Book 1, Spellmonger: Spellmonger

The Spellmonger series is a series of books about a make believe land in past and present times. magi are found, trained and go to war. Later goblins led by a non-dead skull try to over take the lands. Lots of spells cast and bravery and death for some magi. Most living after the first huge war are rewarded by having the magi bans dismissed and their being allowed to inheerit their father's lands as an heir or the Duke gives them lands that the Crown has taken over for various reasons. Our hero mage gets married and has a child and then on to the next book in the series. Fun to read. Quick and easy.

I really enjoyed this book in particular thanks to the tone of the main character who is also the narrator. The author manages to tell a dire story (pretty standard) of invasion by dark hordes of XXX (goblins here) in a funny an unassuming way.
I highly recommend it.

Entertaining plot, and characters. Definitely hit or miss on the technical side; typos, cut off sentences, etc are not all over the place, but stick out enough to be an annoyance to me. Could have definitely used another pass by an editor.

My complements to the author. I really enjoyed this book, well written and really pulls you in. Pace of action is fast, characters are well developed and likable, and sets the stage for a great series. Looking forward to the next book in the series.

Enjoyable read with interesting and likable characters, fast paced and well thought plot. I would have liked to have read more about the background and youth of the main character as the small insights inbetween the story I felt we're a little to short but all in all a very good read. Looking forward to the next part of the story.

As the title says, this book surprised me. It was good, better than some print books I have read. I don't know if the author choose to print only in e-format or couldn't find a publisher, but i suggest you take a chance on this novel. I really recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy books. It has plenty of sword and magic battles to keep any action fan happy. It also had a good amount of humor which I enjoyed. The only negative is that it looks like it was just released and the author left it open for a sequel.

SYCOPHANTS UNITE...tomorrow
Started reading it and did not put it down till I finished it about twelve hours later. Just one of those enjoyable reads that just sucks you in and does not let you go ever.
Am now waiting for the latest installment and it should be awesome.

This is an amazing series - on the level rarely obtained these days. I literally read a hundred books or so a year and most are boring, shallow or fraught with narrative gaps. This series comprises deep character building, fascinating environments and a great balance of violence and humor.

It is one of the truly unique series that I cannot wait to continue to read!

My expectations were raised by some of the reviews here, and while there is some good world building, the initial book in the Spellmonger Series was rather disappointing. The writing style and dialogue seem far too colloquial and contemporary for a fantasy setting, and as a result I was never really drawn into the novel - I was always conscious of the fact that I was reading a story rather than losing myself in it. I don't expect a fantasy novel to be full of "thees" and "thous", but I don't expect to hear dialogue that could just as easily be spoken by someone in the present day.

The characters are fairly superficial and shallow, and the most surprising character development comes out of left field when an ally of Minalan's, essentially described as embodying the best of noblesse oblige (a firm but wise ruler with the best interests of his realm at heart), suddenly turns on him for no apparent reason. It was jarring and seemed artificial - simply a means to drive the plot in the direction the author wanted. Similarly, the deus ex machina at the conclusion was a let down.

Despite this, and perhaps I'm being suckered, but the reviews for the second book seem to indicate Mancour's writing has grown. Now that the initial setting of the stage is complete, perhaps Warmage will have the luxury of exploring the character's more fully and not rely on the fairly simplistic plot in Spellmonger.

This is an entertaining story, and the plot is consistent with good action fantasy. There are many problems with writing mechanics--I suspect that no one edited this book. However, it is a fun read.

This book is the start to a wonderful series. The world is well constructed and the characters are deep.
The only points I would knock off for this first book is that it could have used some more editing for typos.

Good book. Minalin's sardonic humor makes the book shine. The ending of the book sets the next book up for a grand battle for humanity's survival. Hope that Minalin finds the dwarves in the next book from the prophecy.
Can't wait for sequel.

The story in and of itself is beyond juvenile, the writing really poor, the editing even worse.
Some of the sentences are so grammatically incorrect it is embarrassing!
Sorry to write such a bad review, as I know everyone tries very hard but, ....wish I could say something more positive.

Ok, had me until the magical sexual history crap. Final straw was powering a massive "spell" using 4 hours of sexual antics as the necessarily huge resorvoir of energy required. C'mon, are you serious????

This is a very mediocre book - despite having an interesting plot, and not half-bad characterization, the author relied far (FAR) too much on statements about what happened, as opposed to describing what happened or through dialogue.

Indeed, dialogue seems only to occur when on of the characters lectures; in which case, it's pretty one-sided with all other parties replying with one- or three- word sentences.

In all other cases, there may be a couple of lines of intro dialogue, followed by a truly massive description of what occured. I understand that some summary is necessary, but this is going a touch too far.

This is not good writing.

