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Sep 28, 2009

Michael rated it:

I can't tell what was greater: how insulted or how disgusted I was by this book. Not by the content (saccharin prince with evil brother forced from his birthright... um, something about ghosts). No, the writing is, to be blunt, shit.

I have rules that I live by, that define what I believe is a good book. Want to know what they are? The opposite of everything that this book is.

Anyone here want to read about 12th century characters with 20th century values stapled to their p More...

2 comments like (7 people liked it)

May 25, 2008

Inara rated it:

I gave this book three stars but it should really be a 3,5!
"The Summoner" is the first book of the Chronicles of the Necromancer and introduces to the world of Matris Drayke (Tris), prince of Margolan and his family. Tris has always been able to communicate with ghosts and could always see them hang around all over the palace. At the day of the Feast of the Departed the ghosts are usually even more visible even to the other people but this year there seemed to be very few of the More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Mar 03, 2008

Jason rated it:

This novel was an easy read, it barely took me 2 days of casual reading to breeze though the 600+ pages. While there were some portions which impressed me (specifically the 8 faces of the goddess), much of it was unoriginal. It was fun enough to read, but failed to grab me. There were also a few major editing errors to be found.

Many folks love the book and I suggest you read it. It won't take long and you might be captivated where I was not. Simply consider borrowing before the More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 09, 2011

Amery added it

The book starts off with excitement: One reads about the murder of a beloved royal family by one of their own and the remaining son flees the premises with a group of friends as they seek refuge in other parts of the land. For a fantasy and action lover, what's not to like? However, it is because that this book starts off at a high level of excitement that makes it difficult to reach beyond that threshold in the latter parts of the book. After the first 200 pages or so the pace begins to drag pa More...

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Dec 02, 2008

Sheena rated it:

Good first novel! Regicide begins our story with Tris, the second son of the newly dead king, running for his life. Tris has always been content to take a back seat to his elder brother but now that evil is afoot he must come into his own and reclaim the throne from a tyrant and his evil cohorts. As you might guess from the title, Tris's emerging powers have to do with the spirit world, where one must walk a fine line between good and evil, power and corruption.

Meanwhile in a neig More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 11, 2011

Ithlilian rated it:

Since this is only the first in a series of books, I didn't expect too much plot development here. It was a very long introduction, that could have been much shorter and still had the same effect. This is the type of book where the characters wander from place to place, encountering some enemies along the way, picking up a few pieces of the larger picture, and then end up where they need to be. I'd like to read more of the series to find out what happens, but I have a feeling I know what happens More...

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Sep 05, 2010

Heather rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 31, 2009

Andrew rated it:

First of all this book should be burned, I am a book lover, so I do not say that lightly.

The writing is bland, no emmotional high lights or sweeping prose, a 13 year could have written this book.
The plot which revolves around a young prince who is exiled cause his big brother killed the king, and them he has to start a rebelion, all the while tying to control his powers of the dead. You can see the plot coming from miles away, the story scream GENERIC, and there is no big batt More...

4 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 19, 2012

Fred rated it:

This was a pretty good book that exceeded my expectations in a lot of ways. It was surprisingly original in terms of it's world building and the function of magic as far as fantasy goes. I love that there is he emphasis on the dead and the undead in this series and I want to learn more of the voyesh moru (spelling). I think that character development is sometimes a little bit weak, but generally the characters have developed into their own people by the end of the book even if they started as More...

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Mar 02, 2010

Crystal rated it:

I'm usually not very critical of books outside of whether I liked them or not, but The Summoner is an exception to this rule. The cover is excellent, the summary intriguing. One does not see necromancers as the good guys very often, or at all, really. With even the protagonist using what's generally considered dark/evil magic, I expected a dark, gritty fantasy.

