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schaffyd's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.0
anthonysimon99's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
taseenmuhtadi's review
2.0
I must say I didn't find this book particularly interesting. The characters weren't fully fleshed out. And the story was rushed and patchy.
I've read the Wardstone Chronicles and loved that series. I know most of the characters, but in this book they didn't come accross as well thought-out. And the new enemy wasn't all they were being made out to be. The story didn't make a great deal of sense.
Spoiler
Throughout the previous series Spook Gregory and his apprentice Tom went further and further from regular spook's business and actually went to open war; but it fit-in in context of that series. In this series Grimalkin basically manipulates Tom, now the Chipenden spook, into joining a war. Considering what I know of characters from previous series, neither characters were likely to do that or let it happen.The book has another major flaw. It says you don't have to know the previous series to read this book, but this book was full of flashbacks and references to the Wardstone Chronicles that would make a new reader feel out of place. I didn't like the flashbacks and references even though I've read the Wardstone Chronicles; they just weren't done properly. So overall, this new entry was not up to the mark of Joseph Delaney's preceding series.
nina_bloodsworn's review
5.0
I really liked this Sequel of the Wardstone Chronicles.
If you were a fan of these you should definitely continue reading.
Can't wait for "The Dark Army" ...
If you were a fan of these you should definitely continue reading.
Can't wait for "The Dark Army" ...
aly36's review against another edition
5.0
I loved the Last Apprentice series so I'm so glad to be able to see what happens next to Tom Ward. In this book Tom Ward is a Spook, taking over where his master left off. Tom takes on his own apprentice, a girl. That is unheard of! But she is a 7th daughter of a 7th daughter, why not a girl? I enjoyed this book very much and loved getting back up with Tom Ward and his world of things that go bump in the night. If you enjoyed the Last Apprentice series or enjoyed The Seventh Son movie, you should check out this great collection of books in this series and please check this book out as well. You won't be disappointed! I love them all!
cnohero's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
the_fabric_of_words's review
5.0
YA Review. This is not an MG series. My son and daughter both recommend it for teens / high school, due to some of the scary / frightening images and the amount of gore.
Thomas Ward was a Spook's apprentice in Chipenden, but his mentor is killed (before the book starts, in another series, so if you like this one, there's a whole other set of books to explore) and he's left to muddle on without him, learning as he goes.
But his mentor's books were destroyed in a fire, so when a creature begins attacking people from the village, he's not sure what it is or how to combat it. Compound that with a young girl, Jenny, who shows up asking to be his apprentice (not realizing he's barely able to cope as it is), and the fact that Thomas buried the Starblade, the only weapon effective against this creature, in his mentor's grave, and it's a recipe for disaster.
A witch named Grimalkin comes to help, or so Thomas and Jenny believe, but she's got an agenda of her own -- fighting the coming army of these creatures, called Kobalos, which want to wipe us out. Of course, her experiments might do the job for them, if Thomas and Jenny can't kill the creatures she sets loose.
I won't spoil the ending, just know it's gruesome in the middle and it doesn't end well for Thomas. There's not even a hint of romance between Thomas and Jenny, although both are full of angst, for their own (backstory) reasons.
Visit my blog for more great middle grade book recommendations, a few YA book recommendations, free teaching materials and fiction writing tips: http://amb.mystrikingly.com/
Thomas Ward was a Spook's apprentice in Chipenden, but his mentor is killed (before the book starts, in another series, so if you like this one, there's a whole other set of books to explore) and he's left to muddle on without him, learning as he goes.
But his mentor's books were destroyed in a fire, so when a creature begins attacking people from the village, he's not sure what it is or how to combat it. Compound that with a young girl, Jenny, who shows up asking to be his apprentice (not realizing he's barely able to cope as it is), and the fact that Thomas buried the Starblade, the only weapon effective against this creature, in his mentor's grave, and it's a recipe for disaster.
A witch named Grimalkin comes to help, or so Thomas and Jenny believe, but she's got an agenda of her own -- fighting the coming army of these creatures, called Kobalos, which want to wipe us out. Of course, her experiments might do the job for them, if Thomas and Jenny can't kill the creatures she sets loose.
