Sky Rider

Spellmonger Cadet, Book 3

By: Terry Mancour

Narrated by: Finty Williams

Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's Summary

Lady Lenodara of Westwood, called the Hawkmaiden - Dara, to her friends - has had an adventurous life: She tamed a falcon when she was 12, learned she had magical talent, discovered that she had a natural aptitude as a beastmaster, won her witchstone at the first Spellmonger’s Trial, became the junior apprentice to Minalan the Spellmonger, Magelord of Sevendor, mastered the ancient magic of the Thoughtful Knife, fought goblins and a dragon, and was made a noble and richly rewarded for her heroics. Now that she’s safe back home in Sevendor, everything should go back to normal...right?

But a secret project with the Alka Alon Emissary, Ithalia, leads Dara to new troubles and adventures, as the Hawkmaiden assumes new responsibilities. Lady Ithalia wants to use magic to transform her falcon, Frightful, into a giant, so that she and other giant hawks can defend the Five Duchies against dragons in the air. Each hawk is to be ridden by a Sky Rider to aid the fight - and Dara is to be the first.

When Minalan purchases 20 hawks and hires a falconer to aid her efforts, Dara is tasked with building a mews to house them in the Westwood...and encounters her most difficult opponent yet: her father.

Hawkmaiden vs. Master of the Wood, father vs. daughter, Castle Folk vs. Woodfolk, Dara has to choose sides and made compromises in order to see her task completed without bothering the Spellmonger.

But fighting a dragon seems simple compared to challenging the Master of the Wood in his own land. With bandits milling around Sevendor and the threat of exposure for the giant falcon project, Dara has to learn new skills and understand an entirely different kind of magic if she’s to become the first Sky Rider!

©2018 Terry Mancour (P)2019 Podium Publishing

I love the spell monger series.

The new spellmonger cadet books are a great listen, a fins enjoyable series so far. I do feel book one is the best out of the current 3. It is nice to get this series and listen. I am really enjoying the backstory of the Sky Riders.

Audible's rating is:
1 Star is "not for me"
2 Stars "it is okay"
3 Stars "pretty good"
4 Stars "it's great"
5 Stars "I love it"

A one star book could be a very dry topic, story,crude or someone preaching down to the reader. I generally don't have 1 star books. I will just return them and go my own way. My last 3 were from the same series, I had hit a very dry spot in my listening.

A 2 star story, would be something that was phoned in by a writer that typically has done much better work. I have a couple of reviews from authors that just seemed to phone it in, one most recently from an author that decided to mix current politics into his novel. If I wanted that, I would just watch the news.

A 3 star review is where I really start. It means I enjoyed the book. That I did not have a hard time following it (I have lost alot of my conversational hearing). That the story kept to a plot, the characters were not static, and the world built was plausable.

A 4 star review is something that I really enjoyed. It puts the author on my map to keep an eye out for. I go through 12-15 books a month. (audible is my primary source of entertainment. ) I will search for the author's works regularly, and seek out their stories for future purchases.

A 5 star review, These are not as rare as one would think. These are the books where the characters grow, learn, act according to their nature. Where the world is not only plausible but believable. Where there are economic systems, businesses, rules of law that make sense. Where the story is woven is progressed and told with caring and dedication. These are books, series, authors and narrators that bring it all in a package.

So, when reading my reviews, if anyone does, that is how I judge the books.

Not much new content

this book failed to add any new information or material into this story. after 3 side stories in a row I expected this book to be more in depth. it basically just repeated a story that has already been told from a different perspective. love the author and have read all of his available material but this one kind of seemed like a money grab.

good

I love everything spellmonger but it's too short and I hope there's more coming to the series

Too short for the money...

All three of these should have been one book. It makes think of the author and publisher as beady eyed little people counting their money with an evil laugh. He writes well, the performance is great, and I love the characters, but the greediness is offputting for sure.

She's still a brat!

There has to be a way to write about a strong girl character without her being a brat!!!

Waste of Time....

This book was a disappointment when compared to the two cadet series. I gave one star because of the last two and a half hours of the book. ....totally a waste of my time and money.

Uneventful

I kept waiting for the story to get interesting...
it never did I am afraid. The worst novella to date in the spellmonger series.

Eh

I liked the book, yet it was too short for my tastes. There were also too many moments of internal dialogue or narration taking the place of internal dialogue wherein she was complaining about stuff. It wasn't as bad as Holden Caulfield, but it was a bit annoying to me. The overall plot development suffered from that, as it was slowed down a bit. I feel this book would have been better as a side story. Perhaps as Hawklady 2.5?

The Story Doesn’t Disappoint

Really well written side bar to the main SpellMonger story. The series, hands down my all time favorite, dives deeper into the backstory of the sky riders and absolutely brings a depth that is appreciated. Again, however, I wish they would release Necromancer and allow us audio book fans to move the story forward!

Another wonderful Spellmonger book

The Cadet series is a worth addition to the Spellmonger series and takes up the story of the Youngest Apprentice of the Spellmonger amazingly. well written and fanstastically voiced this series is a must read for modern fantasy fans.

Thrilling adventure

This series has become a fast favorite recommend spell monger series too I don't have more than 15 words so fillingbin

what a finish

what a great finish to a excellent set of books. I really enjoyed finding out all about the adventures of the hawk maddien

Brilliant but over too quickly!

Another great story about the hawk maiden. This book focuses on the emotions, politics and challenges our new lady and mage had to face to bring the sky riders to fruition. However, there wasn't as much detail on the creation of the unit nor learning to fly as I would have liked. Overall a good book that's over far too quickly.

The best of the trilogy!

Absolutely fantastic story, Finty’s performance is astounding as she takes us on Dara’s continued adventure!
I especially love the insights into Sevendor and learning about the clandestine missions Dara has been working on behind the scenes!
Giant hawks, mysterious floating orbs in an ancient Alkan city, a building project and bandits to thwart.
Skyrider has it all! Thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish!

Great back story, but less than successful narration

As with all TM’s books the storytelling is excellent, and while Finty Williams’ narration works very well for Dara, as the main protagonist, her delivery of almost all the other characters is sorely lacking.
It’s as if she did no research at all on the other characters’ own back stories from the other books and this manifested as wooden or inappropriate intonation of many of them (Rondal being a prime example)
All in all I enjoyed the book but felt let down by some of the narration.

Should have been a short story

I’m not entirely sure what the point of this book was. There were some interesting things but not near enough to make this a book. The whole story could have fitted into an epilogue. Very disappointing.

enjoy

Once again Terry has given us a great story. The cadet series enrich the Spellmonger Books, giving us a glimps into the apprenticeship of magic.