What I read was not. In fact, it reads very much like YA. I don't know if the book was miss-marketed or what, but this is def More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Aug 29, 2011

Catrine rated it:

Oh dear. What can I really say about this book? Honestly I want to rip it apart. There's cliché after cliché after cliché after cliché, nothing is at all surprising, even for me who skimmed a lot of the book, the characters are stereotyped cardboard cut-outs, the action is predictable and feels like a video game, the prose is lacking, there is a great deal of space dedicated to events that drag out for too long and are not in any way important to plot or character building, the dialogue is chopp More...

0 comments like

Apr 15, 2010

Myth rated it:

This book was "Okay". It gets two stars for having an interesting beginning and premise, (though that all dropped off) and having a ninja-bard as a second-second character.

I wanted to something to read and, feeling cheap, I checked out the Nook's dollar store and found this among them. The premise looked interesting enough. I read a sample and it seemed like it would be okay.

I think the book starts out pretty strong. There's a too obvious gaudiness to the writi More...

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Jul 26, 2011

Ruth rated it:

"c2007: Who was the target market for this one? Certainly, not fans of the fantasy genre! Courtesy of Amazon - used because I don't think that the book is going to be memorable in itself. ""The comfortable world of Martris Drayke, second son of King Bricen of Margolan, is shattered when his older half-brother, Jared, and Jared's dark mage, Foor Arontala, kill the king and seize the throne. Tris is the only surviving member of the royal family aside from Jared the traitor. Tris fle More...

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Jun 03, 2009

Mark rated it:

Truthfully, this isn't a book...not in the stand-alone sense, anyways. It's fairly reminiscent of Stephen King's Dark Tower series, which he himself describes as sort of "one big novel spanning several books"... if you look at it in that sense, it's an excellent book.
No, there is no typical build-up, rising action, climax, denoumont, etc, if anything, the whole book itself is the "introduction-->rising action" part of the entire story.
Taken by itself, the book More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 20, 2009

Jamie rated it:

Not a very good fantasy book, overall, but it did keep me reading just enough to want to finish it, hence the two stars.

I had a lot of probelms with this book. This is the type of fantasy book that perpetuates stale stereotypes and lends to the myth that fantasy is "not smart writing", or rather that it can't contain deep issues, moral expositions, big ideas, or character development. Fantasy CAN do these things, and I would argue that it should, just like any other well-wr More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 27, 2011

QS rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 08, 2011

Aleksander rated it:

FIND THE FULL REVIEW HERE: http://alekcristea.wordpress.com/2011/08...

Published in 2007 and first of The Chronicles of the Necromancer series, written by Gail Z. Martin, The Summoner was a book I really wanted to like. Intrigued by the blurb on the back, I hoped to find within the pages an exciting quests during which Martris Drayke and his companions did all they could to regain the throne and free their land from oppression.

...

It didn’t take me long to realis More...

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Aug 18, 2011

ej rated it:

*am rereading now so that I can complete the series--it's been too long between books in this cycle

This book is fairly good if you're looking for an epic fantasy. The characters are lively and the story moves quickly, but overall, it was too easy of a read for me. However, I cannot deny that I got sucked into the novel's vortex, and recently purchased its sequel, _The Blood King_.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 13, 2009

spaz_e_girl_83 rated it:

Matris Drayke is second in line for the throne of Margolan of the winter kingdoms. As much as he doesn't want to be king, Tris knows he has to reclaim the town after his evil half brother murders the rest of the family with is vyash morue mage. On a journey with the castle's bard and two soldiers, the friends journey to Principality with a guide who's hard to beat and a group of people from a captured caravan. However, on the way, Tris has to master his power before it consumes him and be on t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 25, 2011

Misty rated it:

This book was something that a friend let me borrow to read and although I had never heard of it or the author before, the the cover intrigued me as did the title. As much as I try not to judge a book by the cover or name it really can't be helped and in the case of this book my feeling is that I was prepared for it to be much darker and intricate than it really was.

I did enjoy this story even though it was much more elementary than I expected it to be. The 600 + pages was not daunting More...

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Jun 24, 2011

Emily rated it:

So many bad reviews about this book!

