Magelord

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 and 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 the 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 to 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

Love

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Not his best

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

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.

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.

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

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

a welcome change of scenery

Really enjoyed the statecraft of this book whilst trying to balance everything going on, my favourite so far I think!

excellent story telling

Although a slow start once you are into the story it is an excellent story and great expressive reading.

The spellmonger series just keeps on improving.

This is my third re-read and it just gets better and better. I can't wait for book 11's release in June.

Great story,

Great story, flows from book 1. Great narator.

Before I finished this book I already purchased the next one.

Storey you can not stop listening, has me hanginh on every word

love this series.

Great continuation of the story. Amazing immersion in a world and I loved how it developed with the story of the main characters. A must for lovers of RPGs, fantasy and medieval warfare.

Better than Brandon Sanderson

Epic high magic fantasy story: Check
Deeper magic system than Myst born: check
More world building than Way of Kings: check
Much better narration than Michael Cramer: check
Fast pace, constant page turner, keeps you enchanted the whole time listening (unlike other audio books, I keep falling asleep to whole sections of Way of Kings, then Terry Mancour is for you.