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The Last Apprentice / Wardstone Chronicles #0.5
The Spook's Tale / Interception Point
World book day 2009 edition, holding
1. "Spook's Tale" The story of John Gregory as boy setting off to be trained as priest but meeting a spook on the way. They encounter a boggart and a witch.
2. Story two is "Interception point" by Mark Walden. 58 pages long.
1. "Spook's Tale" The story of John Gregory as boy setting off to be trained as priest but meeting a spook on the way. They encounter a boggart and a witch.
2. Story two is "Interception point" by Mark Walden. 58 pages long.
128 pages, Paperback
First published March 5, 2009
5 people are currently reading
655 people want to read
About the author
Joseph Delaney
59 books3,973 followersJoseph Delaney was a full time writer living in Lancashire, in the heart of Boggart territory.
He was the author of Wardstone Chronicles, Starblade Chronicles, Arena 13, Aberrations and a new book came out in April 2020, Brother Wulf. This is a new spooks story featuring Tom and Alice, but introducing a new character, a young monk called Brother Wulf.
He first got the idea for the Spooks series when he moved to the village where he lives now and discovered there was a local boggart - ‘a man like me needs boggarts around’. He made a note in his notebook ‘a story about a man who hunts boggarts’ and years later when he had to come up with an idea at short notice developed this into ‘The Spook’s Apprentice’, the first book in the series.
He continued to draw upon the folklore of Lancashire and has acquired much local knowledge over the years which he tweaks and modifies to create his fictional world. Another source of inspiration has been Lancashire's varied and atmospheric landscape. Many of the locations in the County are based on actual places in Lancashire.
In the early days of his writing career Joseph worked as a teacher at a Sixth Form College: his subjects were English, Film and Media Studies. He used to get up early and write every morning before work. That way he could write a book a year – which promptly got rejected! When the Americans bought the series he decided to give up teaching and write full time.
Prior to teaching he worked as an engineer in his twenties, completing an apprenticeship just like Tom Ward in the spook’s books.
Joseph described his method of writing as a process of discovery. He didn’t plot too far ahead and often didn’t know what is going to happen until he writes it down. In other words he made it up as he went along. He prefed writing dialogue to description, in which he said he is a minimalist and leaves much to the reader’s imagination.
Joseph had three children and nine grandchildren and was a wonderful public speaker available for conference, library and bookshop events.
The Spook's Apprentice, The Spook's Curse and The Spook's Secret have all been shortlisted for the Lancashire children's Book for the Year Award. The Spook's Apprentice is the winner of both the Sefton Book Award and the Hampshire Book Award.
www.josephdelaneyauthor.com
from publisher's website
He was the author of Wardstone Chronicles, Starblade Chronicles, Arena 13, Aberrations and a new book came out in April 2020, Brother Wulf. This is a new spooks story featuring Tom and Alice, but introducing a new character, a young monk called Brother Wulf.
He first got the idea for the Spooks series when he moved to the village where he lives now and discovered there was a local boggart - ‘a man like me needs boggarts around’. He made a note in his notebook ‘a story about a man who hunts boggarts’ and years later when he had to come up with an idea at short notice developed this into ‘The Spook’s Apprentice’, the first book in the series.
He continued to draw upon the folklore of Lancashire and has acquired much local knowledge over the years which he tweaks and modifies to create his fictional world. Another source of inspiration has been Lancashire's varied and atmospheric landscape. Many of the locations in the County are based on actual places in Lancashire.
In the early days of his writing career Joseph worked as a teacher at a Sixth Form College: his subjects were English, Film and Media Studies. He used to get up early and write every morning before work. That way he could write a book a year – which promptly got rejected! When the Americans bought the series he decided to give up teaching and write full time.
Prior to teaching he worked as an engineer in his twenties, completing an apprenticeship just like Tom Ward in the spook’s books.
Joseph described his method of writing as a process of discovery. He didn’t plot too far ahead and often didn’t know what is going to happen until he writes it down. In other words he made it up as he went along. He prefed writing dialogue to description, in which he said he is a minimalist and leaves much to the reader’s imagination.
Joseph had three children and nine grandchildren and was a wonderful public speaker available for conference, library and bookshop events.