I won't spoil the ending, just know it's gruesome in the middle and it doesn't end well for Thomas. There's not even a hint of romance between Thomas and Jenny, although both are full of angst, for their own (backstory) reasons.
Visit my blog for more great middle grade book recommendations, a few YA book recommendations, free teaching materials and fiction writing tips: http://amb.mystrikingly.com/
woolfardis's review
1.0
Just not for me. There were odd phrases and grammatical errors (or purposes?) that jarred the flow. Also never a fan of first person narrative, especially in YA. A shame, since the theme of ghouls etc is something I am interested in. May try others in the series to be doubly sure.
bookfessional's review against another edition
2.0
9/30/17 - ON SALE for $1.99:
http://amzn.to/2eVPtYd
Reviewed by: Rabid Reads
When I saw this book available for review, I leapt at it. I’ve been meaning to start Delaney’s The Last Apprentice series forever, but was, once again, daunted by the number of installments (13, not including the various bonus stories).
In A NEW DARKNESS, I thought I’d found the perfect solution—I’d get to see what all the Delaney fuss was about without having to commit to another long-running series.
I was so very, very wrong.
I know I don’t pay enough attention to blurbs. It’s a problem, and I own it. But this time . . . this time, I’m almost positive that I did read it, b/c I specifically didn’t want to request A NEW DARKNESS if it was a continuation of the previous series (b/c OCD).
Whatever. The current, just-before-publication blurb, clearly states that it is, in fact, a continuation, but that no prior knowledge is necessary to read and understand this book. And maybe that’s true . . . I’m not sure if what I was feeling while I was reading this was confusion or frustration, b/c whether I needed to have read The Last Apprentice was kind of irrelevant to me . . . b/c I wanted to have read it.
Half of the book was throwbacks/mentions/this-one-times from the other series, and while we were given enough information for it to make sense, it was painfully obvious that there was more going on that was flying right over our heads.
I don’t like feeling ignorant. I would even go so far as to say that I HATE feeling ignorant.
I felt ignorant the entire time I was reading this book.
So that was a problem. Another problem was that I felt like I was reading an historical accounting of the events in the book . . . but in real-time? Which was strange . . . but the feeling made more sense when right before the first POV change, a point was made by the character that they were writing everything down in a journal.
But while, in theory, reading someone’s journal may sound highly entertaining and full of juicy tidbits, in reality . . . unless you know the person incredibly well (your sister, your girlfriend, etc.) . . . it’s really not.
As for the characters, not only did I feel like I didn’t know them very well, but I didn’t particularly like them either. I’m guessing that Tom Ward is the last apprentice, and Grimalkin seems like an immensely interesting character, but yeah . . . in this one book . . . not enough development to make a lasting impression. And without context, Grimalkin just comes across as the scheming, manipulative witch that Jenny fears she is. Jenny . . . I initially liked her, but as the story progressed, she became more and more judgmental, and more and more surly. She badgered Tom into taking her on as his apprentice, but then she does nothing but second guess him, and complain about his instruction.
And the new enemy . . . this is a personal peeve of mine, so it probably won’t bother you unless you share my peeve, but I’ve never been a big fan of humanized animals as characters.
And it probably has something to do with going to see Guardians of the Galaxy a couple of weeks ago, but when this “new darkness” was on the page, all I could see in my head was an evil version of Rocket. I think the Kobalos are supposed to be more wolf or fox-like, but yeah . . . Rocket. *shrugs* Even if I could force myself to see beyond that, I’d still be seeing something pretty awful:
Any WoW players out there? Say hello to your friendly neighborhood kobold. *shudders*
And don’t even get me started on that cliffhanger. I wasn’t even that invested in the story, and I wanted to throttle someone.
So yeah . . . if you’re a longtime fan of the series, I’m sure A NEW DARKNESS is an excellent addition to your well-loved world. But if you’re thinking of using this book to take the easy road to exploring the widespread fascination with Joseph Delaney . . . you might want to think again.
