The Novice

Summoner, Book 1

By: Taran Matharu

Narrated by: Dominic Thorburn

Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's Summary

Fletcher is nothing more than a humble blacksmith's apprentice when a chance encounter leads to the discovery that he has the ability to summon demons from another world. Chased from his village for a crime he did not commit, he must travel with his demon to the Vocans Academy, where the gifted are trained in the art of summoning. 

The academy will put Fletcher through a gauntlet of grueling lessons, training him as a battlemage to fight in the Hominum Empire's war against the savage orcs. 

Rubbing shoulders with the children of the most powerful nobles in the land, Fletcher must tread carefully. The power-hungry Forsyth twins lurk in the shadows, plotting to further their family's interests. Then there is Sylva, an elf who will do anything she can to forge an alliance between her people and Hominum, even if it means betraying her friends. Othello is the first ever dwarf at the academy, and his people have long been oppressed by Hominum's rulers, which provokes tension amongst those he studies alongside. 

Fletcher will find himself caught in the middle of powerful forces, with nothing but his demon, Ignatius, to help him. As the pieces on the board manoeuvre for supremacy, Fletcher must decide where his loyalties lie. The fate of an empire is in his hands.... 

©2016 Taran Matharu (P)2016 Hodder Children's Books

Nice entangling kids mage story

The Novice, the 1st book of the Summoner trilogy is a nice mage story, with a lot of similarities to Harry Potter and those alike.
Fletcher is a young kid who get to know magic and his powers.
I liked it a lot!

Great story with nice complexity

I get so sick of the old story of the main character ending up being a secret prince or princess and not just a worthless peasant after all.
And I so over the old fashioned way of writing fantasy that gives characters all their personality traits based on their race.

It is really nice to get a modern view of humanity in a fantasy setting.
I will definitely be reading whatever books there are in this series

Cliché fantasy when it's worst.

So many cliches that you already know what's going to happen before it happens. It feels like the first book someone wrote as a fourteen-year old boy, newly familiarized with fantasy. I couldn't finish it. Can't recommend. Great performance though.

Can't wait to star on book 2

Its a good story and can't wait to hear the other Two books the only bad thing i noticed is the narrators. I dont know what to call it other than ''Mouthwater sounds'' every time he ends a sentence you can hear it. And it infuriates me. But I Will still buy the Two other books so that i can finish this amazing story. And I think of is as a mix between Summoner by Eric Vall and World of warcraft but thats just My opinion

Weak

This isn't a book for a self-respecting fantasy fan.

The plot is very predictable and drags unmercifully.
Not to mention the fact that characters and motivations are so vague that it's hard to understand what the book is acually about. There are 60h multi plot books easier to digest than this.

The only thing that is remotely passable is the voices and performance although it is a bit monotonous.

Over all I would not recommend unless you are scraping the bottom of the fiction barrel.

Awesomely executed

The narration is flawless and the book has a very compelling storyline. It is one of the better audiobooks I have listened to. However I feel some characters are somewhat two dimensional...
Overall a must have book.

Great Start!

A very good start to a promising series. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy and new and innovative magic systems! Great performance by the Narrator aswell!

Fantastic

This is a great start to what is going to be a fantastic series. There are parts of this book that remind me of Harry Potter, David A Wells and Robert Jordan / Brandon Sanderson if you like any of these then you are going to love this. The narrator isn't someone I have Hurd before but never the less does a good job. I have already got book 2.

Brilliant Audiobook

The actors voices are brilliant and the story flows really well. Thrilling, exciting and mysterious. Seriously recommend!

BRILLIANT STORY!

Really good except for a few mispronounced words - a bit annoying but that might be the OCD. Otherwise a fantastic story.

Classic light but epic fantasy world stuff

Ideal if you love The Kingkiller Chronicals, Codex Alera and Harry Potter books and need a new fix

The Summoner, Books are Fantastic

I have now read/listened to all four books, on this occasion I read/listened to them in order. However, if you wanted to you could read the Prequel 1st, then books 1, 2 & 3. The correct order is The Novice, The Inquisitions, The Battlemage then the prequel, The Outcast. Although you can read the Outcast 1st, its written to be read last, the reason i think is that although it explains lots, there is also lots of twists, which you may not get if you read it 1st.

Now, the books, fantastic characters, super story line and great twists. I read/listened to all four books in four weeks. I found the story line to be a mix of Harry Potter, meets Lord of the Rings, meets Game of Thrones.

The writer has spent a lot of time, making sure that the story flows. This along with the twists and fantastic characters, makes them a must read.

great but short

Great book, good carachters, but it seemed to be over in a blink an eye.

Great story, but variable audio quality

Loved the story, and the narration was pretty great, but it was let down with the technical quality of the recording.
The volume was variable at times, with either too-quiet or uncomfortably loud sections, and, while it might not worry everyone, often you could hear wet mouth noises as the narrator spoke! I had to grit my teeth to bear it, but it often sounded like he was too close to the microphone, and needed to have more to drink while recording! Yuck!
While it didn't ruin the audiobook, it'll make me think twice about listening to it again in the future.

pretty mediocre

the book starts off ok enough, but after a while the story loses its way and just becomes monotonous to listen to. The narration is poorly edited with a lot of line flubbs, poor pronunciation of words all over and dry delivery making it a chore to to listen to.

dropped after 4 hours.

Dope series

I have just fished your series (apart from the prequel) and think the begging is so important for a good story I’d love to write a book as good as this myself. AMAZING STORY!

music very off putting

music that plays at start and end is loud and jarring

otherwise there are no issues