Book Review - The Novice
Labels:
book review,
fantasy,
taran matharu,
the novice,
the summoner trilogy,
YA,
young adult
·
 |
| Cover image courtesy of Barnes and Noble. |
Author: Taran Matharu
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Publication Date: May 5, 2015
Version I Read: Hardcover
Rating: 4/5
Version I Read: Hardcover
Rating: 4/5
I picked this one up on a whim because it sounded interesting, and I certainly was not disappointed. Not completely wowed, but certainly not disappointed.
The Novice tells the story of Fletcher, an orphan living in a small remote mountain town in the north of the empire of Hominum. On accident, he ends up summoning a demon, proving he has the ability to summon. On the run from a "crime he didn't commit," according to the book cover, but more like a possible murder in self-defense, he finds himself enrolled at the academy that trains adept summoners where he is bound to learn more about himself and the world around him.
Some spoilers.
The two biggest strengths of this book are the world building and the magic system. The entire system for summoning and keeping a demon is amazingly logical and thought out. The politics and players in them are likewise astonishingly well-detailed for a book like this, especially the relations between the races and the interesting cultural details about each one the author manages to squeeze into the narrative (like the dwarven women's customs being so similar to Islamic ones. It was nice to see a positive portrayal.) This book also had a rather fresh approach to elves, dwarves, and possibly even the orcs (as well as the somewhat unique inclusion of firearms), which I appreciated.
The plot is also pretty decent, especially the neat twist that even the reader doesn't know if Didric actually died or not. The opening third is the best part, but the book also ends on a high note with a cliffhanger of an ending that would bother me if it hadn't been built up. Unfortunately, while it does the school sections better than most, I have never been a big fan of magical school stories for precisely that reason. The school sections tend to be boring and drag. While they weren't as bad here because the magic system was so solid and the reader was learning along with the characters, these sections still felt tedious in places.
Most of the messages of the story are generic (don't discriminate against people based on their origin or race) but a small one near the end was noteworthy enough to be mentioned here: the dwarf Othello has a more radical twin brother named Atilla whom Othello regularly impersonated in order to keep his brother from harm. But near the end of the book, after Fletcher and co have rescued Atilla, Othello admits he was wrong because his brother rarely had a sense of consequence, and so his self-destructive behavior continued. While there's nothing wrong with protecting those you love, shielding them too much can, obviously, lead to problems and it was nice to see this book point that out.
There are some other issues. Namely, the sheer hatred everyone seems to have towards commoners being battlemages. It comes off as more shallow and stupid than usual. Medieval society or not, they are desperately fighting a war on two fronts and need everyone capable they can find. This leads to the order about not testing orphans for summoning ability because they could be bastard children of nobles (the ability is usually inherited) coming off as incredibly stupid. First, the vast majority of orphans are not going to be illegitimate nobles. Second, I'm sure plenty of those kids did end up with families who pretend to be their biological ones, so how is being an orphan such a big indicator? You're going to pass on a rare and powerful resource just because some of your nobles couldn't keep it in their pants and they don't want their honor tarnished? It was their fault in the first place! The racism towards the dwarves and the elves works a lot better, in spite of the fact that it's been done to death. But can we start exploring some other issues in our fantasy, please?
The characters are mostly hits with some misses. For being as many as there are, they all do have their places and are relatively well-developed. Fletcher, Captain Lovett, Othello, Sylva, Sereph, and to a lesser extent Atilla and Arcturus are all badasses. On the flip side, most of the other students at the academy don't get to do much (I was expecting both Genevieve and Rory to have more of a front and center role, and I think it was interesting that the author decided to have Sylva, Othello, and Fletcher be the power trio instead.) The villains, however, are downright irritating in their simplicity, especially Didric and Rook. At least Isadora and Tarquin have some sort of motivation, but it doesn't make them three-dimensional characters. All of the villainous characters' lack of any sort of depth or being anything other than obnoxious bullies is quite jarring compared to the excellent thought the author put into the world, the magic system, and the rest of the characters. Hell, it even looks like the orcs might not be everything they seem.
Last but not least, the book would have greatly benefited from a character list and world map.
Neither Karen Lofgren nor Loyalty Press has any affiliation with the author or publisher. This review constitutes Fair Use.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment