Book Review: The Battlemage by Taran Matharu

Genre(s): Fantasy / YA

Book Synopsis:

Fletcher and his classmates from Vocans Academy―including the elf Sylva and the dwarf Othello―travel through the ether, where they must pursue a mortally dangerous quest to rebuild their world and broker peace. As he leads a small army of soldiers, Fletcher will face his biggest challenge yet: his nemesis, the albino orc, Khan, who seeks to destroy everything Fletcher loves.

Review:

As far as series-enders go, this was a great one. Not only were the stakes higher than ever, but we got to see even more of this world and its counterpart, the ether. And the conclusion was absolutely perfect for this series.

I really enjoyed watching Fletcher and his friends grow and change as the series progressed. Even though most of their time together wasn’t exactly happy, there were moments when they could forget the war and the politics for a few minutes and just be. But as with the previous two books, those moments were rare, and their skills were needed in the defense of their homeland.

While we saw a glimpse of Khan, the albino orc leader, in the second book, there’s more of him in this one. While he has many of the classic “villain” characteristics—ruthlessness, rage, and a certain brand of charisma (he has thousands of orcs following him, after all)—Khan truly believes he is the chosen one who will bring an end to the war. I liked that there was some reason behind his villainy, even if that reason may have been misguided.

And then there are the other villains, the greedy, self-centered human variety that have plagued Fletcher’s story since page one. They don’t play as much of a role in this book, but I was satisfied with how their stories eventually played out.

My only minor complaint with this final book was that it suffered a bit from a slow middle section. The end made up for that though, and was well worth the wait.

The Summoner trilogy was a great story, and one I’d readily recommend.

Author website: authortaranmatharu.com