Spoiler Alert – The following post contains multiple spoilers and I wouldn’t suggest you read it if you are planning to read the series. But I’ll try to keep the spoilers at a minimum so that even if you do read the series after this, it won’t ruin your experience.
Twice in two days? A worse blogger couldn’t do this, and a better one wouldn’t make such a big deal out of it. As I mentioned in the last post, I have been getting back into underrated fantasy books one of these lesser-known masterpieces is Michael G. Manning’s ‘Art of the Adept’ Series. This is one of my top fantasy suggestions for people just getting into the fantasy genre. There are 5 books published until now and I am currently reading the 4th one. So while I haven’t read all of it, I feel like I am qualified to review the first three. This author has written a LOT of books and his most popular one is ‘The Blacksmith’s Son’ from the Mageborn Series, which I am looking forward to reading soon…
Book One – The Choice of Magic
A very good introduction to the world of Terabinia. It’s one of the more successful first-book compared to most other series I have read. Manning hasn’t over-complicated the plot and kept his characters at a minimum while still giving the important ones a very distinct personality. As I talked about in the last post – the balance between characters, plot and world-building was perfect.
This is one of the very few books where I liked the side character much better than the protagonist. Arrogan was an inspired character and his death broke my heart. The training arc was like most other ‘anime’ training arcs and didn’t see anything new other than the character’s personalities. The military service part was so very good and it showed how bad Will was at following rules I loved his friend circle in the military.
The Epilogue was crazy. The brief view of the king’s personality that we got truly confused me, which was a very regular thing throughout the rest of the series. King Lognion truly baffled me. Switching from a humour-appreciating person to a crazy maniac in the blink of an eye.
Book Two – Secrets and Spellcraft
The first quarter of this book majorly focuses on world-building and defining Terabinia’s history. I loved the fact that Arrogan was back, we absolutely needed his personality to lighten up serious situations. The first antagonist of the series was introduced in the form of a fellow student. Another overlooked fact is how this book talks about historical distortion, how history changes because of word of mouth and reiterates the fact that history is written by the victors.
The assassination attempts were not as interesting as I had expected but I absolutely loved the demon-fighting (although most of it was done by Cath Bawlg and not Will). While the marriage part was a bit cliche, I loved the fighting scene between Selene and Will. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t grinning by the end. The interaction between King Lognion and Will at the end was superb and seemed legit.
Book Three – Scholar of Magic
I liked this one much better than the second book mainly because of the reunions and reconciliations. Tiny is back and somehow still relevant to the plot with his iron armour and sword. I was pretty surprised at the fact that he wasn’t the underdog here. Vampires are introduced, which I hadn’t really expected when I was reading about the child of a village midwife that married the princess of his country.
The character development of Will becomes obvious as he learns to handle nobles and becomes much more diplomatic than his previous brash persona. Will’s family reunion with his sisters was heartwarming to watch while the dangers of the fae became much more evident than in the previous books. Arrogan still delivers bangers with his sense of humour and respect for authority.
The relationship between Lognion and Will gets more confusing when both of them openly admit to wanting to kill each other (I personally wouldn’t say that to my king). Laina and Will seem like every sibling ever with the love-hate obvious in every conversation they hold. Although the ending wasn’t as legendary as I had expected after reading Manning’s first two books, he clearly outdid himself in both.
Overall a solid series that I would recommend to anyone wanting to get into fantasy. The magic system was really good, I liked the fact that it didn’t contain many GameLit mechanics.
That was my review of the Art of the Adept Series’ first three books by Michael G. Manning. Yes, the 2-day streak is on, so see you tomorrow if I’m able to make it. Thanks for reading ✌️
