Taran Matharu

Summoner: The Outcast is a prequel to Matharu’s Summoner series. It follows Arcturus, a commoner working as a stablehand at a tavern. One night Arcturus decides to investigate a rude noble boy’s pack, planning to rob him and flee for better living conditions. Finding a roll of leather with odd writing on it, Arcturus reads the seeming gibberish aloud. And summons a wolf demon. He then promptly gets knocked out by the noble who had been returning to collect something.
When it is revealed show more that it was actually Arcturus who summoned the demon, something supposedly impossible for a commoner, he is whisked away to Vocans, the seat of Summoner training. Here, Arcturus learns the truth of his heritage, and here he begins to make friends and gain confidence. And here is where he nearly dies, as elements unhappy with a commoner among the Summoner ranks decide to effect their own change.

That's not all, either. The countryside is brewing with discontent over the King’s greed, and rebellion is in the air. When a trip to one of his noble friend’s country estates for a brief vacation ends with the group split, and trapped in the jungles the neighboring orc tribes call home, Arcturus and his friends must do every they can to reach Vocans again, and hope it's still standing once they arrive. Can they manage to thwart the rebellion before it's too late?

Confession time- I have all the Summoner books and haven't read them yet. They've been patiently waiting their turn on my massive TBR mountain. So, I decided to start with the prequel, and I loved it! This definitely has a feel similar to Stroud's Bartimaeus books, or Pullman's His Dark Materials series. Demons here are more like the daemons of Pullman, though initially summoned and bound in a fashion akin to Stroud's works. The demons are animal-like and clearly intelligent. Summoners can 'infuse’ their demons, taking the demon essence within their own body.

I really liked Arcturus as a main character. He has a good moral compass, and a good head on his shoulders. You can definitely see him grow and evolve from start to finish. Elaine, the youngest noble at Vocans, was too cute with her tiny Mite demon. I think my favourite characters were the soldiers they end up with, though. First Caulder, and Rotheram, and later Percival. These were people Arcturus understood better than the nobles, and I felt they had well-drawn personalities.

Themes of classism and racism make the backbone of the story, with several of the nobles irate over the inclusion of Arcturus at Vocans. They see it as defiling something only the nobility can do, though after the explainer we get towards how the summoner’s gift is passed along, it seems like someone else would have long ago suspected people like Arcturus exist.

The race elements are literal, with humans looking down on dwarves. This is only increased when Ulfr thinks Harold used and betrayed him. There's a lesson of how difficult change actually is. Even though Harold thought he'd won, and resolved things well, he learns it's all been a sham. I'd love to see more of this story, with these characters. And I definitely hope to read the other Summoner books soon!!

***Many thanks to Netgalley and MacMillan/Feiwel & Friends for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. show less

The Inquisition picks up a year after the previous story's end, finding Fletcher in jail, where he's been the entire year. Some life-changing events are tied up in the trial, and before we know it, Fletcher is being sent to the jungles to help lead a covert mission of rescue and destroy (not necessarily in that order). Fletcher has to work with his friends and enemies, and keep his wits about him when things aren't what they seem.

I enjoyed this book at least as much as the first book. show more Fletcher's abilities were established, and in fact had grown between books. Old friendships and rivalries came back into play, as well as some new characters to love. The race & class warfare are still there, and in the case of race warfare, even more so.

I wasn't super excited about the beginning of the book, knowing that Fletcher would be in jail, and that the people with all the power would make it very difficult for him to prove himself innocent. They did that and then some. Of course, I knew he'd either be exonerated or escape, because otherwise, there'd be no rest of the book. And with the end of his prison time came a big turn-around for his life.

The rest of the book, which was preparation for and executing of the covert mission into orc territory, was interesting and, at times, exciting. A few things happened that led me to notice that Fletcher, in both books, has a tendency to fall into a trope where good things happen to him simply because he's a nice guy. Learning important information, chance encounters, unlikely allies, things like that. I am not trying to say this is a bad trope--it never bothered me when it happened, but it was a trend I noticed.

After I finished the book, I realized there were a couple of elements that seemed to be left as loose ends. I can't say much more without spoiling them, but they didn't seem to be the kind of thing where I'd expect to see them resolved in the next book. It seemed more like the author forgot about them. Maybe they'll show up again in the future though, who knows.

There were a few things that happened near the end that are a twist of some kind. One of them I figured out early. One I kept speculating on, and turned out to be wrong. And one, the way the book ends, in fact, I did not see coming at all. Unlike the "cliffhang" from book 1 to book 2, I'm very excited to see how book 3 picks up from where this one left off. show less

I found The Novice to be very reminiscent of Harry Potter, mostly because the school setting combined with the various character tropes. The main protagonist, Fletcher, quickly makes friends with the commoner novices and the resident scions of the dwarf and elven races all the while making foes with the rich, spoiled, and bigoted noble born apprentice that is very similar to Draco Malfoy.
Beyond the similarities to Harry Potter, Novice is generally very predictable in its story arch and lacks show more any sense of Character development to deepen or expand the extremely basic character archetypes. I will say, however, that there are some cool moments involving Novices demon, but they are few and brief.
Now, from a more technical standpoint, Novices prose is, while serviceable, very basic. At best it seems to have been strung together as a means to an end, there is no artistry to it, which, in the end will sap some of the enjoyment for more experienced readers, or at least those readers with a technical mindset.
To summarize, my feelings toward Novice are generally a shrug of indifference combined with a touch of disappointment. Novice had potential, but it leans to heavily on accepted tropes to be truly enjoyable. Thus, I say just go read to Batimaeus trilogy instead, even if its you second or third reading. show less

Many years ago Jai's father, the King of the Steppefolk, was executed for rebelling against the Sabine Emperor. Now Jai lives as a royal hostage. The Emperor's son has recently been betrothed to the heir of the Dansk people, who hold the secret of soulbonding with dragons, but not everyone is happy with foreigners in court, be they Steppefolk or Dansk. Who can Jai trust, and who plots betrayal? What must he do to gain his freedom and get his revenge?

This book was fine. It didn't wow me, but show more it was fine.

Dragons! Who doesn't love dragons, am I right? It's marketed as an adult fantasy series but it feels more like YA, and the characters actions definitely feel like teenagers. The pacing was very slow for the first half, and then raced ahead in the second half without a space to breathe.

I like the soulbonding idea, but I will say the magic system felt a lot like that in Will Wight's Cradle series, with growing your core, etc. It feels almost like a direct copy rather than inspired by. I also understood the character motivations for our good guys, but the villains seemed to be bad just for the sake of it. I didn't see any motivations for them at all; what is their purpose? Even bad guys do things for a reason.

There are only four named women I noticed in this story, and they're all either helpless, die for the character, need him to save them, or are one dimensionally evil with no motivation as to why. I don't expect every female character to be a badass, because that's not realistic. But you have a lot of men who have their own agency, and zero women who do (except the one evil woman, but that means she's a strong woman, right? What more personality does she need than evil?) and that kinda sticks out a bit.

I don't mean to be entirely negative. I was really into the world building, the politics, Dansk/Sabine/Steppefolk relations, and the idea of Soulbonding with different animal types, etc. All of that has some real potential and kept my interest. But I found the characters to be bland and the plot fairly predictable, part of what made it feel more like YA than adult fantasy.

If you like YA, orphan revenge stories, and dragons, I think this is worth checking out. But if you're looking for a more adult fantasy with nuanced characters, morally gray areas, etc this may not be for you.

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Voyager for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review! show less