Fantasy Book Review: The War Ender’s Apprentice
The War Ender’s Apprentice is the first book in the Chronicles of the Martlet series by Elizabeth Guizetti, and also the self-professed first novella by the author.
It stars three main characters. The majority of the book is in the point of view of Alana, the Martlet (third born noble elf) in House Eyreid and aging War Ender for the mysterious Guild. The story opens with her and the soon to be second protagonist Roark, her nephew, on a ship carrying slaves from her own lands. The Guild contract was simply to collect a debt, and policy dictates that she must obey the laws in the country she takes the contract in, but her oaths as a Martlet overwhelm the Guild rules in her mind, so she rescues the slaves and releases them.
Among them we meet our third protagonist, Eohan, whom Alana sees in a vision as being key to Roark’s future within their noble family. She takes him as an apprentice, and soon they’re assigned a war to end.
Without giving too much more away, the war ending portion that follows is where the novel really shines. Guizzetti’s skill as a world builder is top notch. Even though the hierarchy systems (and the politics between her various races) are complex and unique, she works enough explanation through action and character thought that I was able to follow, without having to resort to the oh-too-familiar info-dumps commonly found in epic fantasy novels. Each of her races felt specifically unique to her work, and the brief encounters with blood magic and magic involving the afterlife gave me a taste of what could potentially follow in the rest of the series.
Her non human characters also felt non-human, as opposed to being some exaggeration of human qualities or race relations masquerading as characters. This is a bugbear of mine in epic fantasy, and I’ve only seen it done right in a handful of books. This is one of them.
The e-book’s formatting was a little rough, and in some places the chapter breaks didn’t fall where they needed to, but the storytelling was compelling enough that I perked an eyebrow and moved on.
4.5/5, looking forward to the next book in the series.
