I loved this story. I think it did a lot of things well. It wasn't a story that instantly captivated me, but a slow simmer of enjoyment that slowly grew with the story. Something I think fits, because this story had large slice-of-life elements to it.

One of the things I liked the most was that this wasn't a solo adventure where the MC embarks on a journey, goes to magic school and make friends. No he already had friends, he's taking his 10 year old little sister along, his best friend (which he has romantic feelings for) and her three-headed dog that doesn't like him. The feelings are hinted at, and isn't a very big part of the first book but might be in the future. It's also hinted at that it's reciprocated, but the MC has just turned 18 and they grew up together. It's a very classical tale of "young love being too embarrassed to say anything that'd change the status quo".

It would have annoyed me if it was a bigger deal, but as I said it was barely hinted at. And is something I'm looking forward to developing.

One of the things I can complain about, is the vague references to earth stories and memes. This MC isn't one that got teleported to another realm, he's not reincarnated. But certain terms, and stories, sometimes pops up as if the author is giving us a little wink that only me and him, and not the MC, know about. This was slightly annoying because of how beautifully detached the rest of the world is to anything we have here on earth. He counted his experimentation with magic in heartbeats, and not minutes. There were no mention of hours either, tho there was a bell being rung in town. He went and picked up his sister from school depending on the position of the sun. All the creatures and beings in the book were original to the world, and there were no comparisons to earth-creatures that "lived elsewhere on the planet". They didn't even do the "thank god" thing that we do, as they all called their own gods by specific names. It was very consistent, and the ONLY time it broke and winked directly to something from-earth, is when the old headmaster who runs the school made a saying that involves a tiger. And the MC very clearly goes "what's a tiger?". (And wasn't that an interesting mention?)(My theory is that the headmaster was originally from Earth, another nod to the whole "this story isn't about the chosen one")

Another thing I liked, was another typical stereotype of the story that this book circumvented: There were no school bullying. And thank god for that! There were people the MC didn't like, people the MC actively wanted to avoid, and people that butted heads with each other. But there was no instant hate, no instant targeting and bullying.

My only other complaint is that once the MC gets to the magic school part of the story, the little sister kind of vanishes. Sometimes for many chapters at a time. And that was a little bit of a bummer, because her presence very much made this story unique to me. She started popping up a little bit more toward the end, so hopefully that'll continue.

But it says something that those are my two complaints. Author winking at us with insider jokes and the sister not getting enough attention.

It was thoroughly, a very solid book!