Seventh Son: Book 1 and Book 2 (The Wardstone Chronicles) (Last Apprentice)

by Joseph Delaney

'Someone has to stand against the dark. And you're the only one who can.'

For years, the local Spook has been keeping the County safe from evil. Now his time is coming to an end, but who will take over?

Many apprentices have tried . . . Some floundered, some fled, some failed to stay alive. Just one boy is left. Thomas Ward. He is the last hope.

But does he stand a chance against Mother Malkin, the most dangerous witch in the County?

• ISBN10: 0062209701
• ISBN13: 9780062209702
• Publish Date: 23 December 2014
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Collins
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 704
• Language: English

Reviews

[moraa]

“I like to keep my books in my library, he said, 'and I like my library to get bigger rather than smaller.”

The writing was a chore to get through. I started this with such high hopes but 100 pages in I realised I would have to persevere for the remaining 500.

Full review to come soon, I'm too tired to think properly at the moment.

"Each breath, each beat of your heart makes you stronger, braver, better." (Mam)

Seventh Son is a bind-up of the first two books in The Last Apprentice/The Wardstone Chronicles series - The Spook's Apprentice and The Spook's Curse. Thomas Ward, the seventh son of a seventh son becomes an apprentice to a Spook and joins the fight against darkness and evil.

⛰ Seventh Son has a dark, gloomy and creepy atmosphere. There's ghasts, ghosts, boggarts and witches.
⛰ Seventh Son has two of my favourite tropes, the seventh child of a seventh child having some supernatural ability and an old, stern and lonely magical person taking on an apprentice.
⛰ The central theme in Seventh Son revolves around light and dark and good and evil. I appreciate that Seven Son shows that no one is entirely all light or all dark and that the choices that we make determine who we are.
⛰ The characters are developed and flawed.
⛰ Alice is one of the most awesome characters in Seventh Son. She's smart, flawed, dangerous and strong and she feels that the ends justify the means. She's an unpredictable and morally grey character.
⛰ I appreciate the relationship development between Thomas and the Spook. They have a teacher-student relationship but they're also friends.
⛰ I also enjoyed reading about Thomas's family and how his relationship with his family members develop.
⛰ Thomas's mother is extremely amazing.
⛰ After reading the Seventh Son, I'm interested in learning more about the Spook's past and Thomas's mother.
⛰ I enjoyed the plot of The Spook's Apprentice more than The Spook's Curse.
⛰ In The Spook's Curse, The Bane is portrayed as extremely powerful and deadly and I expected more from him.
⛰ The Spook's Curse deals with religion and I get a feeling that the negative views towards religion come from the author and not from his characters.
⛰ Seventh Son is quite sexist. However, the sexism is subverted because the female characters are powerful, dangerous and wise.

I didn't expect to enjoy Seventh Son as much as I did. I'm not in a rush to read The Spook's Secret but if it comes my way, I'll definitely give it a try.