Betrayer's Bane: Embers of Illeniel, Book 3

Michael G. Manning has been a long time favorite writer of mine, beginning of course with mageborn. This book and the two preceding it are dark and demented in a way that we haven't seen from Michael before. we always had the impression of Mort being chaotic good, boy were we wrong. I don't even know how to categorize Tyrion. He is not good, his rage and hate consume any shred of kindness that might otherwise come freely from him. His lack of self worth and self loathing are the foundation of the horrible person he is.this being said, Tyrion is exactly who was needed to stop the awful reign of the She-har. his corruption and willingness to do the abhorrent things he did were instrumental to the continuation of the story. If your expecting him to turn a new leaf, for the most part, you will be disappointed.All of that being said, Tyrion was amazing, his character is someone that people can relate to. he isn't the idyllic hero, hes not perfect and he is well aware of that.enough about him though, lets just take a moment and reflect on the fact that Michael has created a world in which all people belong. from Kate's compassion to Ians depravity, everyone had a task that they were suited for and they did it beautifully. this world is bad, a place where rape is essential and incest is only mildly disgusting.Basically it was a hell of a trip but i am so glad its over. an emotional river complete with rapids and waterfalls as well as a wide and peaceful calm that is very short lived, it branches and twists in unexpected ways but goes exactly where it is supposed to.a beautiful story of the nightmare that Mort refused to look at to closely. definitely worth the read but keep a happy book close at hand to help recover from this story.I wish I could give this book justice but I lack the eloquence and patience to make my thoughts clear. just read it, if you liked his other book you will love this, though you may hate him in the end.

The story was dark, as promised, but not so dark I couldn't enjoy it, with some light of hope and redemption sprinkled throughout despite all the atrocities of Tyrion's life.My main beef with this series is that nothing in this series matches the flashbacks we see in the other books. Even if the argument is made that some of those scenes happened "off camera" so to speak, it still doesn't fit with the tone and what we learn throughout this story! And some of those scenes quite directly contradict each other (eg, in the flashback Tyrion hands his son the She'har accord with a little pep talk, then turns into a tree. In this book, it happens quite differently!). Also, there is no evidence in this book that Lyralliana is in the process of growing roots when put into stasis.Despite the inconsistency though, it's definitely worth a read, especially for any fans of the Mageborn series.

I've never been great at writing reviews, however, another purchaser, Randy Krueger, has already written my thoughts in a way I could never hope to articulate.https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R2L4JILCH25QR9/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B01NCOVCXJIf the link does not work, and you can not find the review, please read it below and understand that none of the words are my own, though they mirror my thoughts exactly:"'Betrayer's Bane' is brilliant. It became a routine experience to put the book down so I could alternatively laugh, cry, yell, curse the day the author was born, or at times merge two or three of those reactions into one explosive emotional outburst. Let me warn you that there was significantly more yelling, crying, and cursing than laughter in this one. The author's ability to world build, and to show me the depth and inner turmoil of his characters has captivated me since my first exposure to his work in "The Blacksmith's Son". I would not know the difference between a dangling participle and a past-possessive pronoun if they bit me in the arse. But I know what I like, and Michael G. Manning creates stories that allow me to escape from reality for a while and plunge myself into another place every time I open one of his works.This book is the culmination of a trilogy exploring events that other books in the author's universe refer to as ancient history. That in itself is a challenge because every reader of Michael's other books KNOWS how this story ends. Or at least we thought we did. We were wrong. Horribly, tragically wrong. Everyone loves sausage, but you really do not want to know how it is made. This trilogy is the epitome of that sentiment. What depths of sorrow, anger, commitment, or/and depravity would each of us reach as human beings if we were plucked from our comfortable kindle-using existence and plunged into an extinction scenario? You will find yourself doing some pretty uncomfortable self-analysis during the short breaks you take from reading this one.The author's writing style has kept me entertained and craving more ever since I came across his first book "The Blacksmith's Son". This book, "Betrayer's Bane", makes me want to gift Mr. Manning with a case of the bottled craft beer that he loves the most. I want to look him in the eye and see the joy he has in emptying that first bottle to the last drop. Then I want to dash the empty bottle across his skull and "wash, rinse and repeat" until the case of beer is gone. I wish Michael G. Manning no permanent harm, but that sick twisted craft beer scenario is essentially what he did to my psyche with this book. I can give to you review readers no higher praise, or more grave a warning than that.Thank you Sir, for another 5 star gem of a novel."

This was a great close to the trilogy amd sets upInto thornbear nicely, a return to the the darker side of michael g Manning and boy he doesn’t disappoint carries on how we expect the usual surprises to keep us on our toes

une belle triologie avec 2 premiers volumes super. mais le 3ème bouarf. ça tourne en rond dans la haine, l'intrigue est plutòt light. le daniel vire au psychopathe, ça tombe comme des mouches autour de lui, mais les combats n'ont plus rien ni de grandiose, ni de reellement nouveau.oui pour la lente descente aux enfers du heros qui n'arrive pas à surmonter son traumatisme et soit, ça traite de la difficulté d'être le boss (la responsabilité, la necessaire distance vs. les autres, toussa), mais non, c'est chiant.

Do you enjoy lite reading? Do need everything to be happy at the end? Do you have an important meeting tomorrow at work? Then be careful about reading this book!Michael Manning is masterful in writing an experience. You will find yourself up at 2am reading this book, knowing you should be resting because you have a presentation to do tomorrow.This is a dirty, detailed and realistic book about fantasy. Magic is not all rainbows and healing unicorns. Manning forces us to experience the gritty and tough decisions a Mage goes through learning his field and protecting his race.I loved the main character, was disappointed in him, hated him, feared him and then... kind of reconcile my feeling for him.Read it on a Friday and clear your weekend.

I've been waiting for this book to come out since May of last year, since that was when I read book two of Champions of the Dawning Dragons which takes place after the Mageborn series (and a must read as well, if you are into the series!)Since I knew part three of that series was only coming out in 2017, I was anxiously waiting for the arrival of Book Three of Embers of Illeniel.If you can't handle cruel, at times brutal and even appalling writing then this book is probably not for you, but beware, you'd be missing out a vital and necessary part of the series!As expected the third book of the series has an even darker twist to it then it's prequels and it certainly won't make for a happy ending.I have always enjoyed the writing style and characters of the author and this book was no exception.Just like other readers before me pointed out, this book didn't make me laugh like the previous ones did - at times smile, yes - but mostly rage and cry.Most of all it pulled me into this world at such great speed, that I couldn't put the book down until I was done - with the exception that I had to stop after Chapter 46, since I also didn't receive the full book until a few hours after I realized that.Michael G. Manning swiftly sent me the full version though so extra points to him!I wish everyone a good read and be sure to check out the Mageborn series beforehand! :)

Je suis vraiment déçus, j’adore cet auteur et cette série de livres mais celui ci a un énorme défaut.Il est incomplet, la table des matière s'arrête au chapitre 44 alors qu'il y en a au moins 47 ET le chapitre 47 ne contient que "asdf" (voir PJ)Je ne trouve aucune référence a ce problème sur le site de l'auteur dans les commentaires.J'imagine donc qu'il s'agit d'un problème de la plateforme Amazon France qui n'a pas la version fini du livre...EDIT : après une rapide discussion avec amazon le livre a été mis à jour et est maintenant complet.