Friday 19 October 2018

The Novice - Taran Matharu

The Summoner Trilogy is made up of The Novice, The Inquisition, and The Battlemage. Matharu himself described the trilogy as Hogwarts meets Pokemon, which I think is a perfect description of the series.

The main character, Fletcher, lives in a village called Pelt in the north of the empire. He is an apprentice blacksmith to a man called Berdon, his adoptive father. Neither Fletcher or Berdon knows why Fletcher was abandoned as a baby outside the village.

A soldier comes to the village on market day, nicknamed Rotter (James Rotherham). He brings with him a book that turns out to be a diary by a Summoner, that also contains a summing scroll. Through an explosive sequence of events, Fletcher finds out he has the power to summon and a demon who Fletcher calls Ignatius appears.

Fletcher, frightened for his life, runs away and ends up in a city called Corcillum. He is picked up by a Battlemage who sends him to Vocans Academy.

At Vocans Academy, Fletcher makes both friends (including elves and dwarves, neither of whom are friendly with humans) and enemies of the upper class. The entire year culminates in a tournament - but I won't give that away.

This is a fantastic book, and a sorely needed addition to the YA fantasy market. It's well plotted with well-rounded out heroes and villains. There's a good undercurrent of themes of politics, rights and oppression, that are well explored. The novel ends on a good cliffhanger - more about that in my next review.

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