Mage

Greymantle Chronicles, Book 2

By: J. David Baxter

Narrated by: A.W. Miller

The second novel in J. David Baxter's epic portal fantasy series, the Greymantle Chronicles.

After surviving and defeating a plot to plunge the continent into war, Nate loves his new life. He has been awarded a knighthood and a position in the Royal Guard, where he has made good friends, as close as family. Unfortunately, he is torn by the need to get back home to save his sister from the consequences of his mysterious disappearance. Given a chance to petition the most powerful mage in the kingdom for help, he may soon have to decide between magic and the sword, thanks to guild politics, or face dire consequences. He may even find a surprising chance for romance. Still, none of it will matter if he can't survive assassination attempts from Blood Mage agents out for revenge.

Set in a unique world of swords and magic that is medieval in flavor but seen through the lens of a modern college student from Earth, the Greymantle Chronicles are an epic fantasy series in a high magic fantasy world where technology and science never existed. Yet, cities are cleaner, banking is done with magic tokens, floating carts are used to haul freight, and magic is a science in its own right.

©2021 J David Baxter (P)2023 Tantor

I’m dinging it a star because of cliffhanger

Book was too short and too wrapped in mundane bs to really be considered a book. This seems like a money grab and should really have been tacked on to the first book. Plus I thought we were done with cliffhangers, nobody likes them.

Great story

I look forward to listening to the next audiobook in the series. If it’s anything like the first two books, it’s going to be great.

not as good as the first book

This book was definitely a step down in quality from the first book. in the first book I kept getting this impression that the main character is a lot younger than written as. this is only further accentuated in this second book. does dumb things over and over again. gets caught up in his head on childish things. has this awkward weird thing with another man's fiance. The author spends very little time on him growing and maturing in any meaningful way. his fighting abilities or power are handed to him over and over again or giving some token training montage that lasts 2 seconds in story time. spends way too much time on fight scenes and not enough time on character development.