I personally actually really enjoyed it. Sure the premise (King killed by "evil" son, "good" son escapes and has struggle with who he is and what he can do) isn't original, but the tale is well told.

As some others have mentioned, it's an interesting thing to see a necromancer as the good guy for once. I enjoyed seeing Tris, the main character discover more about himself and meet up with new friends along the way, get More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 13, 2011

Taylor rated it:

I tend to read in "technicolor" and am not usually a stickler for writing style and sentence structure. Gail Martin's convoluted run-on sentences and strange paragraphing / dialogue really broke the flow of the book for me. I have never had an issue like this with other authors, but found myself re-reading sentences numerous times just to figure out what she was trying to convey. This made it quite difficult to get into the book and I almost didn't finish it. The character developm More...

1 comment like

Sep 20, 2011

Chris rated it:

Nice idea, but an idea itself isn't good enough to be a great story.
I like the idea of this book...main character has to flee home, his brother wants to kill him. Check. I like a good reluctant hero, especially a good one, entwined with magic talents..
But it wasn't enough to carry me through the entire book. The main character was mildly interesting...his magic talents were a little silly (i.e. didn't make much sense), and the story wasn't packed with a solid foundation.
You can ha More...

0 comments like

Aug 08, 2011

Leo Elijah rated it:

FULL REVIEW AVAILABLE HERE: http://leocristea.wordpress.com/2011/08/...

...

The Summoner is the most boring fantasy book I have read. The most annoying, too, and certainly the most patronising. Nothing in this book keeps me interested in reading the sequel—The Blood King—and then further in the series after that. It is, in fact, The Sworn that restores a little of my faith in Martin’s ability as a storyteller. Whilst it exhibits some of the overwriting that I have a feeling More...

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May 05, 2009

Alice rated it:

I like this book, not least because it is hundreds of pages long and still has tons of plot left. A big brick of a novel like this lasts me only a few commute days, but that's longer than typical books and this one actually held my interest for most of the time. There are some skim-through parts, but the characters are interesting and the mythology of the world the author has created is quite interesting. So far, there are a few female characters that I like, but they're not as well-developed More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 02, 2012

Sebastien rated it:

J'étais au centre Laurier Québec et je disais à ma copine "j'ai envie de commencer un nouvelle série". Écoutant mon coeur je suis aller à la boutique l'imaginaire et j'ai commencer à fouiner pour trouver une série sans me fier à aucune critique internet et sans demander l'avis de personne. Je voulais juste lire des synopsis et me fier sur la couverture. He bien c'est ce qui a arrêter mon choix sur ce livre (et le suivant).

La couverture était belle, le synopsis semblait d More...

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Mar 09, 2009

Philana rated it:

The book caught my attention primarily because there were three of them and secondly because of the title (who doesn't like reading about necromancers?). I enjoyed the storyline, found elements very well thought out especially in regards to religion, but at times the progression of the action itself left me wanting. I would have loved to have seen some of the action played out a little longer, like confrontations, but maybe that's just me. I purchased all three books and read them all over th More...

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Jan 02, 2009

Paula rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Feb 19, 2010

Petra rated it:

The first few chapters I found quite painful to read, becuase they had several of the things I have been thought to avoid when it come to writing, with sentences such as "with a twinkle in the eye" and unrealistic features in apperance, and I also, I thought Tris weak. But I stuck with it and soon I found myself enjoying the story that moved forward in a fast, but not rushed, tempo. And the characters grew on me, Tris found some backbone and it was clear that he was developing during t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 28, 2011

Mome rated it:

So to start off, this book is pulp. That having been said, there is a place for this kind of book in my library. Sometimes you really want an easy read that is plot-driven, that doesn't make you think too much. This is that book. While it reads a bit like "let me write a book series about my D&D campaign" and it adheres to traditional role-playing rules somewhat slavishly (healers cannot carry swords, duh. Doesn't everyone know that?), it was a fun read, and I continued to read the More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)