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Michael G. Manning

Goodreads Author

Born

in San Antonio, The United States

Website

http://www.magebornbooks.com

Genre

Fantasy, Science Fiction

Member Since

July 2011

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/michaelgmanning

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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.

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Michael G. Manning’s books

Average rating: 4.25 · 92,804 ratings · 2,730 reviews · 26 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Blacksmith's Son (Mageborn, #1) 3.91 avg rating — 13,436 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 — 9,991 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 — 9,228 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) 4.41 avg rating — 7,751 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 — 7,064 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) 4.41 avg rating — 6,018 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 — 5,872 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) 4.46 avg rating — 4,574 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) 4.47 avg rating — 3,919 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
	The Mountains Rise (Embers of Illeniel, #1) 4.30 avg rating — 3,991 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’d lay out a guide for it.

First, I’ll 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’s Bane (3). These books take place roughly tw Read more of this blog post »

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Published on June 13, 2018 13:25

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Series by Michael G. Manning

Mageborn (5 books)
by

Michael G. Manning (Goodreads Author)

4.11 avg rating — 45,590 ratings

Art of the Adept (5 books)
by

Michael G. Manning (Goodreads Author)

4.39 avg rating — 24,457 ratings

Embers of Illeniel (3 books)
by

Michael G. Manning (Goodreads Author)

4.36 avg rating — 9,053 ratings

Champions of the Dawning Dragons (3 books)
by

Michael G. Manning (Goodreads Author)

4.30 avg rating — 7,161 ratings

The Riven Gates (3 books)
by

Michael G. Manning (Goodreads Author)

4.47 avg rating — 4,023 ratings

More series by Michael G. Manning…

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’t,” he said grimly. “It isn’t a word I like to hear when it comes to battle. That word has killed more men than any other word, except perhaps one.” He waited for my inevitable question. I sighed and asked, “What word is that?” “Charge,” 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

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Michael’s 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

1999 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

35 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

28759 likes