Recently, I have finished reading The Last Apprentice Wrath of the Bloodeye, it is a 448 paged fantasy book by a british author named Joseph Delaney, he is a not very famous author but he is indeed a very good one. I have 5 books so far in his series The Last Apprentice and all of them were very good. He mainly writes books about science and when he can he writes fantasy books.

 

    Delaney was born in 1945 and grew up in a very small town in Preston, Lancashire, England. He attended the prestigious Regent House Grammar School in Newtownards, Northern Ireland, and went to a catholic college. He had a plentiful of jobs he worked as an apprentice engineer and fitter. He eventually became an English Teacher at the blackpool sixth form college. Finally he then decided on becoming an author and then publishing his first book in the Last Apprentice Series in 2004 also known as the Wardstone Chronicles. His books have sold over 1 million copies to amazon.

 

  This book more or less relates to young teenaged boys because almost all of the characters are teenagers throughout the story including the main character. The book may seem complex at times but trust me once you get a good grasp of the situation in the story you catch on pretty quickly and it no longer becomes a struggle to comprehend what is happening. Also as you keep reading the books they become a little bit more confusing which only happens in some parts of the book. As the series continues on the books tend to become thicker. Once you start to enjoy reading the book and can’t put the book down the pages will start turning quickly. The book is very exhilarating and is always leaving you with cliffhangers leaving the reader wanting to read more until the wait is finally over and the author leaves you with another cliffhanger leading into the next book. If you like fantasy books this series is perfect for you because after reading 5 of the books in the series it never ceased to excite me and never disappoint. Which is why the series is so good. There are 12 books in the series each one better than the last.

 

     Thomas J Ward is a young lad who is the seventh son of a seventh son which means he has a special gift that only seventh sons of seventh sons can acquire. Not only that, he has also gotten a gift from his mother who is a lamia witch, which makes him even more special. He has spent two years as the Spook’s apprentice and has already been thriving in his new occupation. He’s faced unimaginable dangers, and survived. But a new danger has come to light: an ancient water witch, Bloodeye, is roaming the County intending on destroying everything in her path. To strengthen his skills, before facing the putrid creature Tom is sent to the far north to train with one of John Gregory’s previous apprentices… the demanding Bill Arkwright. Arkwright lives in a haunted mill on the edge of a treacherous marsh, and his training methods prove to be unorthodox and sometimes cruel. Will Tom’s new tricks and skills be enough to defeat the bloodeye or will a critical mistake leave him confronting Bloodeye on his own?

   If I to compare this book to a series similar to this I would compare it to The Ranger’s Apprentice because they are practically the same thing only by different authors both the books have teenaged protagonists that require them to make unbelievably difficult hardships in order to do what they believe is right and doing what’s right isn’t always the best thing to do. I would also relate the two because they are both page turners filled with suspense, cliffhangers, both involve being apprentices, meeting new friends along the way and having a multiplicity of books in their series. Another reason as to why I would compare it to The Ranger’s Apprentice is because the audience of the two books are very similar. The audience is generally teenaged boys and like the Last Apprentice it can be finished fairly quickly. They both do not require for you to have a very high lexile in order to comprehend the book completely. I noticed/liked how the author tended to make very obscure problems for the main character to have to solve and figure out not only that he makes it much more difficult for them by then adding little side problems, for the main characters so the side problems could seem as though they were a piece of a puzzle or code that could all lead up into the biggest problem for them to solve and the main character almost as if the entire book is a riddle of the main character and reader to solve. The protagonist had to make very careful and intellegente decisions or else the consequences might be fatal for if he makes one silly mistake someone’s life could end. I was surprise when the author killed off so many crucial characters because when a new character is introduced either they are rarely if at all mentioned throughout the book or killed off also when writing a book you tend to keep the characters close to the main character but I also liked how he did his becuase it isn’t something you see every often in books which makes this series more unique compared to other ones.

Finally I really enjoyed one of the passages of the book which was “The leg of a water witch would be even better,” he said. “You might get to try it before your six months is up.” My jaw dropped and I stared at him in astonishment. He ate witches? This passage is about Bill Arkwright, Tom’s trainer on killing water witches. You can see from the passage that he has a perverse sense of humor because evidently he may or may not need to make the decision on whether or not he eats them. This series is chock full of passages similar to this one that is why this book similar to the other books in this series will be one that I will remeber reading fondly. I am glad that I read it and I hope I can persuade someone to read this very good serious.