Last Mage

Last Mage is an Urban Fantasy Web Serial Novel written by Andrew Eckhart. A man in custody is being interviewed, sometime in the future, about a world-changing "Event". The man, Elijah Valentine, tells the Writer he must start at the beginning, and proceeds to, with some breaks where he explains his reasoning or discusses philosophy with the Writer.

Or, Last Mage is a tale about the last Mage on Earth, who must save the human race (and the other beings on Earth) from a tyrannical sorceress using nothing but his wits and powers. Though many of the things he accomplishes seem like magic, they aren't. The site also hosts some B stories taking place within the same universe and completely unrelated one-shots.

The original website is down, but the whole book is available on Kindle and Audible.

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Last Mage provides examples of:

• All-Loving Hero: Elijah really does love humans, while fully admitting their faults. He's not cutesy about it, but even his snarks towards people who done him and the world wrong are rather mild.
• Arrested for Heroism: Why Elijah is in jail.
• Atlantis: Gets several mentions, along with other lost cities.
• Batman Gambit: Rhianna delights in outwitting Elijah.
• Boring, but Practical: Elijah's opinion on military planes. His Concorde is much cooler, if considerably less practical.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Elijah's an odd cookie and he knows it. At the same time being a definite Genius Bruiser with shades of Guile Hero.
• Create Your Own Villain: Elijah blames himself for Rhianna's rise to power, having failed to kill her when he had the chance.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: He's normally able to control it by being reasonable, but once or twice Elijah just flips under stress and goes on a roaring rampage of helping people.
• Comes Great Responsibility: As Elijah can't (or at least shouldn't) break the laws of physics, he tends to avoid overt use of his powers in favour of helping in mundane ways. Muggle ways may not be perfect, but at least they run no risk of breaking ecosystems. Or reality.
• Dark Is Evil: Some of Rhianna's minions are shadows, others are black otherworldly things.
• Deadpan Snarker: Elijah is smart and bored. What did you expect?
• Deface of the Moon: Because nothing says "villain" quite as loud.
• The Determinator: Elijah. And Michelle.
• Doomed Moral Victor: Elijah is absolutely fine with taking the sadder consequences of world-saving upon himself. He'd like his friends and helpers spared, though.
• Expendable Alternate Universe: Not in this verse, they aren't. However, Elijah's responsibility is this reality other worlds have their own protectors - Elijah's special ability is a telepathic link to them, which he uses to get advice.
• Everything Is Online: And Revolution Will Be Televised.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Writer. Until the ending of the first book, anyway.
• The Fettered: Elijah, but very much not Rhianna.
• First-Person Smartass: Surprisingly understated, but it's there whenever Elijah narrates.
• Framing Device: Interview in the first book, psychiatric evaluation in the second.
• Friend on the Force: Michelle, for Elijah, in the first book. In the second she's quit to become a Private Detective, but they still consider each other friends.
• Foregone Conclusion: We know from the Framing Device that Valentine survives and has saved the Earth-at-large.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: Rhianna already rules one dimension, whose people are incapable of making a decent La Résistance.
• Kung-Fu Clairvoyance: All the mages have (had) some sort of a special ability - Rhianna's is calculating the possible outcomes of a situation quickly and accurately, giving her the benefits of this trope.
• Healing Factor: All mages. They can be killed, though, it's just very difficult.
• Hidden Elf Village: Shambala, very well hidden, but it's been abandoned for a while now.
• Honest Corporate Executive: Elijah's day job.
• Honor Before Reason: Michelle's quitting her job between books.
• Hopeless with Tech: Elijah can do the impossible with his own wonderful toys, but an iPhone? Beyond him.
• Ideal Illness Immunity: Aiden might have it, as a result of the Super Serum
• Intrepid Reporter: The Writer is a down and out one. He hopes for this interview to change his luck. And it does, just not the way Writer expected.
• Mad Oracle: Delores. Makes her a bit of a Genius Slob, since in her depressive phase she's a Sleepy Depressive, while in her manic phase she's well. Really brilliant. Sort of Distaff Counterpart to Sherlock Holmes, just for science instead of detecting.
• Married to the Job: Michelle is and warns Jason about inevitability of this in their current line of work.
• The Masquerade: "Demons" from other dimensions have lived in secret on Earth for quite some time.
• The Men in Black: They lurk around.
• Mexican Standoff: Michelle claims the only way she can handle Charles, Aiden and Elijah is having them keep each other in check. This way she can be sure none of them'll be taken off her team.
• The Multiverse
• Multiversal Conqueror: Rhianna, the evil mage. Mostly out of boredom, no less.
• Last of His Kind: See title.
• Loss of Identity: In the second book Jason is surprised to learn he's lost his. Cue Quest for Identity.
• Omniscient Hero: Elijah (who knows exactly how good he is) is not one. And quite tired of explaining this to people.
• Our Demons Are Different: They're tourists from parallel worlds. They do look more or less weird and display shades of Blue-and-Orange Morality, but are mostly just tourists.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Elijah's favoured mode of communication, at least when there's nothing too important going on.
• The Philosopher: Elijah, but the Writer tries his hand too.
• Play-Along Prisoner: Elijah could escape, but he has multiple reasons not to. He still has a hand in things.
• Plot Coupon: The Towers can do awesomely cool stuff in the right hands. Which is why they have to be secured against Rhianna.
• Power-Strain Blackout: It takes a lot to knock Elijah out, but trying to heal two people at once does the trick.
• Protectorate: Elijah's is the world in its entirety. It's right there in the blurb.
• Really 700 Years Old: Valentine is old, but he won't give an exact age. Given the people he namedrops... He seems well able to give Jones a run for her money.
• Ray Gun: Some are built to prepare for the invasion.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Michelle, whose leadership skills are sincerely admired by Elijah.
• Sealed Good in a Can: The King. Technically good. Technically.
• Super Serum: Both Aiden's parents took it, and... remained entirely non-super. Their son, though...
• Swiss-Army Weapon: Elijah has a shapeshifting one.
• They Would Cut You Up: Aiden's parents are scared of this for him. They are scared rightly.
• The Trickster: Valentine gets called that. Possibly rightly, though his actions in the story proper are quite straightforward.
• The Unmasqued World: After the Event, with rampant Fantastic Racism towards demons.
• Unusual User Interface: Crystals. Running Windows 95, because...
• Urban Fantasy
• Weaponized Teleportation: Rhianna, of Portal Cut variety as well as stealing Tokyo and sending mooks places by means of portals.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The demons in the second book. Fantastic Racism just doesn't cover it.
• Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: The official budget of Michelle's Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits can't stretch to a projector. Their actual budget... if they need it, they're gonna have it. Just like that.
• Year Outside, Hour Inside: The Gardener's base.
• Virtual Ghost: The team's hacker, Lorenzo, has a virtual assistant. Who flirts.

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