The Blacksmith's Son

A great tale that can stand on its own.

What did you love best about The Blacksmith's Son?

The author uses modern phrasing and language in the story and it works well for his writing style. He creates characters and is able to use them to a good potential. He has a direction and a purpose for all of his story and is able to fill in parts of the story with earlier incidental preparation.

What about Todd McLaren’s performance did you like?

The narrator gave energy to the story at the right moments and did an excellent job at reading. He just can't do female or children's voices, he makes them sound like old men. Other than that small complain he did an excellent job.

Any additional comments?

I write this review thinking of another author who did not prepare a story ahead of time and it felt like he just wrote it on the go. Michael Manning definitely put a lot of forethought into his writing and I will definitely be listing to or reading his next book. A good story is one built with a foundation and filled in with consistent details. I look for a good beginning, a climax, and a satisfying ending in each book, even if the story continues on in another book. This book fulfills these requirements for me.

8 people found this helpful

Modern day meets D&D?

this classic mage story would have been received so much better had there not been modern english profanity and sarcasm spread throughout the entire story. it diminished the quality of the story itself which was good for an adventurer type of story.

5 people found this helpful

POV jumps from 1st to 3rd

Excellent narration. The premise is good, and I want to go easy on a debut novel, but Gah!! The POV changes constantly from 3rd-person to 1st-person and back again, often within just a few pages. This occurred across the entire book. Disorienting.

Language felt like modern teenage punk. The modern slang broke the medieval atmosphere, drawing me out of the story. Anachronistic phrases include "getting laid, pissed off, scared the living sh-t out of me," etc.

No character development. Mort went from common blacksmith's son to Mage lord in just days, without a hitch, taking magic and money in his stride. Everything was too easy for him, including learning magic and a dead language from a book.

Mort — a green lad of 16 — took to sex easily. He repeatedly referred to teenage Penny as a woman, which annoyed me every time. Moreover, young Penny was molested, nearly raped, so she would be protective of her personal boundaries and sexual safety. She would wear clothes, at the very least! Nope. She can't even be bothered to put on a night gown or a sheet when two people enter the bedroom.

The story content is somewhat promising.

30 people found this helpful

Too little content

What would have made The Blacksmith's Son better?

Needs more content designed at driving the plot. There is a ton of missused space in this novel. It is one of those books were you read the whole thing and are still waiting for the book to begin. There are whole chapters that really don't add to the plot at all and the book basically goes nowhere but to build some basic characters and some plot lines.

What could Michael G. Manning have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Create more interplay between the characters.
Describe the world more. Basically you only have 2 points of interest in this book. The house where the main character grew up and the castle he gets invited to. There is not a dynamic environment in this book at all and that is a character on its own in epic fantasy.

What about Todd McLaren’s performance did you like?

He was clear and his voices were not bad. Good pace as well.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

melancholy

Any additional comments?

The book was not terrible but I think people are overrating it.

10 people found this helpful

This is writers first novel. Thank God he gets better in future works.

The first series I read by Michael Manning was the Embers of Illeniel. His second series in the Illeniel world. I really enjoyed it.I am glad I did not start with this, his first book. I would not have stuck around to see if he ever learned to write like a semi-professional. Because I know he got much better somewhere between this first novel and his fourth book I'm going to take a chance on the second book in the series. It has to be better than his first attempt.

5 people found this helpful

A great series once you get through the first 1/4.

A great series once you get through the first 1/4.of the book. The first 1/4 if juvenile and I could not tolerate the narrator and so i put the book down. Months later I picked it up again from where I left off and I adjusted to the narrator, probably because my expectations were low. By the end of the book I actually liked him. His i individual voices were good and consistent through the 4 books on Audible (there js 5th book not on Audible yet). The main theme of the books is about a mage that is self taught. The protagonist is arrogant, talks to himself constantly, and talks to the listener, and I do not like any of things. He is kind, loyal, and caresing, and yhese traits make up for that. However, the real reason I do like these books is because of the magic system grows and is explained more and more throughout each book. After my first reaction to the first quarter of the first book, I thoughy I had defiantly wasted a credit, but in the end I am glad I did spend the credit and have listened to all of the authors books on Audible.

7 people found this helpful

good but...

You really have to suspend your disbelief for the.plot to work.. Characters always behave in the way that would bring the most drama and tension to the story not in any sort of realistic way...

1 person found this helpful

Rough launch for Manning - but sets up a great series

I just finished Manning’s Dragon series - it was great - so good in fact that I hunted down his suggestions on the chronology to follow for his books in this world. Unfortunately, it’s clear his earlier work was poorly edited (if at all) - the story is solid, but the prose, organization, fluidity, and pace all feel very amateurish. Echoing another reviewer - if I had started with this book I likely would have returned it and written Manning off entirely - but his later work really is gripping and significantly better pulled together and these Mageborn books are a part of the overall tale.
Unfortunately for McLaren, audible and other apps have upped the ante for skilled narrators and his inability to act out the character’s / bring them to life and believably narrate female voices just made this more plodding than the story already was - which just added to the disappointment.
Definitely worth the ‘read’ if you’re excited about the complex world Manning creates over the course of his career, but if you’re enjoying current-day (2019) production and narration quality books, look elsewhere.

1 person found this helpful

good book

good book. not hard to follow, good pacing, over all Id recommend it to anyone who was a fantasy reader

3 people found this helpful

Loved it

I loved this series.

Young man awakening to his powers without a teacher. Finds various learning opportunities along the way, coming to discover he is probably the most powerful person of his kind ever born (although not put in those words, that's what's implied). Then tragedy strikes at the very end of the series - or so it seems; I wonder what the next installment will reveal?

1 person found this helpful