The Spook's Apprentice, The Spook's Curse and The Spook's Secret have all been shortlisted for the Lancashire children's Book for the Year Award. The Spook's Apprentice is the winner of both the Sefton Book Award and the Hampshire Book Award.
www.josephdelaneyauthor.com
from publisher's website
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
December 27, 2016
i loved it , I can still remember how the story was and how i felt :( .
April 22, 2019
April 2019: I kind of wonder about this book, because it is simultaneously a "bonus" and also the foundation for Dreadnought, Rogue, and Zero Hour. It's complicated. There isn't any information in this book that is essential to understand or enjoy the next few books. Interception Point is only briefly mentioned once in book four, and aside from it being weird it doesn't detract from the story.
At the same time... it's hard for me to dismiss this book as a one-shot because this introduces as well as .
There are a few things that I can fully endorse:
The Shelby and Otto rivalry is amazing and exactly what I want from a bonus book. Shelby definitely doesn't get enough love as the Wraith, and I think this little episode brought out the best in her. It was also really lovely to see some banter and competition. I wouldn't call it light-hearted, but I think it added levity and helped explore a relationship that doesn't get as much of a spotlight elsewhere.
Raven is good and so is Dr. Nero. Specifically, Raven gets developed as a teacher and mentor while Nero gets time as a team player and a watchful guardian. I could have used more but oh well.
And I thought the competition was fun! Part of me wants to roll my eyes at the ole "boys versus girls" fight, but I actually appreciate that Walden is consistent about splitting the teams up by gender. This might sound weird, but I've found that in practice this means that we frequently see women working together to complete vital tasks on missions. To put it another way, teenage girls are not superfluous members of the community—and as a twenty-something now looking back on the books that raised her, I find it extremely comforting to know that this is a world where I didn't have to pretend I was welcome. Of course I was. Of course.
But don't mistake my appreciation for a standing ovation:
The writing definitely took a hit. I feel like this book was probably written in a rush, and it shows. The pacing is wonky (particularly the beats where Professor Pike is involved; it felt like too much), the prose is a little rough around the edges, and overall the plot felt somewhat contrived.
Because this book isn't widely available, Walden borrows from it again later. There are two or three places where descriptions are reused in later books, perhaps because they were too good to have no one see them. Still, it makes the story feel somewhat repetitive.
Finally, the significance of the events make me wonder whether this should have been the bonus content it was. It isn't essential, and yet it is information that has to be disseminated again to make the next three books in the series make sense. Again, this becomes repetitive, but it also gives this book a lot of unnecessary pressure to deliver complex ideas in a short, staccato form. Particularly, it opens up a slight plot hole in book four: if they were already aware of , then why were they surprised when it came up again a few weeks later? Can book four really support a mystery where the detectives should already know the answer?
I end a little bit torn on this point. On the one hand, this book easily fits within the series' overarching framework. This story contributes to the progress. At the same time—and especially because there are a lot of people who don't know about this book—I feel like I might have been just as satisfied to have this be an unrelated one-shot. What's it like when H.I.V.E. has a finals week? What do the kids do in their free time? How is Ms. Leon's mental health? Who are some of the other students? Why are the streams separated the way they are?
Overall, this book was fine. Wasn't great, but it still packed a lot of power in its brevity. Shelby Trinity is a queen among women.
At the same time... it's hard for me to dismiss this book as a one-shot because this introduces as well as .
There are a few things that I can fully endorse:
The Shelby and Otto rivalry is amazing and exactly what I want from a bonus book. Shelby definitely doesn't get enough love as the Wraith, and I think this little episode brought out the best in her. It was also really lovely to see some banter and competition. I wouldn't call it light-hearted, but I think it added levity and helped explore a relationship that doesn't get as much of a spotlight elsewhere.
Raven is good and so is Dr. Nero. Specifically, Raven gets developed as a teacher and mentor while Nero gets time as a team player and a watchful guardian. I could have used more but oh well.
And I thought the competition was fun! Part of me wants to roll my eyes at the ole "boys versus girls" fight, but I actually appreciate that Walden is consistent about splitting the teams up by gender. This might sound weird, but I've found that in practice this means that we frequently see women working together to complete vital tasks on missions. To put it another way, teenage girls are not superfluous members of the community—and as a twenty-something now looking back on the books that raised her, I find it extremely comforting to know that this is a world where I didn't have to pretend I was welcome. Of course I was. Of course.
