Wildmane

Threadweavers #1

by Todd Fahnestock

A brooding demigod. A young sorceress. A race to restore magic to the lands.

Long bereft of magic, the lands of Amarion are dying. Humans are devolving. Their legendary protector, the demigod Wildmane, has given up on them.

When a monster sent for young Mirolah slays her adopted sister instead, Mirolah is pulled into a quest to bring Wildmane out of his self-imposed exile and restore magic to the lands. Undead threadweavers rise to stop her. To beat them, she must learn more about herself and threadweaving than she thought possible. And she must do it quickly…

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction

508 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 15, 2018

About the author

TODD FAHNESTOCK is a fantasy/sci-fi author of the bestselling Tower of the Four, Threadweavers and The Whisper Prince series. He was a winner of the New York Public Library’s Books for the Teen Age, a finalist for the Colorado Book Award in 2021 for Tower of the Four: The Champions Academy, and a finalist in the Colorado Authors League Writing Awards for the past two years, for Charlie Fiction and The Undying Man. His passions are fantasy and his quirky, fun-loving family. When he’s not writing, he teaches taekwondo, swaps middle grade humor with his son, plays Ticket to Ride with his wife, scribes modern slang from his daughter and goes on morning walks with Galahad the Weimaraner. Visit Todd at www.toddfahnestock.com.

Reviews

[Christina · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars
Disclaimer: I know the author, and hopefully, he's not annoyed with me after this review. :)

I don't read much high fantasy anymore, but I highly enjoyed Todd Fahnestock's Fairmist. The pace was perfect, neither dumping too much information all at once, nor stretching things out too long. The setting was well-crafted, with interesting magical artifacts from a previous age littering the land, like houses built on their sides where the center of gravity rotated when one crossed the threshold. The main characters were all too human and fallible, but driven to do the right thing, even if that meant questioning the very basis of their society. I was hoping for something in a similar vein when I picked up Wildmane, but that was not the case.

Compared to Fairmist, the pacing is rather clunky. The first part of the book, where we are introduced to Mirolah, Medophae/Wildmane, Orem and the land of Amarion, is mainly a lot of slow world building. Kameron Hurley admits in her blog to the same uneven pacing in her first published novel, God's War. There, the colorful writing, the amount of action and the sheer strangeness of the society kept me reading for fifty pages until the story actually started. Just enough was explained to keep me curious until then. In contrast, I feel that the first quarter of Wildmane was mostly explanation, and it didn't spark my curiosity nearly so well. Too much telling, not enough showing. After the point when Orem becomes mentor to Mirolah, the budding threadweaver mage, the pace goes from a leisurely saunter to breaking the speed barrier. Now we're in John Grisham page-burning territory, with practically no pauses or breaks in the relentless action.

Our hero, the title character, is a demigod, kind of like Hercules, except he's possessed by a powerful but mindless god, not the son of one. Basically, he's a superhero in a fantasy setting. The brooding type of superhero, like Batman. Everyone in the story orbits him like planets around a star. Two of the villains plot to destroy him and anyone around him due to unrequited love or friendship. All the powerful fantasy race characters seem to exist to serve him and his quests. Mirolah is pretty much the only character to never have had dealings with Wildmane before the story starts. Wherever he goes, high drama follows, although it's more told to Mirolah by other characters or to the reader through memories than happening in the story. This is typical of superhero stories, and I've been told that Jim Butcher uses it to popular effect in his Dresden Files series. At this point in my life and reading preferences, it's not what I'm looking for. I find it more interesting when every character in the story doesn't exist solely to love, serve or fight the (super)hero. I like the drama to vary throughout the story, not be kept at soap opera levels. That can be fun for a while, but it quickly gets boring to me.

Okay, enough of what didn't work for me. Here's what did. The magic system was pretty clever, and most importantly, consistent. Just about any part of reality can be changed if one can see and learn to manipulate the threads that make up the world. The thread aspect reminded me of string theory. Stavark is an interesting magical being who possesses great celerity for short periods, like a super-sonic cheetah. And Mirolah is a spunky character who works well as the reader's window into this world, much like the all-important companions on Dr. Who. Through her, we learn all about Amarion's history, it's gods, the magic system, what the GodSpill is and why it stopped and why she is the unwitting key to preventing much worse from happening to this decaying land.

There's a letter to the reader at the end of the book, and it pretty much explained to me why the preceding 500-odd pages were not living up to my expectations. The title character dates back to Fahnestock's high school years, and was originally created for the Middle Earth role playing game. The novel I had just finished had been last majorly revised when the author was in college, and just tweaked since. And that sums it up perfectly. This is definitely a first novel, written by someone who hadn't yet had a lot of practice writing, or a lot of life experience. It's got the usual first novel unevenness and rough edges. Much like China Miéville's King Rat , none of these are bad enough to sink the story. It's just that when compared to later, better works, the unevenness and rough edges stand out more than they otherwise would have. It's too bad that this first novel wasn't published first.

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A totally enjoyable magical story by a first time author for me. Looking forward for many more to come.

