Sufficiently Advanced Magic
Corin Cadence is the second son of a noble house in a world where every coming-of-age teenager climbs the Serpent Spire, a wizard-engineered tower that grants a magical attunement to survivors and lets the rest die. Corin's older brother disappeared in the Spire six years earlier. When Corin's turn comes, he passes the first floor with an analytical mind, a working sword, and a rare, so far useless attunement, and enrolls at the Lorian Heights magical academy to figure out what his gift can actually do and to investigate what happened to his brother. Andrew Rowe's 2017 Arcane Ascension opener is an unapologetically systems-heavy LitRPG-flavored magic-school fantasy, built around a protagonist who reasons about magic the way a gamer reasons about stats, and written with a neurodivergent, asexual lead.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about Sufficiently Advanced Magic
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
First in the Arcane Ascension series. Corin Cadence enters the Serpent Spire, a magical tower that hands out attunements based on what it sees in you, hoping to unlock the magic he needs to find his missing older brother.
Yes. Sufficiently Advanced Magic by Andrew Rowe is widely cited as one of the most rigorous magic-system litRPG progression-fantasy novels. The series engages deeply with magical-rules-as-system mechanics.
Andrew Rowe's Arcane Ascension series has multiple novels including Sufficiently Advanced Magic, On the Shoulders of Titans, The Torch That Ignites the Stars, and additional volumes. The series continues.
Sufficiently Advanced Magic was written by Andrew Rowe, published in 2017 by Independently published.
Sufficiently Advanced Magic is 623 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Sufficiently Advanced Magic takes most readers 9 to 13 hours to finish.
Sufficiently Advanced Magic is a standalone novel by Andrew Rowe, not part of a series.
Sufficiently Advanced Magic is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.