I first stumbled in to this series thanks to recommendations on my Amazon.co.uk account. I’d recently read the fantastic Crimes Against Magic by Steve McHugh, which I also reviewed for this site, Fated (an Alex Verus novel) by Benedict Jacka and The Cornerstone by Nick Spalding. As I was thoroughly enjoying the fantasy genre, specifically around mages and wizards, I thought I’d give another one a go. The thing that swung me to buy the first book in the Mageborn series, The Blacksmith’s Son, was the price, a ridiculously cheap 77p on Kindle. For that price I decided it would be rude not to at least try it, seeing as the reviews on site were splendid. It was a shame the reviews didn’t even begin to do the book justice.
From the first chapter, I was memorised by the story of Mordecai and the story of his life. His journey from the discovery of his powers, to the epic conclusion of the The Blacksmiths Son, ensures that you will be a fan of these books until the day Michael Manning decides to move on to another topic. The depth of the characters combined with Manning’s ability to make you care about each of them leaves you clambering to find out what happens next in their hectic lives. Manning also weaves his tales with the perfect amount of love, sadness, desperation, joy and rage to leave you wishing he’d give the people of Lancaster a break.
Each book in the series has far has improved on the last one, and you can feel Manning getting more comfortable with both his writing style and telling the story of what needs to be told. The first book focuses on setting the scene, introducing you to the main characters and telling the story of Mordecai. The second and third books explorer the relationships of the main characters whilst remaining on track to tell the necessary tale to keep the overall story arc on track. Not since reading Roald Dahl’s magical books as a child has a series of books gripped me to the point of sacrificing sleep to squeeze in ‘just another chapter’, yet Michael Manning manages it with relative ease.
I would recommend this book to anyone with a remote tolerance of the fantasy genre, as the thrilling and often heart-breaking tale of Mordecai transcends the simple tag of a ‘fantasy book’ and has enough appeal to keep even the most nonchalant of fans hooked for the whole series.
Useful links
If you would like to purchase the books, you can do so here: The Blacksmith’s Son, The Line of Illeniel & The Archmage Unbound
You can visit Michael G. Manning’s Facebook page here
There is also a fan website on the books called Illeniel’s Doom, but it is rife with spoilers on the book so I’d probably recommend you read them first.