Secrets and Spellcraft

Michael G. Manning

Oct 2019 · Art of the Adept Book 2 · Michael Manning

About this ebook

Now a student at Wurthaven, Will is confronted with the truth of the present. The powerful magic embodied by wizards like his grandfather is but a distant memory, while the practice of the current day is timid and uninspired, and yet he needs the knowledge still preserved and managed by the college. At every turn he finds that sorcery is supreme, while wizards are trained merely to assist and support those who hold the real power—a power based on an evil so deep that few living know the truth of its foundation.

As a student of wizardry, he’s expected to know his place and stay in it, but Will isn’t like the other students. His grandfather’s teaching has made him into something different, something forgotten—something they will learn to fear.

If he can grow into his power. With every choice, every refusal to submit, Will creates more enemies, enemies who aren’t content to let him live in peace. Without friends or support, Will must survive the knives in the dark, for Cerria is no place for those who refuse to follow the rules.

Ratings and reviews

About the same level of quality as the first book. Could still use an editor but has a good story. I actually think the plot holds together better than the first book. Michael G. Manning has probably read the Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfass. Minus some points for the distinct resemblance to Harry Potter in the uniform on the cover and the restricted section of the library. Minus many points for having Will lose his winning streak rejecting sexual advances. Plus a few points for (this part removed to avoid spoilers) afterwards.

like I said with book 1 good read and easy to follow. still only giving it 4 stars cause will the MC did not get smarter after few months in school... in fact I'm shocked his lack of common sense hadn't cause himself to die yet...

Minor spoilers!!! This was better than the last one but I'm still annoyed at how stupid will is. You'd figure that all the studying he has done and the mistakes he has made would at least let him not miss out on the most obvious of things but you'd be wrong. The choice to not kill the people trying to kill you regardless of how you feel on the matter is stupid. His inability to read ahead and constantly seek out only easy answers is stupid. He has a book called practical magic but doesn't actually look through it for more than 400 pages. In all fairness this could be the authors second book so such things improve over time. the other point is that the high points were actually much higher than on the first book and it had an overall better flow.

About the author

Michael Manning was born in Cleveland, Texas and spent his formative years there, reading fantasy and science fiction, concocting home grown experiments in his backyard, and generally avoiding schoolwork.

Eventually he went to college, starting at Sam Houston State University, where his love of beer blossomed and his obsession with playing role-playing games led him to what he calls 'his best year ever' and what most of his family calls 'the lost year'.

Several years and a few crappy jobs later, he decided to pursue college again and was somehow accepted into the University of Houston Honors program (we won't get into the particulars of that miracle). This led to a degree in pharmacy and it followed from there that he wound up with a license to practice said profession.

Unfortunately, Michael was not a very good pharmacist. Being relatively lawless and free spirited were not particularly good traits to possess in a career focused on perfection, patient safety, and the letter-of-the-law. Nevertheless, he persisted and after a stint as a hospital pharmacy manager wound up as a pharmacist working in correctional managed care for the State of Texas.

He gave drugs to prisoners.

After a year or two at UTMB he became bored and taught himself entirely too much about networking, programming, and database design and administration. At first his supervisors warned him (repeatedly) to do his assigned tasks and stop designing programs to help his coworkers do theirs, but eventually they gave up and just let him do whatever he liked since it seemed to be generally working out well for them.

Ten or eleven years later and he got bored with that too. So he wrote a book. We won't talk about where he was when he wrote 'The Blacksmith's Son', but let's just assume he was probably supposed to be doing something else at the time.

Some people liked the book and told other people. Now they won't leave him alone.

After another year or two, he decided to just give up and stop pretending to be a pharmacist/programmer, much to the chagrin of his mother (who had only ever wanted him to grow up to be a doctor and had finally become content with the fact that he had settled on pharmacy instead).

Michael's wife supported his decision, even as she stubbornly refused to believe he would make any money at it. It turned out later that she was just telling him this because she knew that nothing made Michael more contrary than his never ending desire to prove her wrong. Once he was able to prove said fact she promptly admitted her tricky ruse and he has since given up on trying to win.

Today he lives at home with his stubborn wife, teenage twins, a giant moose-poodle, two yorkies, a green-cheeked conure, a massive prehistoric tortoise, and a head full of imaginary people. There are also some fish, but he refuses to talk about them.