The Novice

Gr 7 Up—Fletcher, 15, an orphan raised by a blacksmith in the Hominum Empire's northern village of Pelt discovers he has the ability to summon demonic creatures in this exciting fantasy trilogy opener. After Fletcher and Ignatius, his ferretlike demon, attack the local bully, Fletcher is forced to flee his village. Through a chance encounter with a mage, Fletcher finds himself attending an academy for battle mages. Trained mages are needed in Hominum's ongoing war with the orcs and in the armed truce against the elves. At the Academy, Fletcher, a commoner, endures scorn from the more skilled second-year students of noble birth, especially a pair of snobbish twin siblings, who are particularly cruel to Sylva, the elf chieftain's daughter, and the dwarf Othello. Dwarves are despised and treated as second-class citizens by many humans in Hominum. Their studies culminate in a year-end tournament that determines their student rankings and the opportunity for a senior military position. Fletcher and his small group of allies also become involved in a plot that threatens all of Hominum. This debut's similarities to J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" books, Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" (Knopf), and J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" (Scholastic) (the novel even has a nasty professor with a prejudice against commoners and other races) are unmistakable, but readers won't mind. Fletcher's a sympathetic character whose impulsive behavior leads him to make understandable mistakes.