The Wizard's Crown

Art of the Adept, Book 5

By: Michael G. Manning

Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds

Will’s journey from naïve apprentice to a mature wizard is almost complete, and his ever-growing mastery has reached unseen heights.

But his power does not exist in a vacuum. His rising star threatens to eclipse the existing powers and a new balance must be found, one that either accepts his primacy or extinguishes his light.

After Will’s resounding successes in the war with Darrow, the king plots to eliminate his young rival. Driven to desperation, Will is forced to negotiate for scraps between four brokers of power:

An ancient lich driven by vengeance, the fae queen—to whom all are just pawns in a deadly game, a nervous lord of Hell—because Will may have killed his predecessor, twice, and a primal beast—feared above all.

With mortal enemies as his allies, Will must survive to face the king...and the deadly secret he plans to unleash. Ancient foes have risen and the final battle has begun. With the world hanging in the balance, king and wizard clash, but only one can wear the Wizard’s Crown.

©2022 Michael G. Manning (P)2022 Podium Audio

I get the hate but…

I was worried about the ending reading some of the bad reviews, buuut it wasn’t that bad, it was kinda, meh. Love the rest of the series and maybe they’ll be a redemption arc, I hear there’s going to be a sequel series. Anyway, don’t be put off by the bad reviews, it’s not the best completion, but also saw it coming.

Just why

What the hell was he thinking with the characters the author killed them they weren’t even recognizable and by the end I was just wishing I didn’t pick this book up like how did he think turning celine into her father was a good idea

Great way to realistically end a Glorious Tragic tale

I really enjoyed this series from start to finish.
I just wish Will would have done what needed to be done.

Bad ending

The majority of the book was great but the ending seemed too quick. I would have enjoyed more story after where the book ended to give the reader more closure. The ending is easily open ended and we could have a spin off series of the author wanted it to happen

Narrotor to the rescue???

Gave it a 4 overall but that's being generous to the the other books... Rushed with Cause and Doesn't stay on task for what the series sets up.

Stop at the 4th book for your sanity.

I don't get the hate

This was super on par for Manning's style of finishing up a series. I imagine this isn't the end of our experiences with these characters, similar to how he did Mageborn, and I'm looking forward to his future works! Don't listen to the hate, this is a good read.

There was a short bit where you could hear Windows sounds and for some reason TGR started pronouncing Selene's name wrong, but it all fixed itself quickly enough.

I love this series but the naration this time....

Before this book I would have said Tim Reynolds was a great narrator, up the with Nick Podehl. But this time he was totally killing me. I have absolutely no clue how after narrating 3 books before this one, how in the world he butchered the name the wife of the MC in the series. William is married to Celine in the first 3 books. But apparently he left her for someone named Salane. (Which incidentally when heard, sounds like a guy's name.) It doesn't seem like much, but if you have listened to this whole series, it's enough of a difference to drive someone crazy. It's almost like someone mispronouncing your friends name over and over again and there's nothing you can do about it. Your like THAT'S NOT THIER NAME! In your own head. Well it drove ME crazy anyway.

But other than that, another fantastic addition to the series! A great book and a definite need to get. I just wish the narrator or the editor, was paying better attention.

Great as always!

Great books series and keeps its hooks in yeah all the way! Hate the ending but still love the book! Still a must read

A terrible end to a great series

Drifted much too far from spirit of series. This book was dark, joyless, and felt rushed. Really disappointed

Grrrrrr

*****Spoilers*****
Oh come on! Most of the time I wanted to punch most of the characters for being so stupid! Plus my favorite character was missing. Why missing? Because that’s ha racier would have countered most of the stupidity!! The way the author tied up the Ashlynn storyline and the Aaragon storyline and the Lonyan storyline were the only things that made me happy. And Sammy- Aragon’s expletives aren’t numerous or deep enough to cover what I think of the revelations about her, I mean wow. And the things with Selene- total antithesis- not believable

The story was good in parts but it felt too cliche in the f act that one or two puzzle pieces and all would have turned out better.