I have excitement and fear. I've got this in my hands, but can't read it quite yet. I so very much enjoy this series but wonder...how long can it stay good? Seven books is a really long run and while not every book in the series has been equally great, they've all been quite good. Will this one be, as well?
***Feb 2011***
If I didn't know better - and maybe I don't - I'd have thought this was fan fiction and not written by Joseph Delaney at all.
Maybe my expectations were too high going into the book and maybe had they not been, I would not have felt so terribly let down. However, I was so disappointed with this installment.
It started out ok - the shock of coming home, exhausted, to find your house and life's work burned to the ground, to find your home inhabited by enemies and to have to flee should have set up a very emotional story. I had expected Gregory to lose it, to finally snap. I had expected Tom to have to tell Gregory of the pact he had made with the Fiend. I had expected there to be a big break-up, of sorts, and I thought Tom would have to finally step up and grow up really quickly, taking over and doing his duty to the county because Old Gregory was finally broken.
Speaking of Tom, I'm no longer sure why this series is even called The Last Apprentice. Shouldn't it be called The Little Witch Saves Your Butts AGAIN? What on earth is he even doing in this story, aside from watching stuff happen? He may as well be sitting beside me listening to these books instead of being a character in them; he cannot get his act together. This is the seventh book (and he's a seventh son! You'd think the seventh book would be a big turning point). He has to have learned something more than silver chains, iron filings, salt, and waiting for Alice to swoop in and rescue him! I do not once remember him taking any initiative in this entire story - he fought when he was told to fight, otherwise, he stood there, watching, waiting for his turn to do something. He really couldn't kill Lizzie when the chance came? He really couldn't defy her and go to the dungeons to rescue his new BFF Adriana as well as the Spook? He really fell for Lizzie's trap in the tower? He really couldn't subdue Lizzie as she was melting Horn's head? Really?
He couldn't even stand up to a couple of soldiers in the beginning of the story. There were,what? five? scared "witches" on top of the hill against one or two soldiers. They couldn't fight back? They were going to die anyhow so why didn't they at least fight? And Adriana? What was her purpose in this book? She was forgotten half the time. No one ever thought to look for her in the dungeons until they actually had to go into the dungeons and she just happened to be on the way. She and Simon were throwaway characters and I was really upset that Adriana was used as the source of Lizzie's demise because it took away from one of the main characters doing something unpleasant but necessary; it completely invalidated Tom and Gregory's existence and didn't allow Alice to face the dilemma she wasn't able to face earlier in the story.
Speaking of invalidating, why did Bill Arkwright's ghost show up to give control of his dogs back to Tom? I don't think I could have rolled my eyes hard enough at that. It was a complete cop-out and should never have happened. How did Bony Lizzie even know who Bill Arkwright was, anyhow, and why was his ghost available for her manipulation? It was just another excuse to not have Tom stand up for himself; someone always comes in to save him and since it couldn't be Alice this time, it was a ghost who told the dogs to obey Tom again. Oh, that was horrible and it hurt my head.
Reading the book was like reading an account of little kids playing pretend. Not only did it lack depth, the characters never gained any significant emotional growth - and Alice saying that Old Gregory is past his prime and it's Tom's turn to take up the mantle of Spookitude doesn't count because she's said that before - nor were there any pivotal turning points in the plot (Gregory should have been killed by Lizzie since she hated him so very very much and had become so powerful that even he couldn't overcome her). Mostly, the story consisted of getting to Mona, being captured, escaping, getting captured, escaping, then getting captured and escaping. It was like no one wanted to really hurt or kill any of the main or semi-main characters - Lizzie didn't really want to kill Tom or the Spook or else she'd have done so immediately instead of playing this "I want to torture you and make you miserable" game over and over and over. I'd have just killed them the second time I'd gotten my hands on them because I'd be really angry they got away the first time I'd intended to torture them and make them pay. Alice didn't really want to kill Lizzie, which is understandable, though she should have been given a chance to do so again at the end...maybe Tom could have finally repaid her for all the work she does for him. Tom couldn't kill Lizzie because he was always under her spell (when he actually got around to thinking about killing her) and the one chance he did have, he didn't take because his morals flared to life - and I'm getting a little tired of that, too. His morals have no play anymore; he sold his soul to the devil and he is lying to his master about it because he's afraid of being rejected...and yet he can't kill a witch known for murdering children because she's suddenly defenseless? I'm not buying it. Even worse, Lizzie had to tell the Spook this sordid little tale at the end and Tom never even had to man-up and take responsibility for his actions; he was ratted out and there were no consequences? Seriously? This is where we're going?
Adriana and Simon were completely unnecessary. Horn could have been used to much better advantage but was the go-to not-so-bad guy when things got sticky...until his head was melted. The captain of the guard was another throwaway character. These people had no real impact on the story, with exception of Adriana being used as Lizzie's death sentence and that was merely an easy cop-out. These useless characters had no impact on the story's forward movement and could have been removed altogether.
I feel the story would have been better played had Gregory died. Lizzie should have been able to kill him because he was weak with grief over both the loss of his home and books as well as the loss of his apprentice's soul, which he should have found out in the beginning. This should have finally kick-started Tom to take up the Spook's role and to not only take revenge on Lizzie but to solidify his need to banish the Fiend since he's the root of all evil and Spooks are becoming more and more rare as the series goes on. He needs to come to terms with his feelings for Alice and he needs to start working with her, listening to her, making decisions instead of wavering constantly and letting her pick up all the slack.
I sincerely hope the next book addresses some of these issues and I hope the writer stops making excuses for Tom. Should this not happen, I hope Tom dies because he is becoming the most pointless character ever.
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![The Last Apprentice: Rise of the Huntress, 7 CDs [Complete & Unabridged Audio Work] - Joseph Delaney](http://booklikes.com/photo/max/220/330/upload/books/f/5/f517fce27687bdeeb6fd7d2e593c0586.jpg "The Last Apprentice: Rise of the Huntress, 7 CDs [Complete & Unabridged Audio Work] - Joseph Delaney")
