The Novice: Summoner: Book One

Taran Matharu

May 2015 · The Summoner Trilogy Book 1 · Sold by Feiwel & Friends

About this ebook

He can summon demons. But can he win a war?

Fletcher is working as a blacksmith's apprentice when he discovers he has the rare ability to summon demons from another world. Chased from his village for a crime he did not commit, Fletcher must travel with his demon, Ignatius, to an academy for adepts, where the gifted are taught the art of summoning.

Along with nobles and commoners, Fletcher endures grueling lessons that will prepare him to serve as a Battlemage in the Empire's war against the savage Orcs. But sinister forces infect new friendships and rivalries grow. With no one but Ignatius by his side, Fletcher must decide where his loyalties lie. The fate of the Empire is in his hands.

Ratings and reviews

Almost everything in this book is ripped straight out of other novels. Welcome to a tiny world where a 15-year-old Tolkien goes to an itty bitty Hogwarts to learn about Pokemon. The Humans, Dwarves, and Elves are in a cold war with each other while the Humans fight the Orcs, and the nobles deride the commoners. Then: twist (but not really); the end. That's the whole book. I regret buying.

Elks are called bulls, not stags, and their meat is NOT called venison. Also, no society that works metal would ever use flint arrow-heads. The dialog is drearily hackneyed and unrealistic, and the characters are unimaginative, tissue-thin conjurings of beings that can supposedly breathe and think. This 'author' reads like he's fourteen years old, writing for ten-year-olds. This book could not be diverting for any adult reader with an IQ higher than 60.

Flat and weird interactions interspersed with interesting descriptions and simplistic plots. Racism is shallowly addressed, with a brutally oppressed and beaten character renouncing his beliefs and joining the army responsible for their oppression after a single human and an elf save him - from other humans. Other threads of the story are left by the wayside, as time allegedly passes. Despite a serious look at money in the first dozen chapters, after discussing the yearly stipend they would get as students (often a neat 1000 shillings) money vanishes. The main character kills a handful of men without remorse, but later briefly expresses concern after hurting another student's bug. There's a number of specific things that bothered me about this book, but the general issue boils down to characters having no depth to them, and as a result tension and conflict only appear as stepping stones to move the plot along before immediately resolving only a few sentences later. All in all, it makes for an interesting world, seen through an woefully uninteresting lens.

About the author

Taran Matharu wrote his first book when he was nine years old. At twenty-two, he began posting The Novice on Wattpad (the online writing website) and reached over three million reads in less than six months. The Novice is the first of three books in the Summoner series, and Taran Matharu's fiction debut. Taran lives in London.