THE INQUISITION (SUMMONER, BOOK 2) REVIEW

AUTHOR : Taran Matharu

PUBLISHER : Hodder Children's Books

PUBLISHED : 5 May 2016

PAPERBACK : 448 Pages

SUMMARY : A year has passed since the Tournament.

Fletcher and Ignatius have been locked away in Pelt’s dungeons, but now they must face a trial at the hands of the Inquisition, a powerful institution controlled by those who would delight in Fletcher’s downfall.

The trial is haunted by ghosts from the past with shocking revelations about Fletcher’s origins, but he has little time to dwell on them; the graduating students of Vocans are to be sent deep into the orc jungles to complete a dangerous mission for the king and his council. If they fail, the orcish armies will rise to power beyond anything the Empire has ever seen.

With loyal friends Othello and Sylva by his side, Fletcher must battle his way to the heart of Orcdom and save Hominum from destruction…or die trying.

MY THOUGHTS :

NON-SPOILER :

I must say this one exceeded my expectations, I already knew it would be great but goddammit it was crazy good.

A lot of revelations happened that I honestly did not see coming, and by the end of it when I thought I had it panned, BOOM, another surprise, and I definitely did not see that one coming.

Overall it's a beautifully written piece of fantasy literature, every character intricately is woven into the fabric of the story, no character just cast aside after a momentary appearance and leave you wondering what happened to them, that's my complaint about a few books I've read, you'll understand when you decide to read it.

So if you had a good time reading 'The Novice' then I recommend you pick this up for a guaranteed great time.

SPOILER :

The last book ended with a dramatic cliffhanger which we all kinda saw coming, Didric and his father were gonna get to Fletcher sooner or later, so in this book, we find Fletcher in the dungeons of the village of Pelt, most of which has been turned into a prison and the residents were driven out by the Cavell's. It has been a year since the events of 'The Novice' when Fletcher is called upon by The Inquisition to Stand trial for the crimes he didn't commit. It seems that Fletcher always finds himself in an unfortunate predicament, at odds with the people in power, so the trial is obviously rigged to take him down. Everyone who is someone in the hierarchy of Hominum seems to be present at the trial, though I must admit the trial scene turned dramatically Soap-opera-ish with the character after character dramatically entering during the proceedings to try and make a contribution to save Fletcher and then came the big revelation I did not see coming at all.

Now when we get to an integral part of the story which is to travel deep into the Orc jungle and Infiltrate their holy site, beneath which lies an army of goblins, half-orc - half Gremlin creatures bred for war, and the mission is to destroy their eggs.

Many new characters were introduced and some old ones that I had thought the author had unfairly forsaken in the first book become an integral part of the narrative, Taran ain't playing no games with this series, every single character is accounted for.

A joint team of Humans, Elves, and Dwarves is chosen for the mission, The graduating class of The Vocans Academy, and naturally considering the racist and classist views of the society of Hominum it causes friction and mistrust among the groups.

Matharu holds a mirror to contemporary society by using the conflict between various races which in turn leads to racism and classism.

The team proceeds to accomplish their mission with their trusty demons by their side, and Fletcher's team is under a lot of pressure to succeed with the whole of Hominum watching.

Overall it was an interesting experience with a world full of fantastical creatures and memorable characters that I don't think I'll soon forget. Again as I said before in the review of the first book, the idea of this book is not out of the box but Matharu's distinctive flare to it makes all the difference, an idea so well executed anyone who picks it up will enjoy the heck out of it.

The story ends with a bombshell cliffhanger with our characters in a peculiar predicament and a hard and dangerous road ahead of them.

I recommend everyone should read it at least once to bring meaning to their lives, I for one know that I am gonna be rereading this series in the near future.

CHARACTERS :

1. OLD KING ELFRIC

Donald Sutherland.