Spellmonger

Terrific Book! A great adult fantasy series.

Would you consider the audio edition of Spellmonger to be better than the print version?

Do you love a good coming of age fantasy where the young promising lad leaves his tiny village, comes of age and power, returns to marry his childhood love and live happily ever after? This is not that. If you would rate a great book with one star because the "F" word is used, save yourself and the author the bad review and move along. Now, for the rest of the adults, don't hesitate for a second on purchasing this book! I loved it! My wife whom is only mildly interested in any sort of fantasy, loved it. I will go ahead and add a note about the next two books here. Book two is not quite as good as this one in my opinion but still very good. Book three is as good or better than book one. The narrator is excellent.

144 of 162 people found this review helpful

A great start to a new fantasy series.

If you have read the publisher's summary it might seem, as it did to me, that this is just a mindless fantasy war story. Fortunately, it is not.

The 18+ hours of writing are put to good use in developing good characters as well as world building. The characters have distinct personalities and motivations with a Harry Dresden like main character. That is, he's a smart, decent, and powerful wizard who becomes very sarcastic whenever he's in a jam (which is often).

The action scenes are all very well written and spaced out nicely throughout the book keeping things from getting to dull. In between the action you learn about the characters, the magic system, and that there is more to the story than a simple warmongering horde of goblins.

If you enjoy fantasy this book would be a good edition to your collection.

114 of 129 people found this review helpful

Shockingly good, best book in years

Any additional comments?

Pros:
-Great engaging story
-Skillful narration
-Protagonist has a sense of humor that was very unexpected for the genre but makes him so much more relatable.
-Manages to be unique in a crowded, tired genre. Mancour wrote a masterful book.

Cons:
-Some listeners might not like the long descriptions of scenes/settings/events/etc (I do, however)

Verdict:
This is the best book I've listened to/read in YEARS! Minalan is funny, interesting, complex, horny, has a sense of humor that I've found to be unprecedented in the genre, and is just a very real character in a detailed and exciting world. You will not regret this purchase.

90 of 102 people found this review helpful

Finally. I've been waiting for the audio version of this series for two years.

I'm not going to review just this book. The entire series is a work of art. And what surprised me at first is the fact that the first few books are the boring ones yet they contain a lot of action. When the author really gets into the world building (especially Minalan's property, best I can describe without spoilers, is where the story really takes off. ) that makes the long books worth it. Listen to it or dive into to reading them, you can't go wrong. I've read them all up to date and I will still purchase the audio because they are that good.

71 of 82 people found this review helpful

Shocked at the positive reviews.

I really am shocked. Rushed conclusion, endlessly repeating explanations, gratuitous lechery, and inconsistent characters. The setting and the world building have potential but the actual text feels completely unedited from original manuscript. I might not have been so annoyed if the entire last chapter had been removed, as it literally just rehashes everything that was revealed to the main character in the previous chapter. The whole time the rehash is happening the main character is obstinately refusing to understand basic concepts he knew all about throughout the book. Absolutely aggravating. Horrible finish to a below average book.

The performance was fine, if a little stiff. Maybe that was the intention, it matched the character well.

116 of 139 people found this review helpful

Immature Storytelling Makes This a Thin Read

Any additional comments?

The world-building here is decent, but the use of anachronistic language pulls you out of the story a lot. The author falls into the old trap of telling us everything, rather than showing us via imagery. It's very much a "this happened, then this happened, and then I had a genius ideas and we won" kind of narrative.

Also, the "hero" is kind of arrogant, woefully underdeveloped, and sexist. Pretty much all the female characters are there to have sex with the protagonist, whose behavior isn't much better than a frat boy. If a female character shows up, she either had sex with him in the past, or is going to have sex with him, after he's either peeped at her using magic, popped her bodice open using magic, visited her shop while her husband is out in the fields (and she's pregnant), he's part of an occupying army, he pays for it, or she's so grateful he saved her country, she just shows up naked in his bed.

220 of 265 people found this review helpful

This book was painful.

The narrator does a great job on a terrible book. The story is lackluster, the magic system is dreary, the names and places are not interesting. I would stay away from this one, if you like authors like Robert Jordan, Shae Ford, or Brandon Sanderson.

79 of 95 people found this review helpful

Spellmonger

Minalan is a Spellmonger, otherwise known as a local magician, in a small rural farm community, when his local town is attacked by a horde of Gurvani (called Goblins, but not your traditional goblins). He and his apprentice jump into the fray to protect the townspeople. It soon becomes evident that these Gurvani are strangely armed with magical items and are bent on destroying humanity.

The Pluses: Terry Mancoeur has created magical creatures that are unique and quite frankly, hilarious. The goblins are small hairy little man-like, unintelligent creatures, not at all like any goblins I've run into in stories. Minalan's descriptions are very funny, but he also has a sensitivity for these creatures that I found touching, until they started trying to kill all of mankind, then, he was a little less kind...but that's to be expected.

Minalan has a sarcastic wit that is entertaining and strangely balances his egocentric voice with his honestly about his own insecurities.

While he's a bit cocky, it does turn out that he does have quite a heroic background giving him a little credibility for some arrogance. He jumps right into helping the village and surrounding peoples by grouping them in the liege lord's castle for protection when the goblins overrun the valley.

The minuses: Rating this book was difficult for me because I almost gave up on this book so many times. The story was fine, but over and over I kept thinking I'd rather read this myself rather than listen to the voice/persona chosen by the narrator. All I could think was how pompous and self-aggrandizing he was, but he seemed to think he was self deprecating. It really rubbed me the wrong way. But I stuck with it and over time I got used to it. If you're sensitive to narration, make sure you listen to the sample because it's a long book.

“AUDIBLE 20 REVIEW SWEEPSTAKES ENTRY”

16 of 19 people found this review helpful

Listen to the Critics

Seriously. I read a lot of negative reviews, but in a moment of temptation I bought this book anyways (what can I say... I have a weakness for crappy high fantasy).

I'm pretty much really sorry I did. This story goes on several hour long tangents that have no relevance to the plot, stars a lead with absolutely no personality, and has two heavily objectified female support characters who seemingly has the sole story function of getting banged so the author can feel better about his life.

there is almost no imagery: the whole story was "then this happened. then this happened. then this happened." there was almost no character growth. the fight scenes felt as dusty and dull as an academic tome on abstract tactics. the magic system had no real definition, and contradicted itself half a dozen times. the scenes that Could have been juicy, emotional, and rich in detail were almost universally exceptionally bland.

none of this information is new: everything I've said has already come up. I just wish id listened.

23 of 28 people found this review helpful

Great storyline, the series needs a better editor

To be clear, the world is great, the characters are developed, the storyline is exciting. However, a better editor would have removed repetitive dialogue, and timeline issues. You can probably get past this though with just a vague feeling of "But... it thought.. ooh look a battle is coming!". The set of morals the spellmonger has is a bit questionable, but the morals of the society isn't quite fleshed out in some areas, so it can be believable. The best part of this series though can be attributed to John Lee, the narrator. His masterful performance allows the listener to overlook some of the previous issues with a relish for the lyrical nature of his spoken word. His timing and dramatics are excellent.

Enjoy!

3 of 3 people found this review helpful