Easy to read and entertaining, but... not that good, to be honest. And I say this as a fan of coming of age YA fantasy.

The worldbuilding was kind of generic and superficial. The magic, without being particularly original, was more interesting. The characters were kind of likable but at the same time also generic and superficial, and they often reacted in ways that did not rang true.

Interesting enough for me to finish the book, but not to continue reading the series. ( )

A young blacksmith apprentice stumbles onto a magical book that he can't resist reading from, which summons a small demon from another world. This is an ability only certain people have, which makes Fletcher special (he can also cast spells, and just to be clear, the demon is basically an otherworldly animal). Shortly thereafter, he is forced to flee his hometown and basically stumbles upon a school for summoners. There, summoners are trained to become battlemages, so they can fight in a never-ending war against orcs.

By halfway through the book, I described it as Harry Potter* meets Pokemon, though I'll say that the demon pet aspect didn't end up being as pronounced as I expected it to be (I still wanted one of my own though). Throw in some elf/dwarf/orc stereotypes straight out of something like Lord of the Rings or even World of Warcraft, and you have this book. I personally enjoyed the way these elements came together.

Race and class warfare are a large part of what drives this book. This book of the trilogy focuses on the Fletcher learning about his newfound magic and training to compete in a tournament, the winner of which gains a coveted high officer spot in the nation's military. But being part of a larger series, it's clear that it's being set up for bigger, more important things to come.

A few downsides I want to mention--some parts of the book are a bit predictable, but plenty of it was unexpected. The biggest issue I had was with some of the writing, especially the dialog tags. Even this is a small issue overall, but characters so often "growl" their dialog, and it started to become distracting to me. There was at least one other commonly used dialog action that was strange to me, though I don't recall what it is now. Also, characters are often whispering into each others ears, even as they're walking, and I'm imagining them hanging on each other while they're talking. Again, a minor thing, but it did bring me out of the story at times.

I was very unhappy with the ending--not because it didn't make sense or didn't have every reason to happen. It does set up the 2nd book. But I didn't like where it leaves the second book to start, so after enjoying the rest, I was disappointed by the ending. However, this is not a statement of bad writing or storytelling, just something I found myself disliking. I'm still looking forward to reading the next book (which I'll come back to after reading a few other books). ( )

I seen the collection of these books in a shop for £10 and the blurb got me...but because they were in sealed package i couldnt open a random page and make full judgement of the actual writing.

So instead... I did an audible search, liked the readers voice. The sample seemed good. And used one of my horded credits on the first book Novice.

It starts out with strong Harry potter Draco vs Harry vibes (allow it.) And it did seem somewhat promising. But the story didnt have any hardships.... Everything was so simple and easy... Convenient...

The reader did a great job with his accents though and i think it was actually him that kept the story interesting.

It wasnt awful, it just wasnt..... Enough...

I do think young readers age 10 might find it more enjoyable. I love Young adult books. But i think this one fell short as it was more like an introduction to high fantasy for kids.

I wont be buying the others. ( )

I seen the collection of these books in a shop for £10 and the blurb got me...but because they were in sealed package i couldnt open a random page and make full judgement of the actual writing.

So instead... I did an audible search, liked the readers voice. The sample seemed good. And used one of my horded credits on the first book Novice.

It starts out with strong Harry potter Draco vs Harry vibes (allow it.) And it did seem somewhat promising. But the story didnt have any hardships.... Everything was so simple and easy... Convenient...

The reader did a great job with his accents though and i think it was actually him that kept the story interesting.

It wasnt awful, it just wasnt..... Enough...

I do think young readers age 10+ might find it more enjoyable. I love Young adult books. But i think this one fell short as it was more like an introduction to high fantasy for kids.

I wont be buying the others. ( )

This was...okay. It’s one of those books that started life on Wattpad and ended up getting a proper publishing deal. It’s a YA fantasy novel that plays like a mix of LOTR, Pokemon and Harry Potter. I was fine with the first two elements, but the book took a real nosedive for me when the hero went to “battlemage” school and it fell into a very cliched story of plucky young orphan versus mean rich kids. The start of the book is great fun, but overall it was one I flipped the pages on without really taking anything in. ( )