Michael G. Manning (Author of The Blacksmith's Son)

85 ratings | 10 reviews | avg rating:4.80

more photos (5)

Michael G. Manning鈥檚 Followers (2,046)

Michael鈥檚 Bookshelves

to-read (1)
currently-reading (0)
read (90)

Michael鈥檚 Friends (75)

Nimrod Daniel

1,759 books | 971 friends

Kenn Anderson

2,753 books | 162 friends

Shimon David

502 books | 67 friends

Ben Dictus

457 books | 1,574 friends

Nick Borrelli

636 books | 4,672 friends

Tyler

3,518 books | 43 friends

Sebastian B. Vogel

2,123 books | 13 friends

Taylor

513 books | 33 friends

More friends鈥�

Michael G. Manning

欧宝娱乐 Author

Born

in San Antonio, The United States

Website

Genre

Fantasy, Science Fiction

Member Since

July 2011

URL

/michaelgmanning

edit data

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 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.

...more

Ask the Author

To ask Michael G. Manning questions, please sign up.

Combine Editions
Michael G. Manning鈥檚 books

Average rating: 4.25 · 94,968 ratings · 2,807 reviews · 29 distinct works 鈥� Similar authors

	The Blacksmith's Son (Mageborn, #1) 3.91 avg rating — 13,535 ratings — published 2011 — 20 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Line of Illeniel (Mageborn, #2) 4.11 avg rating — 10,072 ratings — published 2011 — 18 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Archmage Unbound (Mageborn, #3) 4.21 avg rating — 9,297 ratings — published 2012 — 16 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Choice of Magic (Art of the Adept, #1) 4.40 avg rating — 8,008 ratings — published 2019 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The God-Stone War (Mageborn, #4) 4.24 avg rating — 7,126 ratings — published 2013 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Secrets and Spellcraft (Art of the Adept, #2) 4.40 avg rating — 6,218 ratings — published 2019 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Final Redemption (Mageborn, #5) 4.29 avg rating — 5,930 ratings — published 2014 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Scholar of Magic (Art of the Adept, #3) 4.45 avg rating — 4,760 ratings — published 2020 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Disciple of War (Art of the Adept, #4) 4.46 avg rating — 4,081 ratings — published 2020 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Mountains Rise (Embers of Illeniel, #1) 4.30 avg rating — 4,041 ratings — published 2014 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Michael G. Manning…

4 posts
Michael G. Manning's Blog

What order should I read the books in?

This question has come up frequently, more so as my world has grown and new series have been added. So I figured I鈥檇 lay out a guide for it.

First, I鈥檒l make clear the chronology for newcomers. The books farthest back in the past in my universe, are the novels in the Embers of Illeniel Series: The Mountains Rise (1), The Silent Tempest (2), and Betrayer鈥檚 Bane (3). These books take place roughly tw Read more of this blog post »

18 likes · Like • 9 comments • flag

Published on June 13, 2018 13:25

View all 4 posts »

Series by Michael G. Manning

Mageborn (5 books)
by

Michael G. Manning (欧宝娱乐 Author)

4.12 avg rating — 45,960 ratings

Art of the Adept (5 books)
by

Michael G. Manning (欧宝娱乐 Author)

4.38 avg rating — 25,408 ratings

Embers of Illeniel (3 books)
by

Michael G. Manning (欧宝娱乐 Author)

4.36 avg rating — 9,176 ratings

Champions of the Dawning Dragons (3 books)
by

Michael G. Manning (欧宝娱乐 Author)

4.30 avg rating — 7,273 ratings

The Riven Gates (3 books)
by

Michael G. Manning (欧宝娱乐 Author)

4.46 avg rating — 4,124 ratings

More series by Michael G. Manning鈥�

Quotes by Michael G. Manning (?)

“Stupid never dies.”
― Michael G. Manning

33 likes

“Quite a bit of his swearing was pure nautical genius.”
― Michael G. Manning, The Line of Illeniel

7 likes

“The key word is shouldn鈥檛,鈥� he said grimly. 鈥淚t isn鈥檛 a word I like to hear when it comes to battle. That word has killed more men than any other word, except perhaps one.鈥� He waited for my inevitable question. I sighed and asked, 鈥淲hat word is that?鈥� 鈥淐harge,鈥� he replied with a smile.”
― Michael G. Manning, The Line of Illeniel

5 likes

See all Michael G. Manning's quotes »

Polls

July/August '17 Group Read

Evil is a Matter of Perspective: An Anthology of Antagonists edited by Adrian Collins

6 votes, 35.3%

Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames

5 votes, 29.4%

Red Sister by Mark Lawrence

3 votes, 17.6%

Traitor's Blade by Sebastien de Castell

2 votes, 11.8%

The Court of Broken Knives by Anna Smith Spark

1 vote, 5.9%

Age of Iron by Angus Watson

0 votes, 0.0%

The Grim Company by Luke Scull

0 votes, 0.0%

The Mountains Rise by Michael G. Manning

0 votes, 0.0%

17 total votes

1 comment

More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Urban Fantasy Afi...: eBook Sales	20	127	Mar 26, 2013 06:04AM
Nothing But Readi...: Author Alphabet Reading Challenge: 2015	112	491	Jan 01, 2016 04:38AM
Reading with Style: SP 2017 Completed Tasks	924	120	May 31, 2017 09:01PM
Grimdark Fantasy: July/August '17 Nominations	28	122	Jun 12, 2017 01:46AM
The Sword and Laser: 2018 March Madness Nominations (Closed)	323	835	Feb 27, 2018 03:22AM

More…

Michael鈥檚 Quotes

“Stupid never dies.”
― Michael G. Manning

33 likes

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
― Robert A. Heinlein

tags: rah

2017 likes

“Without power, knowledge is useless. without knowledge, faith is tyranny. Without understanding, humanity is blind, and without all four, it is doomed.”
― L.E. Modesitt Jr., The Parafaith War

36 likes

“Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.”
― Robert A. Heinlein

tags: cats, humor, women

28762 likes

欧宝娱乐

Michael G. Manning鈥檚 Followers (2,046)

Michael鈥檚 Bookshelves

Michael鈥檚 Friends (75)

Michael G. Manning

欧宝娱乐 Author

Ask the Author

Popular Answered Questions

Combine Editions
Michael G. Manning鈥檚 books

4 posts
Michael G. Manning's Blog

What order should I read the books in?

Series by Michael G. Manning

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

Michael鈥檚 Quotes

recent posts
Michael鈥檚 Groups

Michael鈥檚 Friend Comments