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It started off quite strong and pulled me in very quickly. The MFC was independent and pushed for things she wanted to do, even to the scorn of the village. But as her powers grew she became a bit power hungry I think and put herself danger for absolutely no reason. I did not enjoy the fast pace of the attraction and eventual "sex (I can't think of another word for it right now)" not really but kinda heading there. I even yelled out "Come On" MMC was still on his dead ex and the chick he was with before literally just DIED. Should have probably waited on that part. While I get the lure of a Demi-God, it was really not in good taste and annoying. Then came her just stripping down in front of her "teacher" for no reason pertaining to the story and him then finding her attractive and getting all jealous.

The jumping though different characters in the different chapters so also rushed and didn't really build a relationship and understanding for the reader in that aspect. I've read worse with that sort of problem but it is annoying, needed to take time introducing the characters and spend more time on them so we really can feel them. Because I think point I really didn't care for the MMC.

Really didn't understand the timeline of her "training" and how quick she wanted to jump the MMC bones. Felt like some Romeo and Juliet pace. The MMC was a very tortured soul, but to the point where you don't actually want to read about his story anymore. It was to depressing and he didn't really try much, leaning toward selfish, once again I get that it does make some sense for the story but it was too much.

The ending fight scene was fast paced and that was really good to read, I hate it when the MC just wins with little efforts and that didn't happen in this book. The ghost was pretty good. The lighting fast dude, I liked him very much, I'd rather see the MFC go with him, but as I haven't read the other books I don't know where that is going, but I doubt it.

This is a series that I will probably not read the rest of the books and want to know how it ends so I will just google the spoilers.

[Andrew Blevins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a fantasy book nut that has a lot of favorite fantasy series that I keep going back to time and time again. There are so many really good authors out there, especially well known ones, that add to the pile of books to read each year. As I read the same series repeatedly I sometimes don't always try new books or series.

Recently after picking up Todd Fahnestock's Charlie Fiction (has a really fun twist btw), and as I liked it so much by the end I decided to pick up his recently finished fantasy series (Threadweavers).

This book starts out in a world devoid of magic casters (called threadweavers), and how a young girl discovers her new gift which sets the book off and running at a pretty good pace. Along the way we meet many really fun and unique characters which really added to the building story and overall plot line.

I usually have a hard time with all the fantasy names, and by the end of this 1st book in the series I knew most of them pretty well and each had some emotional investment in knowing more and hoping there are some side stories that progress in this four book series. (Hmm maybe some off shoot books would be nice, hint hint!)

Overall this few book really hit the mark. I enjoyed the magic system and even with demigods and very powerful creatures/spirits there always seemed to me some tension that made it fun while keeping you in suspense. Without spoiling the story, there are some pretty cool plot lines that make one think about how we live our lives and what it takes to move forward after tragic events.

New friends, new loves, demi gods, and even a few dragons await in the next books, and if you can't tell already I am already plowing into the next book in the series. Just like a good restaurant and food dish, the best review is an empty plate and ready for more.

Love the series (1st book) so far and recommend fantasy buffs and even new to fantasy readers to give this a try.
Who was your favorite character btw?

[Michelle W · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t really like it as I read it. There was so much world building required to understand it, there were so many characters that I struggled to keep track of, and there were plot elements that just seemed so unlikely (and I get it’s fantasy, but some things worked out way too easily). I couldn’t really understand why Mirolah was SO powerful, so quickly. To me this was never answered, or I missed it, or it will be explained in one of the sequels? Her ability to defeat a threadweaver who was much more powerful was sketchy to me when she got so little training in a crash course period of time. I didn’t understand why Medophae had to kill Zilok Morth. And frankly I didn’t understand Mirolah falling for Medophae other than because he’s a tortured hot guy? That’s how it came across to me. Again, maybe I missed some details that would’ve answered my questions. After I finished it, I read the timeline of the world and its gods, then I reread a lot of sections. It all came together much better once I did that. But I didn’t really understand everything by reading it once, so that turned me off, however, it is a fantasy story that requires a lot of world building along the way, so I think I judged it too harshly as I went along. Not sure if I’ll read the next book. Maybe later, but I didn’t feel particularly drawn to after I finished. My biggest issue...so many typos! Very poorly edited. I wanted to highlight errors and send them to the author. One part said, “Her curiosity damped.” I was 99% sure “damped” couldn’t be correct, but I looked it up to be sure. The word is “dampened,” even if it’s meant metaphorically. Either the author needs to read through his work more carefully, or he needs to employ a better editor.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably more of a 3.5, but screw it - I'd read a sequel so take the 4 stars. Reminded me a bit of Jennifer Fallon's Immortal Prince series (also very good) but with enough differences that it kept it fresh. Also, I love books about Immortals, almost as much as I love books about assassins. And you can tell the Author put a lot of work into this, I highly recommend looking at the the timeline as well - very well done (found it at the back of my Kindle version in a link).

