Book Review - The Novice (Summoner #1) by Taran Matharu

Originally created as a wattpad story and later published as a full fledged novel, 'The Novice' is about a young boy - Fletcher, who was abandoned by his parents right after his birth and was found by the people of a village. Now...as a blacksmith's apprentice and adopted son, he lives a difficult yet simple life in Pelt village, helping his adoptive father with his business. One day he discovers that he is a 'summoner'- one with magical ability to summon demons from another world. Due to some sudden turns of events, he then has to travel across the city with his demon friend and join military academy, where he can be trained to control his new powers. Now, as usually happens in the most of fantasy books, our MC finds himself in the middle of powerful forces and becomes the source of political conflict among the humans as well as other race.

WHY I PICKED THIS BOOK? -  'The Novice' is one of those books with awesome cover and premise, which just made me want to read this book. Both the things are so awesome, bad ass and totally right up my alley.

MY THOUGHTS

This is one YA book with lots of tropes we usually see in most of the coming of age fantasy books. We have our usual MC with no real parents, living a difficult life, suddenly finds something special about themselves and takes off to explore it more with some conflicts leaving in the trail. Then we have them in the middle of some impending war or similar and lots of political conflicts, can be civil or across different races.

Great!! this is all I usually loves in most of YA fantasy novels. It lived upto most of my expectations...but not completely!! It was 3.75 stars read for me instead of the full five stars I was expecting before going into it.

WHAT I LIKED!

• Magic System and DEMONS - I loved the whole concept of Demon Summoning, their infusion, ether and magical elements.This was my favourite part in the whole book and I absolutely adored Ignatius!
• School Setting - It was not that much to my liking, but I really liked Fletcher's dynamics with each teachers, lessons and the tournament.

• Characters -  As a protagonist, Fletcher was awesome and easy to love. I really liked his friends. though I still am on fence with Sylva, I liked other secondary characters (both good & bad).

• Taran's easy to follow writing style  - It was engaging throughout the whole book and did not feel overly descriptive.
  

WHAT I DID NOT LIKE!

• Under developed World Building - Even after finishing the whole first book and so many chapters of it.....I still do not know much about the world and its structure, there was no MAP!!!, which really bugged me. Apart from some names of few cities, I know nothing about the world!
• Lack of Action - I was fully prepared to get into some great action/adventure and lots of fast paced plot points....but it never happened!! This book was slow and underwhelming in the places I thought to be blown away with. There was action in the places I had very less interest in getting into. That was a little disheartening to see!
  

Overall, its concept and premise really makes it a solid YA read and gives us a very promising start. Really hoping to get to know more about this world and get more action in the next book. The ending was a cliffhanger and really made me want to pick the next book right away, so that is what I am going to do!

Overall Rating - 3.75 Stars!

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