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Apprentice

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All Tari has ever wanted is to become a librarian of the Archive of Ink and Soul. She has the drive and the ability to make that dream come true, but also an unwavering love for learning that could guarantee her success through an exhausting four-year apprenticeship.

One archaic law is all that stands in her way.

Tari is not a natural-born citizen of the magical world she lives in, and to most, that would be enough to keep her from dedicating her life to the Archive. But after years of preparation and deception, Tari has everything she needs to make her dreams a reality, including an acceptance letter welcoming her as an apprentice librarian.

Tari has a plan.

Enter the world of the After, where book characters from our world go once their stories are over, as one young librarian risks her future for a chance at happiness. To make it through her apprenticeship, Tari must keep her true identity a secret by not only lying to those she loves, but betraying the very thing she has sworn to protect.

185 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 28, 2017

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Patricia Thomas

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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
13 reviews1 follower
May 12, 2017
This book and the universe is one big missed opportunity.

Firstly the main character is interesting and likeable, but the book lacks an antagonist. It doesn't have one. Nothing actually happens, it's like Harry Potter without Voldemort, the Slytherins and any monsters, just Harry going to school in Hogwarts.

Secondly, the universe has so much potential that is completely wasted. If in the world of literary characters the protagonists come to a life when the books end, so shouldn't the antagonists of those books, too?????? Bringing in all their hate, greed and evil intentions with them when they wake up in the After?

The "After" should have regular zombie infestations, evil alien invasions, outbreaks of infectious vampirism and werewolfism, dangerous religious cult groups, murders, rapists, ghosts, evil monsters of all kinds lurking in the dark, in short, everything that human authors have thought up as antagonists should show up in the After.
And the librarians should have the task to view newly incoming books for impending threats and recruit characters and offsping with suitable talents in magic, futuristic technology and military skill to fight the evils that spill out of that literature. They should organise a police and military force to keep the inhabitants safe from those, regulate potentially dangerous or annoying character traits like vampirism, regulate the parts of the after dedicated to erotic literature and it's characters.

How about the Librarians recruiting and dispatching a bunch of Scifi heroes to eliminate the threat of an evil, sorcerous dragonrider. How about having to recruit superhero characters to eliminate z0mbie outbreaks. How about regulating the influence of a bdsm themed part of the After accessible to the curious but rather innocent characters of the historical romance section. How about vampirism that is transmitted through bite spreading through the population.

Another problem, in the historic novel section there should be dozens of different "interpretations" of a ton of historical figures. Like 50 Julius Cesars, 100 Mata Haris, a few Hitlers etc. How do they get along when they meet in their themed corners of the After? Do the Hitlers all gang up to try to take over their portion of the After? And who would the Librarians send keep them from taking over the whole After, trying to purge it from all inferior non aryan inhabitants?

And if you are an inhabitant of the After and you read a novel you like, wouldn't you be tempted to go and meet che characters? I definitely would!

So many possibilities for interesting antagonists, cool administrative positions for the Librarians, interesting things to do and people to meet.

All wasted, unfortunately.

If the author reads this! Please go back, thinks the cool universe you created through to it's logical conclusion and use it to it's full potential, which is quite amazing. And then take the character and the universe and start writing the story from scratch.
Profile Image for Karsyn .
2,365 reviews44 followers
August 4, 2019
Received from NetGalley

I liked this book. It wasn't the best thing ever and it moved REALLY quickly (the book covered 4 years and is short) but I liked it. I'm saddened there isn't more. The world is unique and done well, for as short as the book was and the characters were likable. It felt like there could be so much done there, but I guess since it wasn't received well, other than one other book no more was done with it? It's a shame because it was cute and entertaining. I would have read more.
Profile Image for ☘Tara Sheehan☘.
580 reviews23 followers
March 17, 2017
If you’re looking for a REALLY QUICK read then this book will fit your needs perfectly because it’s roughly 125 pages so you’ll get it done while waiting at your next doctor appointment. The term ‘fast paced’ was made for novels like this as you’ll be racing through time in the character’s world so quickly you’ll risk whiplash going through the twists and turns of the story.

It’s only the first in a new series so it’s not written to give you a full view of the characters, their motives, psyche or provide some big moment where you’ll connect. Instead it feels it was meant to just whet your appetite, give you a small taste of what is to come particularly so you’ll be willing to check out the much larger world she’s building; go to her website lifeintheafter.com and sign up for her newsletter to stay informed and check out the first book in the companion series for a larger view.

She has an interesting concept, it reminds me a bit of something Marissa Burt did years ago with her two book series where you get to follow what happens to the characters outside of what we as readers see on the pages of a book. It was nice to see librarians painted as something other than little old ladies out of touch with the world, no offense to little old lady librarians intended by the way. So it kind of had this flair I’ve seen before in the TNT show The Librarians who are portrayed more Indiana Jones like which is probably why I was drawn to checking this story out.

