The Blacksmith's Son: Mageborn, Book 1

(This review I would give 3 and 1/2 stars, but rounding up seemed the most decent thing to do as I didn't hate it.)"Mageborn: The Blacksmith's Son" is an interesting start to what could be a very good series. The story starts out with a bang, or at least I imagine that was the plan. Some of the exposition in the early parts made me roll my eyes rather than be shocked, we quickly find out that the protagonist's parents were special, with an appropriate amount of wizardry and swordplay to potentially spawn a great warrior. After what I felt was a rocky start the book managed to reel me back in.Throw in the "I had no idea I was gifted, I'm just a humble _____" trope and your have all the trappings for another boorish walk into well trodden fantasy territory. I think that this is, in an odd way, entirely intentional. Manning quickly establishes the main character through the first person perspective and I quickly the impression that our hero, Mort, is assuredly a product of love for the author. Manning has admitted in interviews that he's writing the story he wants to hear. Mort is his id of sorts and despite his wholly good nature, I feel some of that energy passes on to the reader. This book has no intentions of breaking the boundaries of fantasy. It wants to be a fun read, and largely, I feel it succeeds.I won't go into any of the plot, there's a synopsis for that. I will say that the villains are bad, and the heroes good. There seems to be no sense of ambiguity for any of the characters. The Duke Lancaster's benevolence toward his subjects being a prime example of this. Again though, you can't help but wish there were people this good out there, aiding humanity. Things like this, which are now considered worn and trite are the exact proof that grant this room to exist:People originally were to drawn to this genre because you like to read about your hero, to watch the hero's journey and hope for their success. People love heroes, not every fantasy needs to be dark (although there's some great dark fantasy more than worthy of a read). Is this book going to win any awards for originality? I very much doubt it. I hope the next book continues the journey whilst adding a bit of depth to some of the slightly more shallow nature of the characters. Also a little stronger editing would be fantastic: Mort repeated himself on his sarcastic self quips a little often, I did grow a bit weary of Mort calling him self "witty" or "clever" facetiously. Also there were a few jarring shifts in perspective. Is it a fun read and more than worth the $.99 asking price? Of course. Mort and his cohorts might not be treading any new literary ground, but it is fun to root for them to succeed against all odds. After all, they seem like pretty good guys.

I started with Manning’s books with Art of the Adept. His latest series. I was so amazed at his use of science, chemistry, knowledge of biology and his awareness of the REALNESS of magic that truly exists all around us.This series, his first, is full of a kind of first author innocence that I truly crave. I can feel his pioneering spirit and humor in the face of his own likely defeat at trying to write a book.And yet, in just a few years he has become a true success. He did it, against all odds. Just like his characters. The odds seem so dead set against them. And they make a conscious decision to run towards danger for love of each other, and the world.Thank you, Michael, for your courage and giving us such wonderful tales. There is nothing more important than a tale well told.

I just finished The Blacksmith's Son and The Line of Illeniel. I really liked them, and am eagerly awaiting the third book in this series, The Archmage Unbound. The author mentioned on his facebook page that it will be out around February.There are two major problems with these two books.First, the constant change between first person and third person is enough to make my head spin. I've seen authors switch back and forth between first person and third person before, but never right in the middle of a scene, and then back again. It would have been much better if the author didn't switch back and forth like that, or at least had the changes happen at the beginnings of chapters.The second problem is that I think the author is allergic to commas. It's kind of jarring to have to read a sentence several times, to figure out what the author meant, because of a missing comma. (The irony is that I don't know how to properly use a comma either, so I really have no leg to stand on here.)Those two issues aside, I really loved these books. They may not be truly great literature, but they were great reads!I loved Mort. I loved watching him grow from an immature boy, into an incredibly powerful mage.The Blacksmith's Son was a good read. It did two incredibly important things, which the first book of a trilogy should ALWAYS do (and so many authors fail at.) First, it set the tone and setting for the rest of the trilogy. Second, it had an actual beginning, middle, and CONCLUSION!!! I can't tell you how incredibly irritating and frustrating it is for me, to buy a first book of a trilogy, and find out it's not really a trilogy, but just the first third of a single book. If an author just ends the book without any sort of conclusion, I get so irritated, I will rarely buy the second installment of the trilogy. The only weak spot in this book was the antagonist (a fairly two dimensional character, without much character development). That being said, I was cheering by the end of the book.The Line of Illeniel was a great story. The characters had been fleshed out by this point. It was heartbreaking at points, and laugh out loud funny at other points. Watching Mort become powerful, and the friendship and loyalty of his friends and family, made me want to cheer. It too had a great conclusion, and yet still left me wanting more.I can't wait for the third book to come out. I will definitely be buying it as well.

