Spellmonger

Spellmonger, Book 1

By: Terry Mancour

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 18 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

Nominee, Audie Awards - Fantasy, 2018

Minalan gave up a promising career as a professional warmage to live the quiet life of a village spellmonger in the remote mountain valley of Boval. It was a peaceful, beautiful little fief, far from the dangerous feudal petty squabbles of the Five Duchies, on the world of Callidore. There were cows. Lots of cows. And cheese.

For six months things went well: He found a quaint little shop, he befriended the local lord, the village folk loved him, he found a sharp young apprentice to help out, and, best yet, he met a comely young widow with the prettiest eyes.

Then one night Minalan is forced to pick up his mageblade again to defend his adopted home from the vanguard of an army of goblins - gurvani, they call themselves - bent on a genocidal crusade against all mankind. And that was the good news. The bad news was that their shamans were armed with more magical power than has been seen since the days of the ancient Imperial Magocracy - and their leader, a mysterious, vengeful force of hate and dark magic, is headed directly to Boval Vale, along with a massive invading army of gurvani. The good people of Boval and their spellmonger have only one choice: To hole up in the over-sized Boval Castle and hope they can endure a siege against hundreds of thousands of goblins.

When the people look to him for hope, Minalan does his best, but the odds are depressing: There are multitudes of goblins, and they want Boval Vale as a staging ground for a vengeful invasion of the whole Five Duchies. Add to his troubles a jealous rival mage, a motley band of mercenaries, a delusional liege lord who insists victory is at hand despite the hordes at his door, a dour castellan, a moody, pregnant girlfriend, and a catty ex-girlfriend who specializes in sex magic - all trapped in a stinking, besieged castle with no hope of rescue, and you'll understand why Minalan is willing to take his chances with the goblins.

All that stands between the gurvani horde and the people of the Five Duchies is one tired, overwhelmed baker's son who wanted nothing more than to be a simple village spellmonger.

©2011 Terry Mancour (P)2017 Podium Publishing

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.

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.

Good story marred

Any additional comments?

A good story reasonably told. I get the impression the story is an excuse for the author's adolescent sexual fantasy, and that distracts from the story in my opinion.

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!

Good but sexual references distracting

I enjoyed the story and the reading performance. My problem was with all the sexual references. They were everywhere, didn't drive the plot in my opinion, and distracting from the story.

Good but never felt invested in it

Like the story, liked the narrator, liked the characters, liked the light tone. Overall I liked it and will read the next book for sure.

The main character is very likable, being a good mix of swagger, humble beginnings, talent, and luck. Author does a good job early on weaving together his past and present to give you his back story, and while because they parallel it does get a bit confusing which time line he is on, overall good method to add some depth while keeping the story moving. He does turn cocky and long winded about his greatness towards the end but there are plot reasons that could explain that.

World building is good, establishes multiple races, religions, and has enough rules around the magic system to feel coherent and well thought out.

Liked the narrator, good at distinct voices that seem to fit the characters. No real complaints there.

Negatives is there are a lot of writing missteps that the author uses that take you out of the story and the fantasy. Uses modern words in medieval times, like calling some one a tool. Most things are described by the main character while narrating, so you lose alot of the sense of journey, especially on the relationships with other characters (basically he tells you how he, and by extension the reader, feels with out encouraging you to feel it). Sex and female characters... the guy is a whore, which I don't mind, but the only strong female characters are the ones he is having sex with, and that is their biggest contribution to the story, which is kind of sad. And my biggest pet peeve, the narrator breaks the fourth wall for absolutely no reason, and talks to the reader, I understand if it is established as a conversation or the main character telling a story, but it is so jarring to go from a 1st person perspective to a random sentence that is directed at me.

Overall, good not great. Feel like this is either a first book or early in writing career and do see a lot of potential for a great series, so have my fingers crossed for the next one.

Very enjoyable chill book

It took me a while to get through this book for some reason, but almost every time I turned it on I found myself enjoying it. Maybe it's just not as immersive as a lot of epic fantasy, but worth listening to if you're looking to be entertained. The somewhat conceited/humble perspective of the main character and the way it's narrated just have me cracking up all the time.

Hugely addicting

I can't get enough of this series. Be prepared to love this one, then go on to read 9 more. And that's just part one. He's working on another 10. This is no Patrick Rothfuss, and he's just as good. Audible is a little slower than I'd like at getting them recorded but it's worth the wait IMO.

Outstanding story and audio performance

Wonderful story, amazingly or third. Terry Mancour has done an outstanding job. They audio performance by John Lee is also excellent. Wish that Mancour didn’t feel the need to say “gods damed.”. Although I know he is not preventing the living God of the Bible, I still wish that he could refrain from that.

Very good story development

The descriptions were long yet meaningful - not simply filler as with some books. They added much to the story.