The other objection which dampened by enjoyment was the set of ridiculous, and possibly contradictory, statements. One example is that the protagonist - utterly incapable of believing he is anything other than mediocre - nonetheless recounts a history where he is either (i) the best in his class, (ii) despoling a number of villagers, (iii) treated to three years as the errant partner of a female sex-mage prodigy, and (iv) amasses a "horde" of loot by being a mercenary for hire after suriving a bitter and deadly war.

Now, a sense of "I am a commoner born in a feudal society" would lead to such an impression - but the author takes it a bit far.

So: is this worth buying? Well, frankly, it was enjoyable enough for $2.99. It's certainly better than some of the 99 cent ripoffs on the market, which are either too short to be enjoyable or too riddled with errors to be readable. The plot is well-done, the world is more cohesive than most in the genre, and the characters - despite their aggravating flaws - are decent enough. Two-dimensional characters are a flaw this bokok avoids, all to the better.

With a bit of work, the author might be able to iron out some of the more unusual ...components that weaken the book, and become a much more compelling writer.

Felt like a rushed first draft of what could have been an excellent book. There is a really good plot here, unfortunately it's buried under sub-par writing and shallow characters.

Too much exposition and scenes where the reader is being told what is happening instead of shown.

This author has some potential if he gets a good editor to help him polish his work some more.

The story isn't bad, but any immersion is constantly disrupted by an almost complete lack of editing or proofreading. I would venture that every chapter has at least 1 spelling, formatting or other editorial error. It felt like some chapters had more than a dozen.

At the very least, this book gives you some insight into what a high school English teacher must have to deal with.

Parts of the series are interesting, others read like the author is worried the reader has lost interest and he needs to re-establish plot points. Suffers from the common fantasy trope that the main character is the most important person in the world, but lacks a convincing reason to make him so. One could argue, it's the fantasy equivalent of Die Hard (main character is primarily qualified by being the only person capable of stepping up to the situation), but lacks an engaging protagonist.

Insulting and boring. This is the most sexist book I have ever seen in this genre. This is a wandering plot-driven tale. There is absolutely no character development and a very unlikeable main character.

SPOILER ALERTS FOLLOW. I used an audible credit for this, got most of the way through waiting for it to redeem itself. I couldn't stand looking at it in my library so I returned it - at which point I was no longer allowed to leave a review. I'll leave my review here, because it has everything to do with the BOOK and jack-all to do with the narration. The author does fine with setting up a fairly interesting, if slightly tired-feeling magic system and world with a Big Bad coming. And then every woman our "hero" encounters is a receptacle for his Magic Wand. Literally. SPOILER ALERT: The big plan involves him HAVING to BANG his sexpert ex-gf to save the castle (and his new gf, who also just appears naked in his chambers to bang his brains out). Interspersed with this, and starting about halfway in, are way too many way too long dissertations on who-the-F can remember what by the end of it. Not very often do I completely abandon a series (I made it through the middle books of Wheel of Time, people), but this one is a stinker, especially if you have any interest in seeing actual female characters beyond their genitals.

A great start to what has become my current favorite fantasy/SF series of all time. I laugh when I read some of the negative reviews and they get things that happen within the book completely wrong, such as one claiming that he fell in love with a whore or others that give it a negative review but also state they didn't even finish it.

For those just starting the series or considering reading this series, you should be warned that the author is planning on 30 books for this series before it is finished and has currently only finished 10 of them as per this review. It will likely be quite some time before its completed. There are also a plethora of short stories that take place between books that you may want to read as you go along.

What I love most about this series is that the protagonist, while seeming quite powerful and constantly growing in strength and knowledge, always seems to have more to learn. He doesn't end up being so god-like powerful at the end of a book that nobody in the world could possibly face off against him, like happens in many fantasy books. He also wasn't the first born with a rare magical in the last thousand years. Many mages in this book are more talented in certain areas than Minalan is, and there are other characters that are smarter than Minalan is. The protagonist also isn't the weak type of character that seems to never be able to learn his craft until the last moments of the series. He's not invulnerable and all-powerful but he also isn't weak, which seems to be a rare thing in fantasy books these days.

The series certainly has its ups and downs and books that are better and worse than others in the series, but overall it has won me over as the series I will probably read over and over again. There is a lot of sexuality involved in the series, particularly in the first book, but the characters do mature and grow throughout the series. In fact, the character I personally dislike the most, Pentrandra the Sex Mage, which is the character that seems to make most people call Terry Mancour a "sexist bigot", eventually becomes almost an entirely different person by the 8th book (though she is still far from my favorite and I think Terry should stick more with Minalan's point of view)

genre: fantasy
setting: sword and sorcery
format: standalone (but sets up for sequels)
warnings: sex & violence

Plot: a retired warrior-mage defends his village from a surprise goblin invasion.

