In the 23rd century humanity achieved faster than light travel, not through engineering, but with genetic experiments that resulted in human magic. A trained Jump Mage can teleport a starship up to one light year every few hours, and in the Protectorate of the Mage-King of Mars they are essential. Damien Montgomery is a newly certified Jump Mage and Rune Scribe of only average power. He never mentions that he doesn't need to study runes to identify a spell because he can actually see magic and what it's doing. But in order to prevent his crew from being murdered by pirates he uses his unique ability to save the ship, and suddenly finds himself the most wanted man in the interstellar Protectorate. In addition, the alterations he made to the cargo ship are very illegal so the crew is now running from both the law and the pirates. If you enjoy political conspiracies, and lots of combat in space complicated by a little magic, you might enjoy this.

Starship's Mage, the first book, is best described as a prequel. As a fresh mage academy graduate, Damien is impatient to find his first position as a Ship's Mage. Granted, there are few such positions outside the military so a few weeks of searching for a job after college is normal. As an unemployed mage he gets a living stipend from the government, so his situation isn't even uncomfortable. Eventually, he ends up as Ship's Mage for a man who actually is rather desperate, and that leads to the criminal alterations to the ship's runes that land him in prison. It actually turns into a plot similar to The Fugitive because the Hand of the Mage King pursuing him is trying to protect him. I felt it was the weakest book in the series although it wasn't bad.

Given that the series takes its name from the first title, I expected it to be about the adventures of a Jump Mage but it's really about Damien's career as a Hand of the Mage-King, one of the Protectorate's nine troubleshooters. As a Rune Wright (his special Sight) he now has the same magical augmentation as the Mage-King which makes him the third most powerful mage alive. He's still reckless and more than willing to risk his own life if it saves others. After all, their interstellar empire is called the Protectorate. He deals with everything from rebels fighting corrupt planetary governors to secret societies and outright war. Damien has to be an investigator, judge, and a diplomat. There's also a lot of combat between starship fleets as well as infantry shooting bullets and magic at each other.

Overall, the series is a good blend of science fiction with magic. The writing isn't overly dense and Stewart keeps the military and technical jargon to a minimum. There is little character development but this is a high action series over a relatively short timeline so that's not a huge problem. Although the world building and magic system are intriguing, there was something about the first book that felt forced. Starting with the second book, the writing is definitely more thought out and cohesive. One surprising aspect of the series as a whole is that Damien does not continue to become more powerful and actually loses some power over time. I find this refreshing since "power creep" can ruin a good series. 

The series starts with Starship's Mage in paperback and e-book. It's on Audible as Starship's Mage Omnibus but only contains the first book, apparently the audio version was originally released as a serial for the first book. Reviews of Jeffrey Kafer's narration are mixed, some complain that his voice is a soothing monotone. I can actually see how that might happen based upon the steady pacing of the story even in combat situations.