This is the first book by Michael G Manning and while there are some crucial pitfalls in the novel it makes a good read. Lets start with the positive; I read it in 3 days and although I am off work (school holidays) it usually takes me a good week to read a book. The characters were interesting enough for me to care about, there was enough action for it to be a gripping read and all in all I wanted to know what the outcome of the novel would be. The world Manning has built is well thought out and immersion is not an issue throughout
The plot was reasonably well thought out although there are some issues I had with placing in the overall structure. There is the notion in writing that one plus one equals a half and this novel certainly falls down here. The author tends to overstate a point somewhat which gets a bit annoying. I don't need beating around the head with an issue, trust me, I understood the first time. The author has interesting starts to his chapters where one of the characters explains the magic system in his world - this is fine, but I then don't need the protagonist re-explaining this later in the same chapter. My memory is better than your average goldfish.
There is also an issue regarding Point of View. Usually in novels, you choose one and stick to it. Not so in this book. We get some first person and some third, nice blend which overall works well. The bits where it falls down is when you get this shift mid paragraph. This gets a bit confusing at times and could be made clearer to the reader. Some of the plot points are not completed but I have since discovered there is a follow up so that explains that.
I'd recommend this book as it is easy to read and overall a good story. I can forgive Manning these pitfalls as it is his first novel and we all get better the more we do something right?
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