There is an old adage "show, don't tell." This book utterly fails to follow that advice. Much of the book is a series of vignettes (e.g., unrelated short stories describing the mage's youth, history of the realm, or whatever). Each vignette is nicely crafted, and for the most part these vignettes build to describe an interesting world; but the overall plot suffered from the frequent interruptions. This format made the book easy to pick up mid-read, and equally easy to put down and not regret if I never knew what happened next. I didn't ever feel "engaged" like I do with a well thought-out plot or writing that shows me what is going on instead of narrating.

My main complaint is that the main character comes across as a horny teenager with no control over his urges and no thought for any consequences his various lady-loves may encounter 9 months later. This turned me off, though to be fair, everyone involved was consenting.

After reading about 30-40 books by kindle authors this year, it's refreshing to read a novel by a real author, someone of high quality whom I can genuinely call a wordsmith. I absolutely loved this book and am a third way through the second, and have already downloaded the third.

Many kindle authors (which I feel is a real category of authors- given the sheer number of them) might take the time to write the first one decently, but them they try to make a living by sheer volume, and I think they type their books as they think it, do some spell checking, and then upload to the store asap.

In contrast, Mr Mancour's style is excellent. I fear I lack the ability to explain it adequately. The main character has excellent clarity of thought. He's able to see a situation and parse it out into the bare facts, and then deduce schemes, plots, types of spells, strategies around him. He somehow is able to produce humour throughout most of the books. The pacing is excellent, and there is always, so far, two concurrent storylines- the current battle, and what has occurred in the past. And his sentences are a clear sign of his superior grasp of English. Here's a tiny example : "It was a seething pit of goblin rage and elderitch magic". Many normal, authors would have simply said "The goblins were really angry"

In short, I totally loved Spellmonger, have a high opinion of Mr Mancour, have found the second book to be an excellent continuation of the first (thus far), and if anyone wants to expand their use of English, and see how some people have a clearer understanding of the world around them, please read this book.

I swear I was not paid to write this.

Spellmonger was highly recommended to me by a friend who reads more fantasy​than anyone I know. He didn't make it quite clear how good it would be.

So, to start off, let me say, yes, there are grammatical and spelling mistakes, but it's generally pretty easy to overlook them. Considering that Terry Mancour self-published, and is only going back now to fix all the errors, I find it perfectly reasonable to forgive some content errors.

That all being said... This series is phenomenal. Terry Mancour does an amazing job of building a fantasy world that, while not terribly distinct from other examples in the genre, manages to pull the reader into the world in unexpected ways.

I never thought I'd be interested in the intricacies of feudal politics, nor would I learn so much about them, much less that I wouldn't mind it whatsoever.

The action is top notch. It's quick paced and fun, and I never have any problems imagining what's going on.

Minalin is a really great character too. I appreciate his humor and good-naturedness. He's not scared of women, which is rather refreshing in a main character since I'm coming to this from Robin Hobbs's Farseer Trilogy, and I find that having an adult, even an immature adult, is rather refreshing in the fantasy genre, which is usually rife with teenage main characters on a journey of self discovery.

In short, I highly recommend this series.

Oh and by the way, the audiobook is amazing.

It is much less fussy and packed with useless descriptive than most high fantasy. In fact it has a bit of the flavor of Dies the Fire for some reason I can't put my finger on. It does pop back and forth in time but for some reason is less confusing than most when it does. I don't find it slow or rushed or extraneous anywhere. It is a though you are riding along in the company and living it as they do. I just find I want to keep reading. I am enjoying the trip. I am wondering how it will all turn out. This is one of those tales that can go many ways, from and they all lived HEA to tears and a hero's funeral.
Lots of battles and strategy, lots of politics for a country raised mage to deal with. A hero who does not see himself coming. A world you could pull a chair up in. Get the dark beer. Try this series.

I started reading this because it is supposed to be similar to the Daniel Black stories. It is. I like that.
I enjoy the voice of the main character, and especially the humorous bits. They're like little gifts to the reader.
This has very good world creation, which I really appreciate. It has a fairly unique plot, which is a definite plus. The main character occasionally makes philosophical observations which can apply to the real world and make me think the author and I share a similar world view.
I wish it had better editing.
I plan to start the next book today.

