The Magic Factory
Oliver Blue and the School for Seers #1
by Morgan Rice

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Middle grade fantasy

As the perpetual new kid, bullied by peers as well as his own brother, 11-year-old Oliver has only his inventions to keep him sane. Things start to change, though, when Oliver notices he seems to be able to make things happen and then visits the old, decrepit factory of his hero, inventor Armando Illstrom. Oliver learns that he has powers, but before he can learn any more, tragedy strikes and Oliver is on his own.

Overall, this book felt like a mixture of Harry Potter and Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children with some steampunk elements. I didn’t care for what felt like a Harry Potter rip-off in the beginning, with Oliver being bullied by his older brother, seemingly uncared-about by his parents, who favored the brother, and having to live in an alcove… Even the school that Oliver ends up at later in the book didn’t feel remotely as much like a copy of HP as that beginning. And it does, indeed, move on from that similar feel. In fact, but the end of the book, I found that I had enjoyed it more than I’d expected to once I’d gotten a few chapters in.

Oliver meets others like him, called Seers, learns a tiny bit about how to use his powers, and then is thrust into a life-or-death situation that only he can take care of. The author’s inventiveness in the school itself was probably my favorite thing about the book. The bully at his new school (since, of course, there always has to be one) and his motivations were a bit weak. And the whole book could have used some more editing, with some verbal tic-like phrases here and then that detracted from the flow. I don’t normally hold self-published books to as high a standard as traditionally published books, but there’s still some burden of responsibility to smooth out the prose.

I’m glad I read this book, though I don’t plan to continue the series. In the end, though, I would say this book is better than average amongst self-published books I’ve read.

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