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I read a trilogy of books 5-10 years ago (it could have been an old story by then though) and went to recommend to a friend - but I can't for the life of my remember the author/titles.

In this world, magic and blacksmithing are linked somehow - "mastersmiths"enchant their creations while making them. There are few true "mastersmiths" who can craft in this way, and are held in high, almost god-like esteem.

What I remember:

The main protagonist is recruited by a mastersmith who teaches him the trade

it turns out this master is a bad guy, and he was helping him build some mega-sword of super-death

Later in the story he goes into a sort of self-imposed exile, not making anything too fancy

until someone talks him out of it? I think?

I'm hazy on the main plot details in this one, but

near the end of the book, he forges what to modern eyes would be an iron-man suit, possibly fighting a dragon...

Can anyone help?

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  • I will try to add more aspects as/when/if I recall them...
    – ErosRising
    May 2, 2018 at 10:43
  • Hello and welcome to SFF! You have a nice start here but if possible could you edit in any more details after having a look over this guide. For example, you say you read it some years ago, when was that?
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    May 2, 2018 at 10:45
  • I read it maybe 5-10 years ago. It may have already been an old story by then though - I got it from someone elses' bookshelves, who I sadly no longer have contact with
    – ErosRising
    May 2, 2018 at 10:50
  • Check out the recommendations on this Reddit thread - does anything look familiar?
    – Rand al'Thor ♦
    May 2, 2018 at 10:56
  • Did Dark Souls start out as a series of novels...? If not, you could always recommend Dark Souls III for PC/console - it's good & has a magic blacksmith. If you already made promises and can't figure it out, I'd save face & go the DS3 route...
    – user48252
    May 3, 2018 at 20:19

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18

Might be the Winter of the World series by Mike Scott Rohan (no relation). The hero certainly becomes a master smith, and leaves the land of his birth.

Chiefest among the Chronicles is the tale of Elof, who rose from a nameless foundling and serf to become a magesmith of ever-increasing art and power; and of the great skill, great knowledge, great love and great folly of which his life was shaped, and the awesome deeds he accomplished. How at first he fell into evil, was cleansed and, with the aid of his fast friends and the strange figures who haunted him, undid his ill-doing; how with those friends he sought a new home for his people across the breadth of a continent, and found that in his quest he was also pursuing the girl he had long loved, bond-servant of the Powers of Ice; and how he lost her once more, and went seeking her across the wide oceans of the world to the ancient home of civilization, and there found the destiny of the world in the balance; of these the first three books tell. And of how he won at last the name of Elof Valantor, Elof of the Skilled Hand, mightiest of all magesmiths amid the dark days of the Winter of the World.

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  • Yes, that's the one! I see there are more in the series than I've read, so that's something to add to my reading list too =]
    – ErosRising
    May 4, 2018 at 6:59

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