Alas, I didn't have time to finish this book. Other books were finding favor over this one. It's pretty basic, possibly a good choice for a teen who plays D&D or wants a Potter-esque novel of an orphan being accepted into a magic school with demons and being the best of the best.

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 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.

this was definitely an entertaining read, even if the cliffhanger was rather rude... (I only joke... kind of). I would've loved to learn more about the demons, they were interesting.

An enjoyable and engaging YA fantasy debut. It reads like Tolkien crossed with Harry Potter for the YA crowd, and it definitely isn't a bad thing! The story follows the young blacksmith apprentice, Fletcher, who discovers he can summon demons and trains as an summoner to fight in a war against invading orcs. The story is fast-paced and the characters are likable and interesting. A good choice for younger YA readers looking for an action-packed new series to get into!

I read this book for the first time 4 years ago and gave it four stars.

A more detailed review to come.

2.5/5 stars.

I liked some of the world-building ideas (demons almost being like pokemon), but it reads a bit too generic as far as story beats go. The main character also seems like lack emotion/flaws which makes him hard to relate to.

I was a bit confused by this. On the surface it's right up my alley but I felt so overwhelmed by the amount of exposition here that it was really killing my ability to enjoy this book. I get that it's the first in the series, and the magic system seems really complex, but it seemed complicated to the point of being ridiculous. If you asked me to explain how anything worked there I doubt I'd be able to do it.

I really think the story suffered for having to be the one to set up every subsequent book in a series, and I wish authors knew that they don't necessarily have to do that. You don't need to lay it all out there. That's what an appendix is for. Or what a guidebook or a wiki is for. The first time I read LotR I sat there with my Middle Earth guidebook in one hand, just in case I needed it, and the book in the other. If an appendix is good enough for the grandaddy of all fantasy epics, then it's good enough for the Summoner series too. There is an appendix in the book, btw, but it's just one listing all of the demon species, which are so obviously named that I'd be surprised if any adults in the room don't get them right off the bat....but technically it's a kids book and they might not so that's okay. I think as an adult that reads loads of YA I'm spoiled for the really mature YA (like the Folk of the Air or ACOTAR, neither of which is really true YA imo, but I digress). It's really easy to forget that kids are supposed to be reading these books and get pissed off when the narrative comes off as really juvenile.

In any case, some things that stood out to me (for good or ill):
- The relationship between Fletcher and Ignatius. And just Ignatius. I'm a sucker for cute little animal sidekicks.
- The magic system - it seemed overly complicated at times, and way too reliant on inanimate objects (like special crystals and pieces of leather...guess I like my magic a little more organic) but it was interesting.

Spoiler

And I really loved what Fletcher did with the tattoo and the scrying crystal at the end...though that made me want to effing laugh at picturing all of the other battle mages holding big rocks up to their heads when they need to scry or something.

- Chapter endings were SO AWKWARD. And it really really really bothered me. I mean they ended so randomly some times and so suddenly that I was wondering why things were even being split up into chapters. I'm used to some sort of denouement at a chapter end, so it was extremely off-putting....I have no idea if that had anything to do with the fact that this was a Wattpad story first. Never read anything on Wattpad, but if someone is posting stuff in bits and pieces and then sort of lumping everything together in a book when they're done I could see how it might affect things. There was just no flow with the chapters and it felt kind of choppy and sort of took me out of the story at times.
- Also the Pokemon and Harry Potter influences here were so heavy handed that it was distracting at times. I'm not the first person to have made this observation, and I know HP in itself borrows from lots of other stuff, as do most modern fantasy books, but sheeeeeeeeeeeeeesh it just could not get any more obvious. Here's my mental list made flesh: Fletcher = Harry, Ignatius = Hedwig, Arcturus = Lupin, Rook = Snape, Tarquin = Draco, Isadora = Pansy Parkinson; Infusing/summoning demons so obviously like using Pokeballs that I expected Fletcher to be like "Ignatius, I choose YOU!" half the time.
- Fletcher is a cool kid, and I enjoyed the dynamic between him and dwarf friend Othello, but the dialogue felt super-stilted at times. It didn't seem like the author maybe understood how real people speak to each other? Not sure if that makes sense, but it was just awkwarrrrrrrrd.

In closing, I didn't totally hate this, but it didn't live up to my expectations. However, I will say this - we've seen loads of examples where the first book in a series is trash (Throne of Glass comes to immediate mind) but the series improves markedly as it goes along. It's for that reason that I'm not willing to throw in the towel on this series entirely until I've read at least through book 2. Writers mature, people change, so if we're looking at a series it's worth sticking with it for a little bit more. Also, I think the kiddies will absolutely love this. In fact, I know they do, because my husband brought the books into his 6th grade class after he was finished with them and the kiddos went crazy borrowing them. Anything that gets kids excited about reading and about BOOKS is already markedly better than any video game or electronic doohickey out there. I just wonder if they might skew a little too juvenile for me to personally enjoy them....because I'm so, like, mature and grown up and stuff :-P