What do you think?
Wrath of the Stormking #3
Watcher of the Void
662 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 10, 2026
About the author
Michael G. Manning
27 books2,153 followersMichael 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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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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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
June 3, 2026
Such a beautiful departure.
I don't wish to spoil anything, but I do wish to give this author, the series and characters all the accolades they deserve. The journey we all take through this series is immense and complex. At the same time, it's more of the same but enhanced and complete in ways unimagined. I couldn't recommend this book more if I tried, this whole series has been a joy to experience. I can't wait to see what comes next, or how aspects will evolve along the way.
I don't wish to spoil anything, but I do wish to give this author, the series and characters all the accolades they deserve. The journey we all take through this series is immense and complex. At the same time, it's more of the same but enhanced and complete in ways unimagined. I couldn't recommend this book more if I tried, this whole series has been a joy to experience. I can't wait to see what comes next, or how aspects will evolve along the way.
August 25, 2026
I forgot how much I loved this series (and the series before it). It had been over a year and a half since I read book 2 in this series, but everything came back to me the moment I opened the book and began.
This entire series has revolved around MMC (and StormKing) Will and his wife FMC (and Queen) Selene. The series before this (The Art of the Adept) started us from the VERY beginning and took us through their meeting, their trials, the betrayals and finally her crazy descent into ………I’m not even sure what to call it but it did not end well.
I think in a way this entire series began as a way for Mr. Manning to redo that ending and find a way to fix things. And he did. This series starts years later and takes us into Will’s new life. He has walked away from the craziness and has been hidden in a small town where he developed some fantastic relationships and focused on raising his son Oliver. But as it happens with Will, he was never going to stay under the radar.
The next two books were full of action and craziness as we watched Will and Selene try to begin to trust each other again, while trying to save their realms from all kinds of threats. It was so wonderful to see the “gang” back together again.
THIS book starts after Will had been stuck in the void for a decade and no one knew where he was. When he discovers his way out, he also realizes that he learned lots of extremely helpful things while in there trying to survive. He also made an enemy and she follows him out of the void.
We get to see the culmination of all of these new (yet not new) relationships come together to work as a team to fight during the “big battle” and it was great to see. I liked the way Mr. Manning brought us full circle and closed out Will and Selene’s story in a much better way and a way that most fans were hoping for.
We also got some new and interesting leaps in the magic system that will hopefully serve as a jumping off point in the next books to come out in this world. This was truly a magical, intense storyline that delivered a payoff worth waiting for. I do not think this is the end of this world and look forward to seeing where Mr. Manning is going to take us next.
This entire series has revolved around MMC (and StormKing) Will and his wife FMC (and Queen) Selene. The series before this (The Art of the Adept) started us from the VERY beginning and took us through their meeting, their trials, the betrayals and finally her crazy descent into ………I’m not even sure what to call it but it did not end well.
I think in a way this entire series began as a way for Mr. Manning to redo that ending and find a way to fix things. And he did. This series starts years later and takes us into Will’s new life. He has walked away from the craziness and has been hidden in a small town where he developed some fantastic relationships and focused on raising his son Oliver. But as it happens with Will, he was never going to stay under the radar.
The next two books were full of action and craziness as we watched Will and Selene try to begin to trust each other again, while trying to save their realms from all kinds of threats. It was so wonderful to see the “gang” back together again.
THIS book starts after Will had been stuck in the void for a decade and no one knew where he was. When he discovers his way out, he also realizes that he learned lots of extremely helpful things while in there trying to survive. He also made an enemy and she follows him out of the void.
We get to see the culmination of all of these new (yet not new) relationships come together to work as a team to fight during the “big battle” and it was great to see. I liked the way Mr. Manning brought us full circle and closed out Will and Selene’s story in a much better way and a way that most fans were hoping for.
We also got some new and interesting leaps in the magic system that will hopefully serve as a jumping off point in the next books to come out in this world. This was truly a magical, intense storyline that delivered a payoff worth waiting for. I do not think this is the end of this world and look forward to seeing where Mr. Manning is going to take us next.
September 17, 2026
A solid ending to the absolute roller coaster that is both this trilogy and the five books before it.
May 12, 2026
a conclusion to Will and Selene’s story.
I don’t know, it seemed rushed to wrap up storylines. Several characters’ arcs seemed inconsistent with previous portrayals. I liked some new threads but it seemed like the author was just done with the characters.
I don’t know, it seemed rushed to wrap up storylines. Several characters’ arcs seemed inconsistent with previous portrayals. I liked some new threads but it seemed like the author was just done with the characters.
August 24, 2026
The series has felt as though it's been increasingly plot-irrelevant and mostly a vehicle for the fascinating magic system for a while now, and honestly, I can absolutely get behind books of short stories or something for just magic slice of life considering how much of the Wrath books thusfar have been mildly connected vignettes with large time jumps and what previously would have been whole chapters summarized into a sentence or two in order to get to what the actual point was supposed to be.
