User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
Manning is back on form with his third instalment of the Art of the Adept and by that I mean kinda dumb. The second book really picked things up from the first and I went into this one with high hopes... only to see them dashed.
Not that it was bad, as like the others it was entertaining, action-packed, and well written, but like the first book suffers some pretty iffy issues.
Take, for example, the character of Laina who in the previous books was portrayed exclusively as a selfish spoiled brat who even held contempt for homeless women in wartime, retconned into the saviour of those very same (retroactively) for 'plot'.
How about Will, the main character who despite having only a few years of training is now not only able to go toe to toe with anyone in the 'modern' age (which made some sense as true wizardry had been lost) but has more potential than virtually any wizard that has ever lived. We learn in the first book that having his turyn compressed three times makes him rare, but in this book, it is revealed that only a few dozen wizards had EVER managed it, and even doing it twice was a 1 in a 100 thing.
Oh, and we also learn that he can now hold four spells at the same time, one more than his master, a wizard so powerful he waged a one-man war against all his peers for presumably hundreds of years, whose very name could inspire a king to raze an entire village centuries after his supposed death. This conveniently puts him on par with Aislinn... the literal goddess of magic, and the only other person who could ever do so.
On and on it goes with the ridiculous power creep where he just IS so much MORE than everyone else (he can now also astral project and stuff). At least him being better than the current generation of wizards made sense, the rest is just preposterous and lazy.
All in all, I enjoyed reading but the author just pours too much escalation into it to keep it grounded.
To top it all off, it was at this point that I realised this ISN'T a trilogy. Sure there are only 3 books listed on Goodreads and Amazon but looks like it's settling in for the long haul. I really wish authors would list how long a series they intend their works to be from the outset (and no, you can't just read the blurbs because they're always filled with spoilers for the previous books).
I will be reading the next book once it's released, but after this series, I'm not inclined to ever read anything else by this author again.
Rating: really liked it
This series is great and I feel like the books just keep getting better. Manning knows how to find the right balance between fulfillment and agony. The interactions feel very real and I wish I had such friends. Another awesome thing is that the “hero” is never too powerful, he never wins just with his own strength or wit and is not perfect. We also get introduced to all the skills he has at hand, so solutions make sense instead of feeling like deus ex machina moments.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and have not taken more than 2 days with any in this series by now, even though I had tons of things to do. Waiting for the next one!
Rating: really liked it
I'm trying to work out how the ratings have gone up over the three books in the series, in the opposite direction of mine, and I'm not sure how.
I really enjoyed the first book, it setup an interesting world with interesting characters, which is the reason I've keep reading the series.
Book two continued building on this, the main character did some silly things and "got away with them", but I sort of ignored them for the enjoyment of the world.
Book three though frustrated me, with a main character which made blatently stupid decisions, was protected purely by authors armor in most instances, that along with a power creep and a magical (hah) abilility to match any situation.
Don't get me wrong, I did still enjoy parts of book three, but those elements are diluted by the frustrating sides, and when book four comes out I'm really not sure I want to take the risk on it.
Rating: really liked it
Honestly I couldn't rate it highly enough. I'm most likely going to read the whole thing all over again much slower this time so I have much more time to absorb every detail because I basically read it in 24hours I was so excited. Had been checking the store nearly every day for 2 months waiting for the release.
Rating: really liked it
This series came back in a big way in this book, putting a lot of my worries to bed from the second book and delivering an awesome story in the process.
The key things I loved about this book include:
1 - Will's changes - Will is no longer an idiot who is making the worst possible decision at every opportunity. He has levelled up as a character, both mentally and in terms of power, and he is proving that he can learn from past mistakes. Does that mean he doesn't do anything stupid? No, he still does a lot of questionable things, but in this book, it is more in fitting with his character and you can see the logic path he took to arrive at the decisions he comes to.
