Scholar of Magic

Art of the Adept, Book 3

By: Michael G. Manning

Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds

Length: 21 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's Summary

The looming war with Darrow has faded to a distant shadow, but Will’s continued studies at Wurthaven are disrupted by an unforeseen threat.

Selene’s absence has raised suspicion among her friends and Will’s father-in-law, the king, is now directing his ire at the obvious culprit: his daughter’s new husband. Meanwhile, the citizens of Cerria have begun disappearing and a shadowy figure is stalking Will’s sister, Laina.

With his power pushed to the limit, Will finds himself attempting to preserve a family that rejected him and trying to save a city whose king might rather see him dead. Desperate for help, he may not be able to trust the powers that have supported him in the past, for though the fae could be the source of the catastrophe, they only offer their assistance for a price. Evil stalks the streets of Cerria at night, seeking the blood of his family, the destruction of the city, and the death of the king.

Will may have to decide what is most important for Terabinia: preserving the people of its most prosperous city or saving its questionable ruler.

©2021 Michael G. Manning (P)2021 Podium Audio

Great, but....

I loved this book and was entertained by it. however, it feels like this series has lost direction and purpose. all it is now is main character trying to live life rather than having an overarching goal. it was also hard to relate to the book for me. the character made many questionable decitions that don't seem consistent with his personality.(spoiler) like saving a moral enemy.

Audio performance amazing; Book good

First, Tim Gerard Reynolds is the best narrator hands down. I could listen to him read the phone book. Second this is no phone book. I do recommend it for those that enjoy epic fantasies focused on magic and/or fantasy coming of age stories..

The magic system world building (including multiple planes or realms) and most characters are very good, consistent and believable.

Sentence for sentence, Michael Manning is a very good even often excellent writer. I do appreciate his style. I also really appreciate the speed with which he gets his latest creations published. That said I feel he needs more critical editing beyond wordsmithing.

It seems many, if not all, of his books have a plot hole, unexplainable character motivation (beyond reader suspense or moving plot forward), or simple incongruities that kick the reader out of the fantasy otherwise being artfully woven. Often these are not even central and could be easily softened or written around. Almost made it through this book clean but don’t want to spoil or pre/place questions i readers minds. I was engaged then reality came crashing down as you realize something g is just impossible and totally incongruous. It was a minor incident but it was just unnecessary and it was jarring.

Another problem is the seeming random and changing mood of the super powerful characters who sometimes help then decline to help then actively fight against Will. Done well these are “red herrings” but too often It’s just not done smoothly. It comes off as desperation to get out of tricky situations.

Good book but bare with me...

The author is amazing, the overall story is great, but I have a couple problems that made this hard to listen to. The constant new crisis, asking someone else for help, making a mistake but things work out in the end process is really getting old. I can see that will is maturing because he's asking for help less and less but the main premise of my argument still stands. Crisis, little to no plan, bad decision or mistake, then overwhelming plot armor. Some things are used too often in fantasy novels and one of those is body snatching. I hate it so much by this point and it nearly made me drop the book. There's also the point of Wills spectral visit to his wife. You can't drop something like that at the beginning of the book with no real context and expect us to wait till the END to find out what happened. Repeated things like this give the book an overall depressing vibe. This would be a 4 or 5 star review but I'm not a very patient person. It's hard to get through the repeated and predictable parts because you already know what's going to happen.

Sorcery, bravery, and...humor?

This series is fantastic, each one is fun, well written, and funny. Think “Lies of Locke Lamora” for humor, Kvothe’s brilliance from “Name of the wind”, and Sebastian de Castell writing quality all rolled into one.
The Narrator is really good too! Definitely a worthwhile pick up

Good read, great performance.

I liked the first half, the second half left me frustrated with the hero.

I am not a fan of swearing in fantasy novels nor is incest appealing. The author uses the first to great effect with the grandpa character but when other characters spit out the “f” word it just sounds wrong. And the author plays around with the idea of incest with the main character and his sister, luckily he doesn’t follow through or I wouldn’t have made it through the whole book.
Also the main character is far from humble and constantly goes after the “evil” guys while the whole time acting evil himself. He is every fathers nightmare son in law and just rubbed me the wrong way with his ego and brashness and attitude toward parents and people older than himself.

However all that being said I listened to the end, so Kudos to the performance by Tim . I would recommend with warnings to older teens and adults.

Cheating part spoilers.

For anyone who found that part disturbing you can get the answers on the Prologue chapter on the first 13 mins or so and continue enjoying the rest of the story.

Decent overall...

Author slipped in a little wokeness in one of the twists and the main character seems to have abandoned his intuition with plants he discovered in the first novel... but otherwise it was a decent third installment to a series I was enjoying already.

Damn do I love this series!

so happy I found these books. my wife and I have devoured each and every one.

Wow!

An absolutely wonderful series and story! I can’t wait for the next installment to be released!

Not as good as first 2 books

The voice actor was great. I just really didn’t like that this book had SOOO much idle conversation and over explanations. It felt really dragged out which frustrated me many times. It just felt like someone was trying to meet a word count requirement and ranted on and on about irrelevant stuff. Overall, I still liked the book but it could have been (and should have been) much shorter.

Love this series

As a avid fantasy reader finding a series I can invest in and actually enjoy is hard. This was a easy listen and always enjoy the development of characters and plots

great listen

loved it, kept me going through a long week at work. easy to listen to but detailed enough to keep you interested

absolutely brilliant!

loving this series of books and this is the best one so far. Read the series and i promise you won't regret it.

Great story

The story is just as good as in the previous installments, but that's not what encouraged me to write a review. I really must compliment the narrator. After listening to the first two in the series, I bought the kindle version because this audiobook wasn't available yet, and the author's writing didn't do the story justice. It was awkward and didn't seem to flow properly, which you just don't notice with Tim reading it. He more than brought it to life. He didn't just make the audiobook enjoyable, his skills significantly contributed to keeping the story enjoyable.

brilliant

this series has been a refreshing return to Terry Goodkind SOT style writing. Love, hate, humor, sorrow these books have it all.... I'm very much looking forward to the next!

Great series

Loving this series, listen every opportunity I get. this narrator is fast becoming my favourite it's the second series I've listened to with him reading and he's brilliant

wondrous action

brilliant, I can't get enough of this series of books. I think the type of magic is ace, characters dam good, and the plot leave you wanting more but content with the end.

A great read

Love it have pre order the next edition
A must read I would recommend it,

Addictive

Absolutely gutted it’s over all ready. Fingers crossed there will be a follow up series.

fantastic

This is my 4th run through, this one is a refresher for book 5 🤣

Lovely books, cant get enough