Pre-review:
Dat ending. RTC.
http://amzn.to/2eVPtYd
Reviewed by: Rabid Reads
When I saw this book available for review, I leapt at it. I’ve been meaning to start Delaney’s The Last Apprentice series forever, but was, once again, daunted by the number of installments (13, not including the various bonus stories).
In A NEW DARKNESS, I thought I’d found the perfect solution—I’d get to see what all the Delaney fuss was about without having to commit to another long-running series.
I was so very, very wrong.
I know I don’t pay enough attention to blurbs. It’s a problem, and I own it. But this time . . . this time, I’m almost positive that I did read it, b/c I specifically didn’t want to request A NEW DARKNESS if it was a continuation of the previous series (b/c OCD).
Whatever. The current, just-before-publication blurb, clearly states that it is, in fact, a continuation, but that no prior knowledge is necessary to read and understand this book. And maybe that’s true . . . I’m not sure if what I was feeling while I was reading this was confusion or frustration, b/c whether I needed to have read The Last Apprentice was kind of irrelevant to me . . . b/c I wanted to have read it.
Half of the book was throwbacks/mentions/this-one-times from the other series, and while we were given enough information for it to make sense, it was painfully obvious that there was more going on that was flying right over our heads.
I don’t like feeling ignorant. I would even go so far as to say that I HATE feeling ignorant.
I felt ignorant the entire time I was reading this book.
So that was a problem. Another problem was that I felt like I was reading an historical accounting of the events in the book . . . but in real-time? Which was strange . . . but the feeling made more sense when right before the first POV change, a point was made by the character that they were writing everything down in a journal.
But while, in theory, reading someone’s journal may sound highly entertaining and full of juicy tidbits, in reality . . . unless you know the person incredibly well (your sister, your girlfriend, etc.) . . . it’s really not.
As for the characters, not only did I feel like I didn’t know them very well, but I didn’t particularly like them either. I’m guessing that Tom Ward is the last apprentice, and Grimalkin seems like an immensely interesting character, but yeah . . . in this one book . . . not enough development to make a lasting impression. And without context, Grimalkin just comes across as the scheming, manipulative witch that Jenny fears she is. Jenny . . . I initially liked her, but as the story progressed, she became more and more judgmental, and more and more surly. She badgered Tom into taking her on as his apprentice, but then she does nothing but second guess him, and complain about his instruction.
And the new enemy . . . this is a personal peeve of mine, so it probably won’t bother you unless you share my peeve, but I’ve never been a big fan of humanized animals as characters.
And it probably has something to do with going to see Guardians of the Galaxy a couple of weeks ago, but when this “new darkness” was on the page, all I could see in my head was an evil version of Rocket. I think the Kobalos are supposed to be more wolf or fox-like, but yeah . . . Rocket. *shrugs* Even if I could force myself to see beyond that, I’d still be seeing something pretty awful:
Any WoW players out there? Say hello to your friendly neighborhood kobold. *shudders*
And don’t even get me started on that cliffhanger. I wasn’t even that invested in the story, and I wanted to throttle someone.
So yeah . . . if you’re a longtime fan of the series, I’m sure A NEW DARKNESS is an excellent addition to your well-loved world. But if you’re thinking of using this book to take the easy road to exploring the widespread fascination with Joseph Delaney . . . you might want to think again.
Pre-review:
Dat ending. RTC.
landscapesofink's review
4.0
This was a pretty good book! Not the best but it did have a big shock lol. Second time around reading it, and I'm pleased I did decide to give it a re-read, as I didn't really remember much from the first time around.
I'm so happy Joseph Delaney decided to write another series set in the County with the denizens of the dark too. I hope this series it gonna be just as good. It seems to be a little more complicated, so I need to pay more attention, but it's still so good.
Something that he did differently this time was writing it in two POVs so I could get two different takes on the same event. Really awesome. :D
Feeling really lazy so that's gonna be my review haha.
I'm so happy Joseph Delaney decided to write another series set in the County with the denizens of the dark too. I hope this series it gonna be just as good. It seems to be a little more complicated, so I need to pay more attention, but it's still so good.
Something that he did differently this time was writing it in two POVs so I could get two different takes on the same event. Really awesome. :D
Feeling really lazy so that's gonna be my review haha.