The Line of Illeniel

Mageborn, Book 2

By: Michael G. Manning

Narrated by: Todd McLaren

Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's Summary

Mordecai has discovered his heritage and must take up the mantle of a lord of the realm, while figuring out what it really means to be a mage of the line of Illeniel. He is beset on both sides by allies and enemies trying to control or destroy his future. Gods and kings both seek to manipulate him for their own ends, and no matter what he chooses his loved ones will suffer. Will he risk destroying his love with a bond that might be her death, or face the madness that comes to wizards who embrace power without restraint?

©2011 Michael G. Manning (P)2013 Tantor

Good Read

The characters are evolving nicely. They are becoming a likable bunch that makes you want to root for the underdog.

Great story, lackluster dialogue and performance

This overall story is a page turner, but much like the first installment of this series, the book feels unedited (or poorly so). The author repeats himself so frequently that it calls into question whether he or his editor bothered to re-read the work.
I love the story and the world that Manning is building, but listening to all the repeated elements, words, aspects makes an otherwise really fun journey much more of a slog than it ever needed to be. If I didn’t know how good his work ends up being later on, I would definitely not continue with the series.

OUTSTANDING

Book 2 even better than book 1. Love the way the author puts raw emotion into words you can feel.

Very good<br />

simple but we'll crafted. Read it or listen, worth the time for me.. Even though it is obviously a middle book in series, it had a beginning and end that was satisfying.

This was an amazing book. Couldn't stop listening!

Absolutely loved it! I usually only listen to my audiobooks while driving but this was the first book I had to take inside lol. It was absolutely amazing!

Better than the first

Thank god every 5 minutes there wasn't a thought from the heretic in this book that part of the first book almost made me not want to finish it but it was good but this one was definitely better

Could have been so much more

This series has some interesting magical concepts. Particularly intriguing was the introduction of Moira and the idea of directly channeling the elemental energies of Earth, Air, Fire and Water.

However, the writing is poor and much of the character development weak. Most annoying is that Mort never matures. As a reader, I felt the same frustration expressed by characters such as Penny and Dorian about his immaturity. Despite the passing of a couple of decades, his humor stays that of a teenage boy.

I strikes me that the author may have tapped into some very ancient wisdom to present the concepts that I found intriguing. Unfortunately, he does not honor them in the story development. Rather he surrounds these gems with many pages of poor story lines and inane dialogue.

I read the first four books several years ago and recently returned to the series on audio book, hoping that perhaps I had been wrong in my initial assessment. I don't plan to read the final book of the Mageborn series or the subsequent prequel series. Many of the other reader reviews of these books reinforce my conclusion that there would be little of interest for me in continuing.

For those readers looking for good writing, world building and character development, I would highly recommend Anne Bishop, particularly the Ephemera series.

main character is annoying.

There are so many things i could complaint about, but ill just say one thing instead. by the end j was hoping the main character would die to end the childish stupidity of this story.

Turning Into A W heel of Time Rip Off

Any additional comments?

I enjoyed the first book in this series very much. I thought it was fun and original. This book is pretty good too, don't get me wrong. It seems to me though that as the story goes along it starts borrowing more and more from the Wheel of Time series. Male mages that have to be bounded or go insane? I think I've heard that one already. Othe than that, and they say that immitation is the highest form of flattery, it is a pretty good book. I just picked up the third one and am curious enough about it to get started. If you're loing for something not too heavy with some pretty decent humor scattered throughout, check it out.

Good but not great

This author has come a long way since his later books are much better than this one. The narrator still can't do young women but you get used to it

Very good

Loved it needed a little more drama and definetly more humour i can see what went wrong but still a fav

a good story

an enjoyable story and the characters really grew on me by the end, looking forward to seeing where the series goes

Honestly Penny ruins it for me.

I honestly hate her, she’s such an unlikeable and poorly written two dimensional character. She’s almost as bad as the mc but at least he is mildly likeable. I put up with the first book because I was told it was a wobbly first step and that it gets much better afterwards but I have seen none of that improvement. In fairness though the narration in much better, much less stilted. Any way I’m not carrying on, I just can’t put up with any more of the writing.

Great Improvement

You can really see Mannings writing improve in this book as the story comes more alive. If you were unsure with the first book in this series I urge you to listen to this one. It displays a taste of his future writing which only gets better. The narrator has also improved and is now far easier to listen to. I started with Mannings later series so going back to his first major work was a shock at how basic the writing and narration was in comparison . This book however has made me purchase the full set and I’m well into the 3rd book already.

bitches be crazy

Penny is an annoying bitch blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blue

European aristocratic titles

These titles should be pronounced as they are in their country of origin, it is, in my opinion laziness or at worst insulting not to do so.