Lena Vasik was a hospital pharmacist in Cleveland. Then she woke up in a medieval world where chemistry is illegal.
Three hundred years ago, the last alchemist "nearly unmade reality." Alchemy was banned. Knowledge was burned. Now the continent runs on Resonance -- crystal magic controlled by a ruling caste that decides who gets healed and who doesn't. The common people pay what they can't afford, or they suffer.
But Lena has a PharmD and eight years of clinical experience. She knows why willow bark kills pain. She knows how to purify water, sterilize a wound, and isolate active compounds from raw herbs. In her world, this is basic science. In this one, it's the most dangerous knowledge alive.
When a plague sweeps through the village that took her in, Lena faces a choice: stay hidden and let people die, or brew what she knows and paint a target on her back. She brews. People live. And the authorities start hunting.
Armed with a notebook, a mortar and pestle, and the stubborn precision of someone who measures medicine to the milligram, Lena sets out to rebuild a lost science from first principles -- one experiment, one patient, one carefully documented result at a time.
- A pharmacist who solves problems with chemistry, not swords
- Cozy workshop crafting with real science underpinning the magic system
- Found family: a skeptical apprentice, a disgraced soldier, a village healer who remembers
- A world where knowledge itself is contraband
- The satisfying crunch of figuring out how things work
First Principles is the first book in The Last Alchemist, a cozy crafting fantasy series for readers who love Legends & Lattes, Beware of Chicken, and The Crafting of Chess.
This book was written with the assistance of AI.
Three hundred years ago, the last alchemist "nearly unmade reality." Alchemy was banned. Knowledge was burned. Now the continent runs on Resonance -- crystal magic controlled by a ruling caste that decides who gets healed and who doesn't. The common people pay what they can't afford, or they suffer.
But Lena has a PharmD and eight years of clinical experience. She knows why willow bark kills pain. She knows how to purify water, sterilize a wound, and isolate active compounds from raw herbs. In her world, this is basic science. In this one, it's the most dangerous knowledge alive.
When a plague sweeps through the village that took her in, Lena faces a choice: stay hidden and let people die, or brew what she knows and paint a target on her back. She brews. People live. And the authorities start hunting.
Armed with a notebook, a mortar and pestle, and the stubborn precision of someone who measures medicine to the milligram, Lena sets out to rebuild a lost science from first principles -- one experiment, one patient, one carefully documented result at a time.
- A pharmacist who solves problems with chemistry, not swords
- Cozy workshop crafting with real science underpinning the magic system
- Found family: a skeptical apprentice, a disgraced soldier, a village healer who remembers
- A world where knowledge itself is contraband
- The satisfying crunch of figuring out how things work
First Principles is the first book in The Last Alchemist, a cozy crafting fantasy series for readers who love Legends & Lattes, Beware of Chicken, and The Crafting of Chess.
This book was written with the assistance of AI.
Visitors also looked at these books
Used availability for Dominic Hale's First Principles