The Novice is a book that I have heard of for the longest time and last year, I decided to read it on a whim. I was really supposed as I really enjoyed this book and I can't wait to read the rest of the series.

I have to say that even though I had a physical copy of the book, I listened to an audiobook and this was a good shout. The audiobook for a fantasy novel is quite short so it makes for easy listening and was one of the reasons why I read it so quickly.

The other credit is due to Taran's writing which makes the fantasy world easy to understand and easy to get into. The fast-paced story also allowed me to race through it as I also wanted to know what was going to happen.

The best part is also the plot. It has been described as Lord of the Rings meets Pokemon and this is something that I can agree on. The idea is that Fletcher is made a novice so his job is to catch these creatures and learn to do so.

This also adds a boarding school element to the story which was another part of why I enjoyed the book. Seeing Fletcher learn to catch the creatures and gain better skills was great to see. There was also a class system in the book which was interesting to see unfold.

The book also has a lot of action towards the end and I liked seeing it come together and unfold. He knows how to write them though as I felt like I was on the edge of my seat and just wanted to keep reading.

I loved seeing Fletcher make connections and have relationships form. Unlikely friendships often tend to be a favourite of mine and there are definitely some in this book that made me happy.

As I mentioned at the beginning, I can't wait to read the next in the series to see what happens.

The Verdict:

The Novice is an unrated fantasy story that had been lost in recent years but is still worth the read and hype.

When The Novice begins, Fletcher is a blacksmith’s apprentice in Pelt who wants nothing more than to earn enough money on market day to buy a gorgeous cloak he’s been coveting. That’s until an elderly soldier sets out his wares on the floor opposite Fletcher, claiming to be selling the journal of a summoner.

The local bully, Didric Cavell, mocks the soldier, and after Fletcher defends him in a fight the soldier gifts him the summoner’s journal. In the back of that journal he finds a summoning scroll, and after sneaking down to the local graveyard he decides to give summoning a go. Screwing up his courage, Fletcher recites the words etched into the leather… And pop, Ignatius appears!


Unfortunately, Didric and his cronies follow Fletcher to the graveyard. He gets into a scuffle with them, and Ignatius instinctively protects Fletcher by shooting a fireball at Didric. Not knowing whether his nemesis is alive or dead, Fletcher has to flee his home.

To cut a long story short Fletcher quickly finds himself in a sticky situation and is saved by a summoner called Arcturus, who sweeps him off to Vocans Academy for his summoner training to begin.

Because we are introduced to the world of summoning at the same time as protagonist Fletcher, it is very easy to get to grips with the way that everything works. For that reason alone I’d say this is the perfect series for those who are just starting to read fantasy. I always found the genre quite intimidating when I was younger, but Taran Matharu strikes the perfect balance between explaining the mechanics of his world and not handling the reader with kid gloves. Things aren’t dumbed down, and so I did find that there were a few sections of summoner lore that I needed to reread a few times just to make sure I had my head wrapped around the concept fully, but this only occurred a couple of times towards the beginning of the first book. Once you’ve got the basics under control, the rest of the series is a breeze.

However, the other reason I’d highly recommend this to fantasy beginners is the wide range of sources Taran Matharu gathers his inspiration from. The demons themselves are reminiscent of Pokemon/Digimon – in fact the entire reason I didn’t finish this book pre-release was that I kept getting distracted playing Pokemon! – while Vocans draws comparisons to a certain castle in the Wizarding World. Then there are the different races of characters (dwarves, elves, orcs) which combine the lyrical aspects of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings with the brutality of World of Warcraft. Add in Fletcher’s fashion sense, rivalling those of the cast of Assassin’s Creed, and you’ve got a mixture of elements which manage to appeal to even the most hesitant reader.

There is quite a large cast of characters in this book, but all of them become relevant to the plot at some point during the series and it’s done expertly. I did struggle to connect with some of the characters at the start because we are introduced to a lot of people very quickly – Fletcher is one of the common summoners, so we are introduced to all of the other common summoners when he arrives, but there are plenty of noble summoners who are introduced too – but as the characters grow throughout the later installments I found myself getting attached to almost all of them. That’s before we begin looking at the teachers at Vocans, of which there are a few!

Because The Novice introduces us to the world of Hominum it does have the slowest pace out of all of the books in the series. If you’ve read this book and have managed to resist carrying on with the series (to which I ask: how?! That CLIFFHANGER, man!) then I highly recommend at least trying The Inquisition, as the pace picks up dramatically.

First of all I love that publishers are recognising wattpad authors! This was an interesting book and the writing was quite good but I wasn't a major fan.

First of all, a warning: This review will be much shorter than my usual reviews because I can't think of many things to say about the book. I find it very difficult to judge this book, as I have to admit that I didn't enjoy it as much as I had wanted to. When I read the synopsis, my expectations were very high, and I think this worked against me in the end. I want to make it clear that it's not that I didn't like the book. Quite the opposite. I liked it, but it wasn't the amazing read that I had expected and the characters were not as interesting as I had wanted.

The main character was alright, but I felt he was a bit like the whole plot. Nice, ok to read about, but nobody remarkable in the end. I just couldn't get myself to care about him or his future.

I may read the rest of the series at some point in the future. Or maybe I will reread this book some other time to see if my opinion changes, as I have to admit that I'm a little bit curious to find out what happens in the other books.

If there's one thing I don't really like when it comes to reading book blurbs/synopsises it's 'this book is X meets X with X'. It's exactly what I saw with this book and for that reason, I remained sceptical that I would really enjoy this, especially as the reviews were so mixed. Nevertheless, the pop culture references that the Xs cited here were all things I've loved in the past and I have been in the mood for a new Fantasy series to get into! For me this was not the strongest beginning to the series though, even if it showed some promise.

To begin with while reading, I actually got into this a lot! I liked the pacing and the world-building, and Pelt was a fun little starter location for the big 'quest' to begin. In fact, there were a few flashes of goodness scattered throughout this book and at those points I thought that this could be a series I'd get on with. There were interesting characters, the demons were a lot of fun and the ether that they inhabit very interesting. I also liked reading some of the fight scenes towards the end. They were unique and that's hard to achieve in a fantasy book.

That being said, this book could never score above a mediocre rating for me. Firstly, Matharu's writing was a little juvenile and, at times, unedited. There were a few nice moments, but way too much in the way of badly named characters, forced dialogue, unnecessary descriptions and info-dumping. I also can't help but feel that the moment Fletcher found himself at the Academy, it was an entirely different story for a while too. I wasn't really sure about the sudden change of tone to be honest. Also, I really wasn't on board with some elements of the world-building, mostly regarding the 'demon acquisition'. Levelling them didn't really fit in too well with the fantasy elements of the book, at least, for me. I would be interested to read more of this series, mostly because I've seen better reviews for book two and my interest is mildly piqued. But if I can't get on with it, I don't think I'll be continuing with the series beyond that.