So I have read all of Manning's books so far available. I have to say, rereading this one was a good idea. The story was compelling from day one obviously, but once I had a full picture (or as much as available at the moment) I could enjoy and understand a lot more this time around. From here on a bit of spoiler alert:Mort is an enjoyable and very much realistic character. His love for Penny and her a for him is so much what would be like normally. Kids grow up together loving one another without even realising, then in a span of moment it just dawns on them and make them act like they've been married and devoted to each other for years.The magic and the lack of knowledge of it gives you a chance to laugh (and laugh hard) at the situations it creates. Fair warning though, things get really dark slowly first but rapidly eventually as the story goes on (not limited to this book).You don't even realise the time (in "our reality") this all is happening but that just adds to the thrill when you learn more.I can only recommend it, I could go on forever but that would ruin your read. Plenty of adventure, realistic characters, friendship, love and of course magic.

Good read, a very good read. But not a great read. Not one of the books (series) I will re-read at a later date. Which isn’t a bad thing. Just means it’s not deserving of 5 stars. Or the borderline 4 stars that I include as books I say friends must add to their reading list.If you’re looking for a a series, this is a nice one to read. But if you’ve already got a long list of reading books/series, this isn’t a must add.

I am getting very much into fantasy novels and have very much enjoyed the Game of Thrones series and more recently loved The Riyria Revelations. (I became an addict of both of these sets of books)I decided to choose Mageborn as my next read and found myself with mixed feelings about it. The general storyline is fine, the characters are amiable (although 'Mort' wouldn't have been my first choice for a hero's name) and it started with an intriguing prologue. There are also well written 'extracts' from Marcus the heretic at the beginning of each chapter, allowing a little insight into the history of Mages and the role they played; giving the reader a nice background to the world.HOWEVER, I found it didn't flow, due to the constant need to explain every action or thought the main character had. I shouldn't (and didn't) need to be told when the character was being sarcastic, or had just made a mistake by saying the wrong thing, I should be able to determine that by the way the author has initially portrayed and set up the characters. Which, in this book, I could. Meaning the constant explanations felt like fillers. I also initially thought that maybe I was reading a book aimed at teenagers due to the writing style but the author's need to make several references to the sexual desires of the main character made me think otherwise, another part of the book which seemed 'childishly' written and unnecessary. Why couldn't the author write the whole book like he wrote the extracts from Marcus the heretic, instead of returning to this teenage style?Since the book only cost less than a pound, for a few hours reading I can't complain too much. I am still deciding on whether to buy the 2nd book to read (since its only about £2), but thats probably more about my curiosity to where the story goes, than the definitive excitement I felt at reading the previously mentioned series' that I have addictively read.Think I'll try Robin Hobb next and perhaps if im stuck for inspiration and it's cheap enough, I may check out the second book in this series afterwards.So there you have it: nice story, good starter, but style of writing is poor and I wouldn't spend more than a pound on it.

I think this is a very interesting premise for a story and I take my hat off to the writer for being having the strength of purpose to complete so many books, but this desperately needs an edit. It's very rare that I stop reading a book but I had to actually delete this before getting half way through. It reads like a very new, immature writer has reeled this off and then self-published it. Reading this has totally changed my point of view on self-publishing. I can't imagine any decent publisher would have let this go through as it is. The characterisation and plot are inconsistent, the language repetitive and don't even get me started on the punctuation. If something's worth doing, it's worth doing properly. I highly recommend starting again and re-publishing it after it's gone through a rigorous editing and redrafting process. I will be checking in future whether a book has been self-published before buying it.

I bought this book on a whim, primarily as it was so cheap, and after reading it, I'm so glad I did. The last two days reading have been thoroughly enjoyable, and I can't wait to purchase the other books in the series. For a first novel, it was a stormer. Ok so there's nothing in there that hasn't been done before, but the author does it very well.I enjoyed the difference perspectives, jumping from 3rd person to 1st person, it made a refreshing change to books that are written wholly in one perspective. And it seems to be written as if Mordecai is looking back on the event rather than narrating it in the here-and-now.All in all, whilst this book might not win awards or top bestseller lists, I'm glad to have read it and would suggest anyone with an interest in fantasy to have a dabble. Fingers crossed the other books in the series are as good if not better.Thank to the author for sharing your work.