The Mountains Rise
Embers of Illeniel, Book 1
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The Mountains Rise
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Narrated by:
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Alex Wyndham
About this listen
**A note of warning from the author;
I waited until the book was finished before writing this foreword. Now I find it difficult to encapsulate the book in a short summary, but I felt the need to forewarn you, The Reader. Many of you have probably read my previous series, Mageborn, which is set two millennia after the events in this book, so you may have some misconceptions about what you’ll find here.
Unlike Mageborn, this story encounters more adult issues. The main character does not always do the ‘right’ thing, and in fact, cannot be called a hero. Events conspire to darken his future and twist his morality, but his choices are his own. Most importantly, the story delves into some topics of a sensitive nature, particularly sexual abuse and violence, though there is nothing graphic in the telling.
I didn’t set out to write a book about those things, but they came up as part of the course of this tale, and I couldn’t avoid them. Before allowing some of the situations in this book, before writing them, I sought advice from a number of friends; people who have confided in me over the years. Several of them have been through experiences that correlate to a surprising degree with some of the darker elements within this tale.
Fortunately, they had much better outcomes, and in fact, I doubt any of them would condone the choices that the main character in this story makes. My main purpose in writing this foreword is to make sure that my audience understands that I don’t take the subject matter lightly.
- Michael G. Manning
©2014 Michael G. Manning (P)2015 Podium PublishingListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about The Mountains Rise
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Matt
- 30-07-15
Dark, Gripping, Emotional and yet uncomplicated.
What made the experience of listening to The Mountains Rise the most enjoyable?
Michael G Manning captured the essence of the adolescent brilliantly. The writing was straightforward but at the same time managed to convey plenty of emotion.
The writing was also done in a show me rather than the descriptive manner in which many of the books I've read lately use. I very much believe that with strong characters this style of writing is perfectly balanced and leaves some things up to the readers imagination/interpretation. This leads me to the next point which is there wasn't needless pages of descriptive scene setting, you were given enough but the story was allowed to flow much better and at no point did i feel like any of the writing was used just to fill out pages.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Daniel as he is the star of the show although so many others were just as good. His growth from boy into the dark and sometimes terrible figure he became was excellent and kept me listening long after i should've being asleep.
Have you listened to any of Alex Wyndham’s other performances? How does this one compare?
No this is the first. I thought he was good, characterizations were diverse enough as to make it easy to distinguish each character. I look forward to him narrating the next book in the trilogy.
Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
Many of the scenes in the book carried a real emotional weight. I don't want to spoil it for anyone so i won't say anymore than that.
Any additional comments?
Really glad i tried a new author. Lately i have been disappointed in many of the books I've started listening to but this one really grabbed and held my attention throughout. It's a dark story to be sure but i never felt it was needlessly twisted like some other dark fantasy books in recent memory. Give it a try, you won't be disappointed!
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Joy Franklin
- 03-01-23
Amazing trilogy - keep reading the books. The best trilogy I’ve ever heard
I’m mg goodness - what can I say? I have laughed, cried, hoped & dreaded as I’ve addictively listened my way through this heart rendering tale.
It is truthful, authentically descriptive, beautiful and painful.
Love and hatred are thematically interwoven within different & alternate Family structures.
Underlying it all beats a heart of love that appears intermittently swathed, however, with pain, loss and most powerfully- sacrifice.
Equally good narration definitely animates & breathes life into the characters.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- james alway-webb
- 20-05-16
The best of dark.
Iwas abit cautious starting but the second the forest gods were mentioned I was hooked.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Paul
- 30-07-16
fantastic
what a fantastic book I couldn't stop listening and the narrator delivers the words superbly
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Simon
- 07-08-18
Can These Embers Grow To An Inferno?
What an excellent start to a series. I was intrigued by the author's "warning" so decided to give it a go. I think he overdoes it a bit and this is far from the darkest fantasy I have read but yes this is no soft wizards and elves story. It does contain some very adult themes and as the adolescent Daniel tries to come to grips with all the normal challenges of teenage life he's also getting to grips with some rather disturbing abilities. It develops extremely well as Daniel's naive and blase approach to what he can do leaves him open to accusations and he begins to grow mentally and develop and lose empathy in equal measure. There is one excellent moment when the coldly logical alien mindset of another race forces him to confront the true meaning of some of his actions.
The story builds things very nicely but in these kinds of coming of age tales the acid test is whether the author can maintain his story's qualities once their lead has done his initial growing. If Manning does this and keeps its throught-provoking and challenging nature in the remaining books then it will be a pretty hot series!
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12 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- nitro bri
- 15-06-15
absolutely brilliant loved it from start to finish
kept me hooked from the beginning haven't been enthralled like that for a long time
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Dave wilco
- 26-06-16
Troublingly Great
Dark at times but bolstered with empathy and understanding. A riviting read, will read again.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 28-09-22
fantastic
loved almost everything about this book not really a fan of sex stuff. the story was just epic it just builds and builds I am really looking forward to the second book
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mr Christopher
- 11-02-23
Wow!
Wow!! Absolutely amazing! This had me gripped, every day on my lunch break, afternoon walks… All I wanted to know was the next part of the story!! The narrator is brilliant also, really has you interconnected with the story. Really glad I picked this.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- mr
- 06-10-16
a refreshing return to fantasy
this was a last go at fantasy, despite loving the genre I have been disappointed with recent fantasy series that have been the same dreary child hero 'developing' throughout 30 odd hours of narration. this however avoided that cliche and actually had some plot. we'll see how the second installation fares. thank you
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