Novice by British author Taran Matharu is the 1st novel in his Summoner trilogy of YA student adventure fantasy, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher Hodder’s Children’s Books imprint.
This is the featured Free Book of the Week in the iTunes UK store, and is being made free to promote the newly released 3rd novel in the trilogy (which is apparently following in the footsteps of the “increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy”, since it looks like there will be a 4th novel next year. The series is set in an Empire populated by humans, elves, and dwarves, where demon-summoning is taught at a prestigious academy for the magically gifted to turn them into battlemages with companion demons, for their war against the orcs.
This installment introduces the series’ hero, a former blacksmith’s apprentice who accidentally discovers his aptitude for demon-summoning and is also incidentally chased from his village for a crime he didn’t commit, seeking refuge and training at the military academy where his fellow students and the machinations of their noble families may prove even more dangerous than staying at home would have been.
Offered in the UK & Europe & South America and selected other regions worldwide (excluding North America), available at multiple retailers. Two additional promotional prequel shorts are available in various countries worldwide (including North America).
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Free for a limited time @ Amazon Kobo, Google Play, iTunes (this appeared to only be free in the UK, and also Europe, but not anywhere else that I spot-checked, though YMMV for your own locale at assorted stores)
Two additional prequel stories are offered free as long-term introductory promotions to the series.
Origins is a novella which tells the tale of the first commoner-born student accepted to the exclusive Vocans Academy, who would later become a teacher there. It is available worldwide from both Hodder’s Children’s Books and Macmillan’s Feiwel & Friends imprint (who have the rights to this series in other markets) @ from Macmillan (North & South America & Japan) @ Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Kobo, iTunes, Google Play, eBooks.com and can be added to your library @ BookShout (online reading & in-app download) and from Hodder in the UK/Europe/other countries @ Amazon, Kobo, Google Play, iTunes
A Fine Welcome: Othello’s Journey is a short story which gives the backstory of one of the current classmates, who is the first dwarf to attend the school. It is available in selected countries from Macmillan (North & South America & Japan) @ Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Kobo, iTunes, Google Play, eBooks.com and can be added to your library @ BookShout (online reading & in-app download)
Description
Demons, magic and epic adventure – introducing the first book in the New York Times bestselling Summoner series … described as ‘Harry Potter meets Lord of the Rings meets Pokemon’.
Fletcher was 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 gruelling 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 …
