Magelord

The Spellmonger Series, Book 3

By: Terry Mancour

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 31 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's Summary

Minalan gets medieval!

When you defeat the invading goblin army, get knighted on the field of battle, gifted with lands and gold, usually your happily-ever-after is...happy. But now that Minalan the Spellmonger has been ennobled and enfiefed, Sire Minalan has a task cut out for him that makes defeating goblins seem like child’s play: Moving his very pregnant bride and a few thousand refugees from Boval Vale into the remote, sparsely peopled Domain of Sevendor. But when he arrives, he finds the land withered from neglect, filled with superstition and suspicion, a third of his domain has been conquered before he got there, and the castle he now owns hasn’t been maintained in decades.

As Minalan manages the challenges of being a noble, being a mage knight, being the lord of the manor, being a landlord, and fending off a belligerent (and well-armed) neighbor, he also has to learn how to be a husband, father, and a leader of a people.

Then the fateful night his son is finally born, Minalan learns the nature of fear, as he, his family, and his very realm are forever changed when the spell he casts to save their lives transforms the land. Minalan, his apprentices Sir Tyndal and Sir Rondal, his dour but efficacious castellan Sir Cei, and his moody wife struggle through the winter and defend their domain in his attempt to prove what a Magelord can do for his people when he puts magic in their service.

But in the distance, the threat of a renewed war with the goblins looms as they approach the Riverlands, the Gilmoran baronies that are the heart of the Duchies. The contentious High Magi convene to constitute the new Arcane Orders, while the fanatical Royal Censorate of Magic plots defeat them and the thousands of hedgemagi, witches and footwizards they terrorized now see Minalan as a hero. The sinister Family schemes to promote Duke Rard II to become King Rard I of the newly united Kingdom of Castalshar - over a pile of bodies, if necessary. And suddenly, out of the sky fall dragons in the service of the Dead God to strike at the strength of the nascent Kingdom.

How can Sire Minalan fight goblins, plots, poverty and politics, all from his remote and rustic vale while keeping the peasants in line and the Warbird of West Fleria at bay? With wit, courage, determination, and a healthy dose of magic. And when the new King tasks him to find a way to slay a dragon, an ordinary knight might shy away from the quest. For Sire Minalan, it’s just another day on the job as a magelord!

©2017 Terry Mancour (P)2017 Podium Publishing

Great book, superb performance.

Love the series, this is a great book to listen to. Well worth the money and great for those long drives.

Ishi's Tits! Get on with it...

I’ve always had a deep and abiding love of profound adventure novels, alas this is not one of them. I really wanted to like this book and was not sure if it was badly written or badly read, but I have opted for the former. If you want a book that teaches you the rules of supply and demand in a developing country then this is the book for you. I ultimately loathe the main character whom, after meeting and impregnating his future wife, promptly abandons her, leaving her with his family. and goes off to shag countless other females while declaring his deep and consuming love for the woman he has impregnated but, in reality, hardly bears a mention... whereas Ishi's resplendent tits crop up profusely.

Love

I love the Spellmonger. Just enough sass and humility with plenty of drama to endear anyone.

continues to enthrall

this is a great series. I am thoroughly enjoying it. The narration has gotten better with every book. Look forward to the next one.

Love/hate relationship

The story is fairly good, gets a bit long in descriptions that don't add much to the story. Still a tolerable listen while cleaning or working in photoshop.

At times the narrator can be droning, but I think that is where the in depth descriptions are. He does a good job of voices which helps keep you involved.

Overall, not bad.

slow

this one in the series just felt so slow. spent so much time on his land just doing life and ignoring the main story that made the first two so enjoyable to me. the goblin army, yet we only got a brief moment of that.

Slow Moving but Decent

Wow did this one move slow! It held my interest somehow yet nothing of consequence occurs.... ever.

Thoughts from a Dungeonmaster.

I love high fantasy books, so I'm rather biased.
But noteworthy points is that I enjoy the detail of politicsinterwoven in the story, combined with the narrators range of "noble" voices makes it a breeze to listen to.
I also find it instructive and plan to use ideas from this series to further enhance my own Pen & paper Roleplaying Campaign.

Not his best

The first 2 books were fast paced, while this book meanders along. Overall it was ok.

Few epic fantasy writers do it this well.

This entry is mostly works building, and I was still enthralled. It's rare for me to not get a bit bored and start skimming.

Review?

If you've already listened to the first two books, then it is unlikely you will ever read this review, you will just listen to the book.

If you haven't started listening to the series, my advice is buy the first book and start.

If this is your genre, I would be absolutely astounded if you did not enjoy this author/narrator combination.

My fav fantasy series of all time (so far!)

I have read series by Terry Goodkind, Sarah J. Maas, Leigh Bardugo, Brian Staveley, Taran Matharu, James Islington and Brandon Sanderson and I think this series is my current favourite. Great mix of magic and reasonable level of sex, violence and gritty language to add that edge of realism. I was originally not taken with the narrator (seemed bit monotone), but he's definately improved from book 2 onwards - much more passion and sense of different characters through change to his voice.Brandon Sanderson. I'm hoping this series will go similar way to Pug in The Magician and The Spellmonger to be a force to take on the gods.
I must have whizzed through 6 of his books in just 3 months

GOOD BOOK

I have over 300 audible titles and I have to say that the narration and performance of this book is one of the best I've heard. It's a compelling universe with a great story and awesome characters. I can't wait for a sequel.

Frustrating to listen to

The Magelord suppose to be extremely powerful with the a green stone full of magical power, he can kill 1000s of goblins and the mad mage with a fraction on the power was so powerful it took a full army years to kill him, so how can this Magelord struggle against people without the green stone, should be able to kill them very easy.

Newly discovered!

I'm very pleased to have just discovered Terry Mancour! Mage Lord is the 3rd book in the Spellmonger series, all of which, so far, I have devoured. The description can be rather flowery and lengthy, but the action, the characters and the Magic lead to compelling reading!!

one of my all time favourites

Absolutely love the narrator, his performance brings this exellent story to life. Great laugh out loud moments, as well as moments of real pain, and fury.

Brilliant

Excellent story telling. My one criticism is there appear to be a number of incidents which are alluded too, but not included in any of the previous books. I managed to resolve a couple when I found spellmongers honeymoom, but I am assuming there is another novella floating about which would explain the rest, leaves things very disjointed.

Great Stuff..

A huge rambling tale. Very well written and extremely well read. John Lee's voice is perfect as Sire Minalan. I look forward to listening the next part of this excellent saga.

Like fantasy, magic, comedy, high adventure?

From start to finish Terry captures your attention, makes you chuckle and wish for adventure!

Excellent part of the series

I listened to the first story and had some reservations about the time it took for the book to get into. The swing of things. This one, however contains many interesting sub stories to carry you through to the excellent ending.

The narration was better then the previous and the story was too. This has definately got me excited to listen to the next book in the series