Mageborn: The Blacksmith's Son: 1 [Brossura]

At first, I was somewhat worried about reading this novel; the synopsis is pretty brief, and many of the other reviews at the time (shortly after publication) were short, "this is the only review I've written" types that I always assume are shills. At less than a buck though, I was willing to take a risk, and was pleasantly surprised. Manning's produced a novel that is an example of good, traditional fantasy. The writing is consistently fun and vivid, the pacing quick while still filling in the necessary detail, the dialogue scans well, and you can both believe in and empathize with the characters. The plot is also pretty decent; Mordecai, the protagonist, is the sole survivor of line of mages and nobles killed by assassins. Eventually his own magical powers develop, and over the period of a couple weeks he gets up to deeds of daring-do, somewhat predictably saving himself, friends and family in the process. While there isn't anything particularly inspired or new in Manning's magical system, plot, or worldbuilding, this is as good as most traditionally published fantasy novels and is well edited. Overall, a very solid effort, and well worth the price. I'd recommend this book to fantasy readers in general, and will read the sequel.

(NOTE: This review has been edited - I've marked the major edit, and I've fixed a couple of "idiot errors")
Mr. Manning has a very solid instinct about how to tell a story. Good narrative drive to draw the reader forward. I'm very pleased that the plot is human sized - it isn't about the destruction of the universe, fated destiny etc. It is about a morally weak individual and those who oppose him. I find that human scale to be somewhat rare in fantasy literature. I also like the way that Manning unveils the story; the details he lays out early and those which he saves for later.

The novel has some weak spots; (EDIT: Originally I said I wouldn't pay full price for this. The next three books I purchased cost more than this book and weren't as good. I probably still wouldn't pay hardback prices for Mageborn, but I would probably pay more for this book than I did.)
* The romance and sex plots depict a pretty contemptible image of manhood and masculinity. I understand that sometimes men are bad. But I shouldn't walk away from a novel embarrassed to be a man. The villain is a rapist. Penelope's seduction technique is effectively rape. There are counterexamples. Count DiCameron and his wife or Duke Lancaster and his wife. They're in the background and the foreground characters made me feel uncomfortable. Worst of all, the sex, rape and romance didn't contribute to the story. It diminished the entertainment value. I may be unduly harsh; I just know that the negative impressions of gender and sexuality had a stronger impression on me than the good impressions.
* The evil character is a one dimensional proxy for external forces of evil; quite sad, because he had serious potential to be a sympathetic villain. If he were given even a paragraph of real motivation, or demonstrated to occasionally make moral choices this book would have been immeasurably better.
* The good characters were, by and large, equally two dimensional. They act because they are good. You can predict their actions in any circumstance. One in particular (Lady Hightower) was so full of goodness and virtue that I wanted to join with the evil characters and fling her from the battlements. If the world contains people who are that virtuous, that wise, who are so consistently able to say and do the right things in every situation, then by comparison I'm much closer to the evil folks in the world. She had serious potential to be my favorite character. Her first appearance reminded me of an aunt in a Georgette Heyer novel. By the middle of the book she had descended to the level of Mary Jane Slushpile and I wanted to skip any scene in which she occurred. Virtue isn't virtuous if it is free, and Lady Hightower simply doesn't pay a price for virtue.

I could go on - there are many character who have the potential to rise above themselves, but none of them did. None of them ever really make a moral choice (I could argue that perhaps Penelope did, but by the time she made that choice, I'd ceased to have any sympathy for her, and I need to feel some sympathy in order to care about a character's moral choices). I think that potential is one of the things that kept me reading the book.

One other flaw that deserves mention. The book contains some writing from Marcus the Heretic, who points out the relative frequency of Mages, Seers, Stoics and Channellers. If I recall two of those are listed as occurring not more than one in several thousand. It staggers the imagination and the suspension of disbelief that all of those types are present in the novel, and all are aligned on the side of goodness.

The strongest characters in the book are those on the periphery; my favorite is Duke Lancaster. He is still too virtuous to be believable, but there are some reasons why he behaves the way he does. He's also the only character who leaves me with the impression that he is aware of the price of virtue.

The setting is quite well done. I like the magic system, and I like the way it is I kept waiting for Manning to trip up and make an error in the setting. The only weak points in the setting (the disappointingly modern lack of any class distinction or conflict) were mostly covered over by something that isn't obvious to the reader at the beginning of the book. I think that Manning does a good job of making the setting important to the plot. I cared about the conflict between good and evil because of the effect it would have on the world.

Given all the criticism I cite above, I find it rather surprising that I'm eager for a sequel. Manning has some of the hard stuff down. I hope Manning works in a writing group and gets some solid critique. Or reads writing advice from Jim Butcher or Orson Scott Card - both of whom know how to demonstrate that the protagonist's choices have consequences.

First off, I do enjoy the overall plot of the book. I find the characters generally likable and strong. Manning definitely has talent in the story department. However, this book's downfall is the way in which he writes. Quite often the characters will use terms and phrases appropriate for the time period, but every once in a while a modern phrase comes along such as "out of whack" which really shatters the illusion for me.

I felt like the author couldn't decide what kind of period the dialogue should take place in. Another problem I have with the book is the fact that the book is written in first person for the main character, but when it switches to another scene in which the main character is not present, it transitions into third person. Towards the end of the book there is hardly any segue between the two. One paragraph you'll be reading from third person and in the immediate next paragraph it's first person again.

Another problem I had was with the main character. He will often offer commentary on his own dialogue in his head, usually in a self-deprecating manner. Much like the Dresden series. However, he does it far too often. Nearly every time someone catches him off guard with a question and he answers with anything less than a witticism, he ironically muses about how intelligent/clever/good with words he is. It's not a problem in itself, but the frequency with which it occurs feels a little lazy.

Lastly, the book feels too rushed in some areas. (Minor spoilers) for instance, there is a romantic connection between two characters that develops entirely too quickly. It moves from friendship to a marriage proposal all within a single chapter. It was almost like watching a movie on fast forward. There was very little time to establish a conceivable relationship between the two of them before it explodes into something like marriage. There are a few other head-scratching moments, but I think the above illustrates my point.

With all that said, I definitely think this guy has talent. I quite enjoyed the story and the humor, I just feel that the writing could be more refined.