As a fantasy novel, in case you didn’t get that from the synopsis that used the word ‘magic’ in it, your idea of realism will have to be suspended as you slowly learn what the rules for this world are and it’s going to take a while to get a full grasp on what those are because, if you remember from what I said earlier, the author didn’t fully develop all of her world or the characters in this book. This is one of those times where you’re going to be in for the long haul and will need to withhold final judgement until more of the books are released.

Patricia Thomas seems to be trying to do something big here and this book is only giving you one tiny piece of it. If you’re part of the Netflix binge generation then you may need to wait until more of the series is out or you’re going to feel frustrated and might react negatively to this right now whereas if you have more at your disposal your view would change.

I did like that it’s in first person so you get more of a feel for what the main character, Tari, is going through. She seems to have this innate need to protect those around her from busting out her first aid knowledge to hiding poor decisions and questionable behavior done under the influence of alcohol to minimize the damage that could come from judgmental authority figures.

As she’s constantly trying to maintain a façade and hide her past her psychological development wavers and changes depending upon who she is with which is an accurate reflection of someone who is trying to be liked while maintaining a lie to those who she’s come to care about. I felt Thomas did a good job showing the war Tari’s personality and psychological development is having with itself as she has to hide the experiences she’s accumulated lest she’s found out.

I plan on reading the other book she’s written in the companion series and follow her work so I can see where she’s going to take this series as my curiosity has been piqued.
1,065 reviews69 followers
March 21, 2017
'Apprentice' suffered from the same problem as the musical 'Fame': it squashed a four-year period of character and relationship development into a very short space of time, to the point where it was difficult to know why I was supposed to care about any of them or to engage on an emotional level. The book is barely 150 pages, which means it races through, covering a year in the space of a few pages, and while this prevented it from becoming boring, it also made it hard to get into any depth.

This book features a magical library (a little bit like The Invisible Library, but different) in a world populated by fictional characters living lives after and outside of their original stories (a bit like The Eyre Affair, but not). That concept was very cool, and the nature of the library means being a librarian is presented as badass and hard work, which as a librarian, I'll always appreciate.

However, I think the concept was the strongest thing about this book, as I didn't really engage with the writing style -- partly due to the extreme rapidity with which events unfolded -- and the characters mostly fell flat for me, as they seemed somewhat unconvincing.

One of my biggest issues was that the main character was supposedly 27, but she didn't feel it at all, in voice or tone or behaviour. The setting probably contributed to this: she's an apprentice, and the school-like environment and references to studying are always going to give off a college vibe. However, the way she behaved around other people, her general voice, and the fact that when there is an alcohol-induced mishap she won't admit to the presence of alcohol (she's 27, I'm sure no one cares!) made her feel a lot younger -- more like 17 than 27. Okay, so I'm 21 and I might not be the best judge, but I don't know, it kept throwing me off and it undermined her as a character, which was unfortunate as she was the most developed of the cast.

On the whole, this was an interesting book but it didn't quite live up to the expectations created by its premise, and so was therefore a bit disappointing.
Profile Image for Chloe Smith.
104 reviews8 followers
March 31, 2017
All reviews can be found at https://thereadinglodge.wordpress.com/

Following our main character, Tari, Apprentice is about a world called the After where book characters come once their stories have been written out. After wouldn’t be around without all the stories from the Before (Earth) and Tari, being a first generation character (not born from storybook characters but wished into the world) is hoping to become a librarian at the Archives where every story ever written is held.

Apprentice screamed out to me immediately as soon as I saw it was about books. I cannot get enough of books about books however, this one did disappoint. The whole concept of the novel was one I found intriguing but I felt like Thomas did not expand on the world itself or the Archives. We are told that the bestselling books can influence the world of After bringing new and exciting changes to the world, and we are told very little about the Archives except that they hold all of these books and that there are different “orders”, or factions, within this massive library that do different jobs. With Tari being an apprentice, I was hoping to learn more about the lessons she embarked upon and get more detail about these different orders. This didn’t happen.

Apprentice literally fits the entirety of four years worth of Tari’s life into a miniscule amount of pages. I didn’t feel like we got to know the characters properly, and we definitely didn’t get to find out more about the world around Tari. For example, Thomas touches upon the fact that Tari walks in on two lesbian characters, brings it up slightly a few pages later and then just leaves it. Yes, this is a sure sign that Tari doesn’t care what sexuality her friends are, but I was hoping for a bit more to the discovery – there wasn’t really any surprise!

Furthermore, the ending was disappointing and completely at odds to a story that could progress further. Tari goes through all this trouble to become a librarian at the Archives only to throw it all away by giving away her secret. And she’s completely fine with this?! This ending really set my opinion in stone and, though I did enjoy the interactions Tari had and the concept of the novel, it could have been a lot stronger was there more character development, more emphasis on what Tari was doing at the Archives, more time spent on her friendly/unfriendly rivalries, and more information about the world of After. I was expecting for some scandal or conflict to get in the way but the only conflict was an internal one she was scared of people knowing about that eventually, she didn’t overcome as she gave in!