Okay with that out of the way, this was a decent enough story with a lot of history behind it. We have Medophae (Wildmane) a demi-god living in a world of men and Mirolah, who has just found out that she's the first Threadweaver in centuries. These two characters made the story and even though Wildmane is a demi-god, Mirolah can handle herself just fine and holds her own.

Decent cast of secondary characters as well with depth, Stavark was a stand out for me. Loved him, not sure why. The author has created a very interesting world here and I'm looking forward to reading more in this series and seeing it grow. It sounds like a simple enough story, but there are twists and turns and by the end I found myself loving this world.

Oh, and Dragons. Love me some Dragons. The teaser for the second book has me really wishing it was out right now too, things are just getting started.

[IndieAuthorShowcase · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wildmane by Todd Fahnestock is a masterclass in epic fantasy storytelling—rich in heart, high stakes, and unforgettable characters. As the first book in the Threadweavers series, it wastes no time in plunging readers into a world filled with magic, war, and destiny.

At the center is Mirolah, a young woman with a mysterious past and the weight of the world on her shoulders. Her journey is equal parts self-discovery and survival, wrapped in a narrative that weaves political intrigue, ancient powers, and emotionally grounded character arcs into a seamless tapestry. Fahnestock doesn’t just build a world—he breathes life into it, with vivid settings and complex cultures that feel lived-in and real.

But what really sets Wildmane apart is its tone: this is classic fantasy with a modern soul. The prose is fast-paced yet lyrical, and while the story delivers on action and lore, it never loses sight of the emotional core—friendship, loss, loyalty, and hope.

Whether you're a lifelong fantasy fan or someone dipping their toes into the genre, Wildmane is the kind of book that grabs hold early and doesn’t let go. If you’re looking for a series with depth, momentum, and heart, this is the thread worth following.

[Tünde Kasza tóth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a real multiple pow fantasy. I can't actually call it epic fantasy, because it is much more about the characters themselves than the fate of the empire/land/people.

The world building is awesome, and it's informative without being in your face. What helps is that nobody in the world is really familiar with the supernatural aspects of it, since it has been absent over 300 years.

I also liked the characters, they are mostly well rounded with strengths and weaknesses as well. What I didn't like is the very feeble romantic thread. It either shouldn't have been there or should have been more significant, but this was just weird. And unnecessary. And the feelings were just there unexpectedly...

So all in all it was a really good book, but I'm on the opinion that straight men shouldn't write romance.

[Alex Galassi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first 150-200 pages feel like its just solid world-building with very little character development and plot. After that, the pace picks up so much that it almost feels like you're reading a completely different book.

I feel like the reader could have been introduced to the world in a much better way rather than all the backstory. And I have a lot of issues with the the female lead and with the male lead as well that I won't get into for the sake of spoilers.

That being said, the world itself is quite interesting, unique and well-thought-out. Plus the magic system of threadweaving really is very cool. So while the story itself is good, the book itself was honestly a bit of a struggle to get through.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a hard time getting through the Prologue and I almost stopped reading trying to follow it. I’m glad I kept going. This is the second of Fahnestock’s books that I’ve read and I have enjoyed both immensely. I am a sucker for strong female characters and this book has that. There were some parts of the story that ended up being predictable or “too easy” and as another reviewer stated, there are lots of typos, but if you can suspend your rational mind long enough to get past those minor, minor things, Wildmane will take you for a nice ride. Enjoy!

[Scott Sammons · Rating 3 out of 5]

Years of work can lead to a lack of clear vision.

This book was a bit of a mess for me. Lots of words, but I would have liked a clearer narrative. There is so much to unpack with this story that it may take me multiple readings to get the most out of it, and frankly I didn't like it enough to make that commitment. I have no interest in following this rabbit warren to learn all of the secrets that this author has stashed away with his buddies in their fantasy world. I am getting off this merry-go-round.

[Ingrid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable. Loved the premise, and while the story wasn't what I imagined, I liked it all the same. Characters were love/hate-able. At the midpoint, I was pretty sure I'd lose my mind, but of course that's the fun part—seeing how everything unfolds. Looking forward to #2-4.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a surprisingly good book. It has plenty of familiar actors, but it's put together in such a way that it's a refreshingly engrossing tale, and one most fantasy fans are sure to enjoy.

[Raewynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story.
I haven't read any of Todd's books before but, after this one, I will definitely be reading more.
Well done!

[James Blevins · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a fun magic adventure. I enjoyed the magic system. It wasn't particularly original as the weaving was reminiscent of Wheel of Time, but that being said, it was a fun read.

[Kerensa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I throughly enjoyed joining the adventure in Amarion with Wildmane and Mirolah! Particularly meangingful to me at this time is the path forward being revealed and embraced by letting go.

[Savannah Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wildmane sets you up for a story with a mixture of fantasy, self love, adventure, and romance. The first book really sets the tone and backstory for the rest of the series. It highlights the 'outcast' and follows her journey in a few weeks time. While it does have character chapters, the story continues to flow smoothly without backtracking the same scenes from different perspectives. I think the switch offs highlight the timeline very well. The ending had me on the edge of my seat and I was so mad I didn't have the second book to dive right back in.