The Second Gate

Mana Mirror #2

by Tobias Begley

Malachi has made a choice.

Meadow, the enigmatic magi, and his mentor in plant magic, is now Malachi's full time teacher, and under her guidance, Malachi is ready to advance his magic and begin learning the spells to help himself transition. But as he works to grow his power and achieve this goal, he finds himself facing off against opposition arranged by a mysterious force. Old enemies and rivals raise their heads, while new ones rise up, and Malachi finds himself facing new challenges.

And all the while, the Idyll-Flume, a competition for the best of the best young mages, looms in the horizon.

Genres: Fantasy

511 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2025

Reviews

[Dichotomy Girl]

DNF @ 25%

[Preston · Rating 3 out of 5]

I adored the first book of Mana Mirror. I thought it struck a great balance of slice of life elements, Malachai growing stronger and learning, and interesting tidbits from the world at large. It was full of heart and joy and sometimes stress. It had cool magic, and interesting takes on magic (the way it treats time magic in particular I loved)

So when Book 2 came out I was overjoyed, but I found that it lacked a lot of what I loved in book 1. The magic is still cool, but it felt like everything else had been stripped away. Malacai's internal monologue rarely entered emotional territory, the side quests and errands became things dropped in randomly instead of being carefully woven into his journey, and we almost never had floating POVs like the previous book. Instead, it felt like the book was consumed with new spells, leveling up spells, and expanding their power.

Progression is great, but this is the first time reading Begley's stuff that I felt the progression overwhelmed the story for its detriment. I'll still read book 3, but this was a big step down from book 1 in my book.

[Liz K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best series out there!

This is a really special series. The plot deserves 10 stars for its creativity, freshness and its non-stop “being fascinatingly interesting”. So many of the good-great series currently available start out this way but lose it part-way through the book and never get it back or have “starts-stops”. This book (and also book 1) rates a 5 stars for each and every chapter. The writing creates a world and characters that “are real”. Their adventures and relationships will keep you giving high-fives and hugs for the successes, offering “you can do it!”s for their struggles and crying with them during the moments of sorrow. It will be difficult to put this book down, so you might want to reserve the reading for the weekend or your day off 😊. I’m very much looking forward to Book 3!

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first section of this book was slow. Not much going on except some relationship development with Kene. I actually put it down for a while.

Thankfully, after about a quarter of the book, it really picked up again, and moved along. There was less of an overall arc in this book compared to book 1; it felt almost like an interlude between Books 1 and 3. Some of that is befitting of the Mal's state of mind -- he's trying to figure out his direction in life -- but I still felt there should have been more structure.

For all that, the back half of the book moved and was quite enjoyable. Several cool episodes. And it sets up what should be a great book 3.

[William Howe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I keep reading

There are flaws, but the magic system is interesting and somewhat unique and the writing is good. Clean prose can be hard to find.

The flaws:
Too much like normal—why are their kitchen appliances named the same as what we have? The world seems too ‘modern’ for a fantasy realm.
How fortunate is this person going to be?!? Feels more like wish-fulfillment.

I keep reading because it reads well. But it’s not *great*.

[Heli Miranda ahumada · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continuare la serie, me gusto y estuvo bien.

No me gusto para nada todo lo de como maneja el tema de Alvaro.