I don’t personally see how this novel can progress forwards when she has already lost her one opportunity to do her dream job and she let it go so easily. I can understand that she didn’t want to lie to people, but you would think that she would fight a bit harder for something like this.
Profile Image for Laura Newsholme.
1,282 reviews8 followers
March 28, 2017
This is the kind of book that makes me a little bit sad. The concept of this book is a really good one. There is a world that exists called the After into which all literary characters go when their stories have ended. Good idea, great in fact. What makes me sad is the execution. Unfortunately, the author is not as skilled as her concept is. The plot is almost non-existent and the pacing is pretty awful. This very short book covers four years, jumping from year to year with little or no coherent structure. Also, the characters are very one dimensional and too perfect. All in all, not a great read, but I do really like the idea.
Profile Image for Debbie is on Storygraph.
1,674 reviews146 followers
April 7, 2017
The premise of this world Thomas has created is fab: a world where fictional characters go to live after their stories are done. And there's a central Archives - a library that contains every single book. And there are librarians who work for the Archives to maintain order and research the world, etc. The main character, Tari, is not allowed to be a librarian because she's a book person, instead of a someone who was born in the After. But she fakes a past and an identity, and gets into librarian school.

Sounds super interesting. Unfortunately, the execution left a lot to be desired. Other reviewers have noted the pacing issues, with all four years crammed into under 200 pages. I could have forgiven that, except the plot was practically non-existent. It's boring to read about someone going to school. The world-building was interesting, yes, but it seemed like the entire point of this book was the world-building, with only an afterthought to a plotline other than Tari goes through four years of school.

It's obvious that Thomas put a lot of thought into the world she created, and I would be interested in learning more about it. But unfortunately, world-building does not carry a story.

Review copy courtesy of the author via NetGalley.
Profile Image for Fangs for the Fantasy.
1,449 reviews195 followers
April 17, 2017
This book didn’t have much in the way of plot. Tari goes to university as an apprentice. She studies, she learns, she takes exams. Apart from a bit at the end, this is basically the story

And that’s ok

I kept waiting for one of her fellow students to be murdered and her having to hunt down the killer

Or another student to be a vicious competitor and she and her friends would have to get together in a desperate struggle about them,

Or maybe the whole archive would secretly be run by soul stealing aliens

It wasn’t. It was Tari going to school. And that’s ok.

There were no love triangles, no desperate struggle, no quest to save the world/find the deep dark secret. There wasn’t even a mean teacher who was trying to make Tari fail for some reason that should have got them fired from any decent educational facility

And that was ok

Tari has a secret but it’s only really a big thing towards the end.

And that’s ok

No, really. I know I know, with any other book I would have screamed at it to get on with some actual plot. I would be frustrated by the lack of action, by a book where nothing seemed to be actually happening

But I wasn’t. I loved this book – really, the lack of major epic plot was ok. More than ok. It was so excellent to see a character just exist. No world defying consequences, no massive issues, no convoluted drama o love triangles or convoluted dragging out of the plot with lots of misunderstanding and caricature villains

This was Tari going to the archive to learn. That’s it

And it works because this world is awesome. This book is one bug info dump – and yes THAT’S OK. It shouldn’t have been. By every rule out there this book should have annoyed the hell out of me. But I read it all in one afternoon, not stopping for a second (I was supposed to cook dinner. We had take away. Which I ate one handed because I didn’t want to stop reading.) It was one long info dump of a FASCINATING WORLD

I’m not going to go into too much detail about this world because that is this book because this book is absolutely awesome and the world building needs to be experienced. The book takes place in the After (contrasting with The Before – or Earth). The After is a world created from Earth’s fiction – every time a book is created, read and loved on Earth it enters the vast Archive. And the characters in that book add to the After’s population. Each new book can add new streets, new lands – even new cities and countries and mountain ranges to The After. And the After is vastly diverse –whether a city is sci-fi


And it’s the job of the Archive to regulate this. To lead the After, to preserve and study the books, to predict what changes are going to happen, how each book will affect the world and to see what adaptions they can make based on the books they have – what technology they can discover, what they can develop (just because the books contain the technology doesn’t mean it comes with the technicians to create it) and managing the different regions of the world – each with their own technology levels, their own magic systems and everything else from our rich world of fiction

I won’t go into more detail than that because it really is fascinating and deep and layered and all excellently developed through Tari’s experiences. It’s really excellent

We also have the ingredients for lots of future stories – like fictional characters (like Tari) not being considered full people like their children are. Characters directly from a book don’t have a full life (like Tari wasn’t written with parents or a childhood) because they’re not written with full histories or experiences. These lack of experiences mean they’re considered to not be fully balanced or enriched people – though it could be down to prejudice as much as anything


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