2 - Will's Levelling up - I know, I already mentioned this one, but I really don't want to overlook it. One of the key elements of this series that I have loved is that the author has never shied away from the fact that this is Will's story. No matter how important anyone else is, the events revolve around Will, the plot is driven by his actions, and a big part of the story is him slowly turning into an absolute badass. As a sucker for overpowered protagonists, I am loving watching this unfold.
3 - Tiny is back! - I've always loved Tiny as a character and him not being in book 2 was a real shame. His simplistic wisdom, unshakeable loyalty, and his pure goodness just made him a great character to read about. He also has excellent chemistry with Will which is one of the better relationships in this whole series.
4 - Will's noble family - A lot of this book deals with Will's noble family and I didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I did. Family drama is normally a big turn off for me, especially one that follows the old fantasy trope of a bastard son and his noble father. However, this book changed up the formula a bit and made it work. I especially enjoyed reading about Will's relationship with Laina.
5 - No Selene - I get that this will be a controversial one for a lot of people, but the author hasn't sold me on Selene as a character, nor her relationship with Will. So many other characters in this series have more agency than her and have more chemistry with the protagonist. Her not being around much in this novel is a big boon in my mind.
(view spoiler)
[6 - How Selene comes back into this novel - Another controversial one maybe, but I liked that Selene didn't come back into this novel as a fully-fledged wizard who was ready to show up Will at every turn. There is a tendency in fantasy to go in hard on Mary Sue side characters in the name of girl power. This is fine if it's in the form of well fleshed out characters who integrate seamlessly into the plot, but when it is written as a way to overshadow, or in a lot of cases, emasculate male protagonists in the name of putting them in their place, it gets frustrating and can ruin a series. I fully expected this to happen here as we already knew that Selene was a genius spell caster (One of her abundance of shining qualities) and that only Will's unique take on magic and his power levels set him apart, something I thought would have been rectified by her time with Aislinn. However, that didn't happen and I applaud the author for the restraint he showed here. (hide spoiler)]Now onto a few things that I didn't like about this book, as not everything was great:
1 - The King's relationship with Will - Every time they interact, I am left wondering why the king doesn't just kill Will and get it over with. I don't buy their relationship at all and it stretches the realms of disbelief every time they interact.
2 - Turning Laina into something she's not - Laina is one of the real highlights in this book, and her relationship with Will is wonderful. I really enjoyed reading about her. However, the author tries to sell us on her being a really altruistic character and he paints a very different picture of her through the way people talk about her than what he has shown throughout three novels. We have never seen anything other than a spoiled princess type character, one who didn't know what was happening under her very nose and was self-entitled. It's a classic case of
show don't tell, because the author is telling us one thing, but not backing it up with her actions and personality.
Overall VerdictDespite a few niggles here and there, I loved this book and it has completely washed away any ill will the second book created in me for this series. It is an exciting story that moves quickly despite being a long book and I thoroughly enjoyed my time reading it. It's an easy 5-stars for this one, and I can't wait to see what comes next.
Rating: really liked it
Review of book 1-3. Series dropped! Good start but end unfulling with loose ends. Its a road of misery, rape and cheating.
It starts with a pretty good story and alot is new and fun (this will get worse). The character develope nicely. As the story continues more and more plots and events makes a bigger sense of foreboding. You don't any satisfaction of solution or explanation to any of them. As the books change is looses the main plots in random events to a degree you could say that book 3 is mainly a filler (which i hate, even though the story still is ok).
What i hated the most is character development. Mostly because at first the characters starts great, but as the story goes just feel unrealistic and dull. To compensate the author drives the villains(evil king and fae) to be more evil. The king runs everybody like puppets and the fae is just evil and nothing else, which is more of the same as the king. Most evil and bad events are sexually, which gets old and too much. The MC teacher get his wife taken agains their wills a sex slave, friends gets prosituted and raped. For me personally that is almost over the top. But as its not the main story, not explained in details or set in the past. I can see past that. But the treats between to Selena (MC weekpoint) get more and more detail to the aburd (the king hint on inpregate her) its to much. Also the MC get pregnant with trolls and has a beginging of spirit threesome with his halfsister and her lesbian guard... enough said!
