on their toes at the end gripping me to want to read book two (sooner rather than later).

    I’ll admit I spent a lot of this book thinking that the main protagonist was too “nice” and I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and for him to become a cold blooded killer. On more than one occasion “come on Kehlem, have a backbone”, but I had to remind myself this was a young, relatively sheltered lad who was raised to be a lover, not a fighter. We see him grow through the academy and become the man I hope to see in the next installment.
  • Leanne
    4.0 out of 5 stars Really good and enjoyable
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 12, 2024
    “The only person who can give you confidence is yourself. If you don’t back yourself, no one else will.”

    ✨ Such a compelling start to as series and a fantastic Debut
    ✨ A coming of age/discovery of self story about a young man learning who he is and what he is capable of. I absolutely loved Kehlem
    ✨ A slow burn opening - the first part really gave off fantasy cosy vibes which I loved
    ✨ The pace steps up more and more throughout the book though and the cosy becomes less with more darker vibes
    ✨ The further I got into the book the more and more I loved it
    ✨ I especially loved when we got to the academy! I love me some school vibes! I also loved learning more about magic of the world, the intricacies of how it works etc
    ✨ Plus the wholesome friendships that came along too!
    ✨ The characters were just brilliant and lovable
    ✨ There’s twist and turns and the whole time I didn’t know where things were going to go.
    ✨ And lastly … this book kinda felt like a prequel … a set up of what’s to come, the last part especially has set up what I think will be a great book 2 and I can’t wait to pick it up.

    “If this is the path I must take, if all choice has been taken from me, then I won’t do it for them. I’ll do it for my friends.”
    Customer image
    Leanne
    4.0 out of 5 stars
    Really good and enjoyable

    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 12, 2024
    “The only person who can give you confidence is yourself. If you don’t back yourself, no one else will.”

    ✨ Such a compelling start to as series and a fantastic Debut
    ✨ A coming of age/discovery of self story about a young man learning who he is and what he is capable of. I absolutely loved Kehlem
    ✨ A slow burn opening - the first part really gave off fantasy cosy vibes which I loved
    ✨ The pace steps up more and more throughout the book though and the cosy becomes less with more darker vibes
    ✨ The further I got into the book the more and more I loved it
    ✨ I especially loved when we got to the academy! I love me some school vibes! I also loved learning more about magic of the world, the intricacies of how it works etc
    ✨ Plus the wholesome friendships that came along too!
    ✨ The characters were just brilliant and lovable
    ✨ There’s twist and turns and the whole time I didn’t know where things were going to go.
    ✨ And lastly … this book kinda felt like a prequel … a set up of what’s to come, the last part especially has set up what I think will be a great book 2 and I can’t wait to pick it up.

    “If this is the path I must take, if all choice has been taken from me, then I won’t do it for them. I’ll do it for my friends.”
    Images in this review
    Customer image
  • KarlM
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fast paced magical debut!
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 20, 2022
    The Souls Aspect

    📚 Book Review 📚

    Entering this book I had no exceptions, I hadn’t read any reviews or seen anything about it. I had skimmed the blurb and found myself intrigued. This is the perfect way to read this book, knowing nothing and letting yourself get swooped up on the rollercoaster.

    Based within a post war city your introduced straight away to a unique take on the farm boy troupe. This sets the theme for the book, modern twists on the classic troupes we all love, found family, academia, and a slight sprinkle of chosen one just for good measure. A unique magic system is the glue that hold everything together and elevates the enjoyment of the book ten fold.

    With characters that jump out of the page and grab your heart strings you get invested from the first page. Following Kelhem on his journey and seeing his growth through the book is a strength of Mark Holloway’s writing. Each and every character gripped your attention and made you feel as if you were part of the gang.

    Red herrings galore the climax had me clawing at the walls for the release of book 2. After being slogged down by some dense fantasy recently having a quick read fast paced fantasy was very welcomed.

    5 ⭐️’s all round for this solid debut novel!

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