But don't mistake my appreciation for a standing ovation:
The writing definitely took a hit. I feel like this book was probably written in a rush, and it shows. The pacing is wonky (particularly the beats where Professor Pike is involved; it felt like too much), the prose is a little rough around the edges, and overall the plot felt somewhat contrived.
Because this book isn't widely available, Walden borrows from it again later. There are two or three places where descriptions are reused in later books, perhaps because they were too good to have no one see them. Still, it makes the story feel somewhat repetitive.
Finally, the significance of the events make me wonder whether this should have been the bonus content it was. It isn't essential, and yet it is information that has to be disseminated again to make the next three books in the series make sense. Again, this becomes repetitive, but it also gives this book a lot of unnecessary pressure to deliver complex ideas in a short, staccato form. Particularly, it opens up a slight plot hole in book four: if they were already aware of , then why were they surprised when it came up again a few weeks later? Can book four really support a mystery where the detectives should already know the answer?
I end a little bit torn on this point. On the one hand, this book easily fits within the series' overarching framework. This story contributes to the progress. At the same time—and especially because there are a lot of people who don't know about this book—I feel like I might have been just as satisfied to have this be an unrelated one-shot. What's it like when H.I.V.E. has a finals week? What do the kids do in their free time? How is Ms. Leon's mental health? Who are some of the other students? Why are the streams separated the way they are?
Overall, this book was fine. Wasn't great, but it still packed a lot of power in its brevity. Shelby Trinity is a queen among women.
January 9, 2024
This tells the story of how Mr Gregory became a spook, we meet him as a teenager with dreams of becoming a priest. But then he gets caught in a dangerous trap with a witch and a boggart. After his first taste with fighting darkness - could he ever walk away?
Really enjoyable and a must for fans of the series. Only 67 pages long so really short but very interesting.
Really enjoyable and a must for fans of the series. Only 67 pages long so really short but very interesting.
April 16, 2019
Olny read the Spook's take part, the first 65 pages. Good story, an intresting encounter of Gregory Jones, the master Spook, in his youth.
June 30, 2020
note to self: Don't continue series
September 8, 2021
Not usually a fan of short stories
July 17, 2011
I only read half of it :)
(The H.I.V.E half)
I would read Spooks, but I can't really a) start a series in the middle and b) I have too many books to read right now so Spooks is somewhere far, far, far down on my to-read list, somewhere near Ptolemy's Gate (and I don't even know what that is, I just found it in the attic one day).
This is H.I.V.E book three and half, if you want to call it that. Even though it's teally short, I still loved it like all the other books in the series. I'm sure if someone just picked up this world book day book back in 2009, they would read it and want to find the other books in the series.
I need to do a comic strip of Otto and Shelby's argument at the beginning. I can just imagine what it would be like...
(The H.I.V.E half)
I would read Spooks, but I can't really a) start a series in the middle and b) I have too many books to read right now so Spooks is somewhere far, far, far down on my to-read list, somewhere near Ptolemy's Gate (and I don't even know what that is, I just found it in the attic one day).
This is H.I.V.E book three and half, if you want to call it that. Even though it's teally short, I still loved it like all the other books in the series. I'm sure if someone just picked up this world book day book back in 2009, they would read it and want to find the other books in the series.
I need to do a comic strip of Otto and Shelby's argument at the beginning. I can just imagine what it would be like...
June 6, 2013
In terms of getting to know the Spook, this is a great, short read. However, it could have done with a tighter plot and more time to develop John Gregory as a character. We know what he is like as an old man, but i would have liked to see him as an apprentice.
Overall, though, considering this is a book that was intended to be short, Delaney, as usual, offers a fast paced and spooky read.
Overall, though, considering this is a book that was intended to be short, Delaney, as usual, offers a fast paced and spooky read.
September 5, 2010
Short and sweet!
September 9, 2010
it was awesome
August 11, 2011
Interception Point is a really clever plot. A little too difficult for ESL readers but worth the effort for upper-inter students, perhaps.
June 1, 2013
I adored learning all about the back history of the Spooks life.. This was awesome and fans of the series will enjoy this.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews