The Novice by Taran Matharu

The Novice (Summoner #1) By Taran Matharu
Paperback, 384 pages
Published May 10th 2016 by Square Fish (first published May 5th 2015)
4 stars
Amazon | Barnes and Nobel | Goodread 
Goodreads Summery:
When blacksmith apprentice Fletcher discovers that he has the ability to summon demons from another world, he travels to Adept Military Academy. There the gifted are trained in the art of summoning. Fletcher is put through grueling training as a battlemage to fight in the Hominum Empire’s war against orcs. He must tread carefully while training alongside children of powerful nobles. The power hungry, those seeking alliances, and the fear of betrayal surround him. Fletcher finds himself caught in the middle of powerful forces, with only his demon Ignatius for help.

As the pieces on the board maneuver for supremacy, Fletcher must decide where his loyalties lie. The fate of an empire is in his hands. The Novice is the first in a trilogy about Fletcher, his demon Ignatius, and the war against the Orcs. 

Some fun facts about this book: 
1. It started out as a NaNoWriMo project
2. Matharu published it to Wattpad and it quickly grew to a popular phenominom with 3 million views in 6 months
3. His third book is coming out in May

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Awards: ​The Novice hasn't won any awards yet but it was (as of a few weeks ago) #4 on the childrens best seller list. As well as more recently ranked #16 on the buisness insider list of top 100 books of 2016 (#1 was Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) 


Review:
This weeks review is going to be a bit different than normal. My brother who is 10 and I both read the same book. So we both are going to give you our take on the book 20 vs. 10 year old. 
 
I give The Novice a 4/5 star rating. It took me a while to get into it, about the first seventy- five pages or so, then the charecters started to develop. I honestly didn't really like fletcher that much. I thought he was kinda whimpy, I thought Othello was a much more interesting charecter. Once he got to the school and started developing his powers I thought he was more interesting. At times I did feel like the story was a bit cliche, with the orphan train of thought. I wish the story could have had more too it. Maybe the questions will be answered in the later books. I feeling a lot could have been talked about during the time jump from the classes to the tournament. 
Over all I enjoyed the book it was a pretty fast read once I got into it, I read the last 200 ish pages in a day and a half, I just forced myself to sit down and read AKA I had a long quiet workshift so I blazed through the end. 
Some of my questions 
Will Lovett be okay?
What will happen with the Dwarves
Can I know more about the elves and thier history?
Did Fletcher ever tell his teachers about his dream??

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Aidan's Review

One of the first things he said once he realized that he could say things because I had finally read it. He had to check a bunch of times to make sure it was actually okay to talk about it lol  "I was really surprised by the ending I didn't think that, that would happen! Like Didrick and Pelt what"
"I am already 100 pages into the next book and I am really excited about the third book I need to google when it comes out." May 4th buddy May 4th 
I would definietly share with friends like right now"
5 stars 5 stars 5 stars
 And my favorie quote "Stop crying you have a really cool deamon!"

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