the Spellmonger series, book 1
I liked this book. It was funny, witty, full of battles, beheadings, intrigue, and life and death situations. This author chose to write this story in a sort of first person narrative but with dialogue. This is totally a writing style choice; some people like it and some don't. It doesn't really bother me too much but on these scenarios it can seem like there's a lot of information that's just downloaded into the story rather than the info coming from character dialogue. I prefer the latter but again, I don't mind this way and in fact, this authors handles this style well. I really like how he writes the story as if he's actually having a conversation with the reader, and has many moments of humor with his intended audience.
I really enjoyed the characters: main character-Minlan, the Spellmonger, Tynlan-his young apprentice, Garkesku- older spellmonger Mage but portrays himself as Master Mage, Sire Kourcy (Cei)-leader of the country settlement & ex- military, Alya-gf, Penny-sex Mage & ex gf.
There's a war coming to the humans by the Goblins and their mysterious, ancient , unprecedented powerful leader. They say he is the dead reincarnated or a God. The Goblins are coming to take back land that was stolen from them and intend to wipe out the human race. It's up to Minlan to save the refugees that have taken refuge in Koucey's castle that's surrounded by thousands of Goblins and more are coming. lots of battles, gore & sex, so it's not for the light hearted or younger kids. It's fairly well edited, missed some wrong or misspelled words. For ages 17+. I think the cover is ok but it certainly is not an attention grabber or intriguing. Which it really needs!!! Because I believe a great cover would help gain attention and more people would then read and appreciate this really unique story. :)

Sent from my iPhone

Good story, albeit with some "slow" bits to do the world building. Editing problems are not infrequent (names get spelled differently, words are often close, but not quite right). If that eats your lunch, then don't read this series. If you can overlook it (or find it amusing) then you can get a bunch of entertainment out of this book (and series!). Definitely give it a read if you are on Unlimited. If you'd rather have someone put out 10 long books and several novellas etc in 6 years than someone who spends more time on TV than books, then this is an author you might want to read.

I'm somewhat torn about this series...there is something about it that keeps bringing me back to it (I am starting book 3) but I cannot in good conscience give it more than 3 stars. Here are my pros and cons:

Usually the "voice" is pleasant and one wants to find out what happens next. Until it drones on and on. At a few points I found myself reading the start of each paragraph and then paging ahead.

The MC is likable. He makes jokes, He is self-disparaging. He cares about the common people. Until he generally ignores a rape (an apprentice ...not his...evidently regularly abused a younger apprentice) and has sex with teenage girls.

There is a serious need for a good editor. Not only to cut out excess verbosity, but to correct the grammar and mis-spellings and missing words. There is way to much of that...way too much. Every page has at least one error; there is often more than that. It makes this reader pause, reread and lose the momentum.

And yet...The story is a pretty good one. I want to know how it turns out.

Now, I'm getting it free thus far with Kindle Unlimited...not sure if I would pay a lot for these book though.

Truly loved the story and characters. Unfortunately, this series contains, by far, the most poorly edited books I've ever read. It is repleat with misplaced words and continuity error. I've personally counted in excess of 100 basic typos in some of the books. Hats off to the actor who had to put up with that for the audio version. I hope he got paid double. I also hope you don't pay for this book until they get around to a properly edited edition.

I picked this up on a friend's recommendation. He is still allowed to recommend books.

Spellmonger is a pretty typical fantasy adventure. Hordes of goblins are invading the tiny barony, and Master Minalan, the village spellmonger, has to step up and lead the defense. But every day seems to bring a new revelation about how the world, and the war, is much more complicated than he knew.

Terry Mancour's writing gets a little infodumpy from time to time, but it's not too annoying. The action and the character interplay are both really engaging, and Mancour isn't afraid to delve into moral complexities that muddy the line between good and evil.

The narration is also pretty good, easy to follow and with enough distinct voices that its no trouble to figure out who's talking.

There's a bunch more of these things, and I intend to grab them.

A lot of information is skipped. Words were misplaced. Something would go like "Good very", instead of "Very good".

The relationship between the Lord and the MC is weird. I sort of liked the Lord's development when he's paranoid that the MC isn't doing his job. Other than that the Lord's progression, along with the MC's kind of doesn't make sense considering all of the times the MC says how great the Lord is.

The MC is also confusing at times. Sometimes he's the most mature level headed guy on the block. Other times during a serious encounter he's a childish ass.

The best pat for me is that the MC isn't a pansy. There's a lot of pansy MC's out there. The fact that he's a lecher, and okay with it is a big bonus in my eyes.

What a great book. I just finished it and bought the second in the series last night. Now, I'm a cheap, cheap person. Most times, even if I know I'll probably buy the next book in a series I always download a sample first. Just to make sure. Every penny counts these days. Well, not only did I buy the second one without a sample, I also bought it when I could have borrowed it on prime. Just one of those series you know you'll read again one day.

The one thing I could do without is the bit about "sex magic." It didn't bother me but I'm reluctant to have my kid read it until he's a little older. It wasn't terribly graphic, just didn't seem to fit for me. Other than that there are a few typo's and that's it. I liked the characters and the plot so what else is there to say? I'll never be one for long, involved book reviews. I read to escape this miserable world for a while and any book that helps with that is good enough for me.

Download a sample, I bet you'll like it to.