Personally, since that WON'T happen, I look forward to the next book of magical terrorists for a pallet cleanser before we wrap up by fending off Cthulhu because that's honestly a little closer to what we had before as easily digestable single books rather than the frankly disappointing elf saga over the last three, and also because we're probably going to get so much interesting magic now that we're finally acknowledging common wizards also have worthwhile talents that can have them operate at relevant levels in specific areas before HOPEFULLY getting a version of The Great Old Ones that redeems my disappointment over how lichdom turned out. I remain ever the optimist; see you all in three years
Personally, since that WON'T happen, I look forward to the next book of magical terrorists for a pallet cleanser before we wrap up by fending off Cthulhu because that's honestly a little closer to what we had before as easily digestable single books rather than the frankly disappointing elf saga over the last three, and also because we're probably going to get so much interesting magic now that we're finally acknowledging common wizards also have worthwhile talents that can have them operate at relevant levels in specific areas before HOPEFULLY getting a version of The Great Old Ones that redeems my disappointment over how lichdom turned out. I remain ever the optimist; see you all in three years
May 13, 2026
I want to preface this review with a bit of backstory.
So back in lockdown I was doom scrolling Facebook whilst feeding; my then baby. That's when I saw an ad for Art of the Adept. On a whim I bought it and just like that I fell in love with reading all over again.
This book brings together Manning's work in a way that makes you feel like it was planned from the start. A great payoff for a long time fan. The only issue I can find is I want more.
So back in lockdown I was doom scrolling Facebook whilst feeding; my then baby. That's when I saw an ad for Art of the Adept. On a whim I bought it and just like that I fell in love with reading all over again.
This book brings together Manning's work in a way that makes you feel like it was planned from the start. A great payoff for a long time fan. The only issue I can find is I want more.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 10, 2026
“Watcher of the Void” by Michael G. Manning is an epic fantasy filled with magic, tension, and immersive world-building. The story delivers thrilling action, powerful characters, and a dark atmosphere that keeps the reader completely engaged. Michael G. Manning creates a fascinating universe packed with mystery and adventure. A fantastic read for fantasy lovers!
May 27, 2026
Awesome finale
A conclusion that merits more than I can explain. Mr Manning did it again with a story for the ages. Humor, intrigue and suspense was all that was needed to draw on to complete this story. I truly enjoyed this portion of the whole story and cannot wait for new stories to come out of this world.
A conclusion that merits more than I can explain. Mr Manning did it again with a story for the ages. Humor, intrigue and suspense was all that was needed to draw on to complete this story. I truly enjoyed this portion of the whole story and cannot wait for new stories to come out of this world.
June 22, 2026
Yet another masterpiece
Michael has a way with story telling that draws the reader into his world. Or his universes i should say. I'm always excited for the next book, but this one warmed my soul. I needed this ending. Thank you.
Michael has a way with story telling that draws the reader into his world. Or his universes i should say. I'm always excited for the next book, but this one warmed my soul. I needed this ending. Thank you.
May 13, 2026
loved it!!!
Amazing continuation of the series! I have read this series multiple times and will add this one to my rereads
Amazing continuation of the series! I have read this series multiple times and will add this one to my rereads
May 14, 2026
Great Read
I throughly enjoyed this book. It had a good story line and kept me interested throughout the entire story. I recommend reading this book.
I throughly enjoyed this book. It had a good story line and kept me interested throughout the entire story. I recommend reading this book.
May 20, 2026
Great
Loved it just like i did all the others. Cant wait for the next one. Loved seeing all the characters again.
Loved it just like i did all the others. Cant wait for the next one. Loved seeing all the characters again.
May 27, 2026
Always a good read from Manning
Thought it was a great book. I would definitely recommend Manning to anyone who loves fantasy. I am yet to read a book of his that wasn’t worth it.
Thought it was a great book. I would definitely recommend Manning to anyone who loves fantasy. I am yet to read a book of his that wasn’t worth it.
June 13, 2026
another great read
I liked how this book tied together older book characters. The book kept you thinking of where it was going next.
I liked how this book tied together older book characters. The book kept you thinking of where it was going next.
June 21, 2026
A great culmination of both series! And he left enough hanging to make a follow up series! This book was a joy. I don't know why more people aren't reading these!
August 24, 2026
Great Adventure.
Really like this series. Always keeps me going with its great pace of story. Not a dull moment. Can’t wait to see what else is in store.
Really like this series. Always keeps me going with its great pace of story. Not a dull moment. Can’t wait to see what else is in store.
September 8, 2026
very rare a fantasy book makes me laugh alot
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews