The Mountains Rise

This series is called a prequel to the Mageborn series but this was my takeoff point for anything by Michael Manning. And I must say it was a superb takeoff. A well balanced tale of zero to hero while building an all round surrounding cast. The world building was pretty slow and not too much is revealed in this first installment. However, the strong female characters were refreshing as was the internal conflicts of Daniel. There are two reasons it does not make the cut to 5 stars. The first is that the magic system is a bit shallow and never seems to make much sense. The second and the bigger reason is that you never live Daniels life. It forever feels like a story narration (which it is), but never gets emotional enough. Onwards