Book 2 ending send Selena away, which can be good so the story is not only about love. But nothing happends until the middle of book 3 where the MC gets a spirit dream to see her cheating. Nothing more is said until the end of book 3, where it turns out she sent to a place where there is an elf in heat. She did kiss him and she admits to being extremly horny. But she punches him. Nothing more is explained. The MC laugh and its done. The wait soured the rest of the book and the ending just unfulfilling and more... There is alot of these feeling and relationship or bonds between MC and relatives, friends, fae or his girlfriend is just missing and makes you feel and the story feels empty.
Rating: really liked it
[ When our protagonist ends up in his half-sister's body and she has to tell him not to fondle herself. Just weird.
That weird dream sequence with Selene and elf-boy was just awful. Not only because of the fact tha
Rating: really liked it
❤❤❤❤The third installment of Will's story is excellent. A word of caution--do not read while you're supposed to be doing something else (like working perhaps) because people will wonder what could possibly be so funny as you snigger, snort and guffaw.
Rating: really liked it
This book contains everything I expect from a epic fantasy. Well developed world, interesting characters, epic action, love, friendship and more.
I am big fan of main protagonist Will, after him I loved tiny, Laina, Janice, selene and more. Every story is driven by powerful characters full of detail and their decisions. Big factor of this series is a very well developed characters. I also liked antagonist characters androv and the king.
This book contained a lot more humour with various action sequence.
I believe this series is some what inspired by characters from Name of the wind book ( like kvothe as will, fela as Janice, university as wurhaven college, etc.) . I was looking for similar books and this series is one of the best I found.
Eagerly waiting for next book in series.
Rating: really liked it
A bit superficial and trite. Simplistic, cheap sexy thrills, simple plot, lazy dialog and seemed to be just filling space to create another book, which just continues on and on as much as necessary to earn a bit more money from ...usSimplistic , trite , lazy, looking to just fill space and earn some money by publishing a new book which is just a bit more than a few chapters. A shame as the earlier books were more interesting.
Rating: really liked it
Another masterpiece by Michael. He has a way of blending just the right amount of humour with serious philosophical moral and ethical dilemmas which force you to reflect. The magic system is great and I love the characters. He continues to provide evidence of why he is one of my favourite authors.
Rating: really liked it
Wonderful ConclusionIn these dark times, it’s nice to escape from the harsh realities we face. I read and love the Fantasy Genre for such reasons. And Michael Manning’s books always put a smile on my face.
Thanks MgM for another 5-Star series!
Rating: really liked it
Loved the storyIn a way a very standard plot line but loved the way the story built in all the books. Good characters with some development and a few unique ones as well. Looking forward to the next book.
Rating: really liked it
4 stars
Well all said and done it was a good book but I'm not gonna continue with the story, some revelations and characters that came into this book doesn't suit me and in going forward I'll be seeing a lot of that also so I'm going to put a fullstop here
Rating: really liked it
This has been a genuinely interesting and entertaining fantasy series and I am looking forward keenly to reading the fourth in the series. Although presented primarily as a YA series, these are books which anyone interested in epic or magical fantasy can enjoy, the YA aspect being mainly a consequence of the main character, William Cartwright, being no more than 18 by this third installment. Developing magical powers, a hidden and powerful villian, vampires, the Fey, a cat demigod, trolls and a less than regally behaving monarch are just some of the elemetns in this thrill[acked third installment and the writing is excellent throughout, with a nice turn of humour laced throughout. The traditional epic battle encounter which concludes the book culminates in one of the more surprising outcomes, at least to my mind. All in all, a great romp which is thoroughly recommended.
